The new comparative research in this volume explores the global flow of competence-based education, curricular policy, and frameworks for instructional practice. Taking critical perspectives, the chapters trace the pathways through which educators and policy actors adopted and reshaped competence-based education as promoted by the OECD, the World…

Women's underrepresentation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has been documented worldwide. This study investigated the factors underlying women's underrepresentation in STEM in higher education in Tanzania. The study employed a qualitative research approach that was informed by historical design. Data were collected…

This study contributes to the limited research on the implementation of pathways in a community college. While most of the literature to date focuses on providing guidance on the structural changes necessary for implementation, this study focuses on the social and cultural aspects of implementation. Using case study research design, a team of…

Academic achievement among Latino high school students is a pressing issue as data consistently demonstrates that Latino students underperform and are at higher risk of dropping out of high school than their non-Latino peers. This paper reviews nonacademic barriers to the success of Latino students focusing on sociocultural issues that influence…

There has been a significant amount of money invested and work conducted in the United States to facilitate the inclusion of underrepresented students (e.g., females, students of Color) in science fields. However, change has been frustratingly slow. One reason for the slow change is that initiatives have largely focused on symptoms, such as…

During the last century, early childhood curriculum (ECC) in China has undergone a series of monumental transformations, shaped by the interaction between local cultural and global forces. In this case study, we critically analyse three major waves of ECC reform in China, with a particular emphasis on the social and cultural forces that have…

In this article college football coach Ricky Santo argues that in order to change the ways of the misunderstood world of racism, one needs to acknowledge the sociocultural consciousness in society today. The sociocultural consciousness is a way to understand how people think and behave which is influenced by their race/ethnicity, social class, and…

Studies show that changes in teacher education around the world occur slowly and are difficult to implement. This study aims to contribute to the discussion on the major resources for and obstacles to developing teacher education and finding novel solutions to overcome the obstacles. Resources and obstacles were investigated in the context of…

As schools become living sites of evidence-based practice, teachers increasingly accumulate large quantities of observations and records. In these times of an overabundance of documentation, there is a need to find the "unit of analysis" that determines the essence of what matters for assessment. In drawing upon cultural-historical…

From the start, NLERAP has been based on two major premises: one is that a sociocultural and sociopolitical approach to learning is more effective than a traditional approach, particularly in the case of populations that have historically been marginalized through their education; and the second is that research is more meaningful and inclusive…

Today, in the era of open access to digital-based information and communication, one of the biggest challenges in higher education to realize moral education and to build academic culture and integrity is the emergence of academic dishonesty behaviors among academic members. The paper describes academic dishonesty behaviors in Distance Higher…

In 2010 Washington State's persistently lowest performing public schools were identified and published by the superintendent of public instruction. However, no research has described the lived experiences of teachers and administrators who work in those schools. Guided by the combined frameworks of Van Manen and Moustakas, this qualitative study…

Women are "starkly underrepresented" as researchers worldwide ("The World's Women 2010," 68). In Canada, for example, men hold over three-quarters of full professorships and top research positions. Dozens of interconnected factors restrain women's research careers. These include "upstream" factors, such as gender,…

This article explores Earth Charter education as a form of values education that is integral to education for sustainable development. Initially, it outlines how Earth Charter education rests on an ecocentric worldview and a social analysis of ecojustice--terms that are defined and explained. Moving from this rationale, the article explores issues…

Policy makers are looking for quick fixes to the racial achievement gap, but for the real fix we need to delve beneath the test scores and deal with the social and cultural functions of schooling. How does a student come to respect his "different" neighbours in the face of fear and apprehension about their culture? And how does a social context of…