A community development program in rural China aimed to enhance women's economic and social opportunities as a means of lowering fertility rates. The program involved agricultural seminars and extension services, organized cultural and entertainment activities, and political meetings. Village leaders took part in seminars on community development,…

This report submitted to the World Bank analyzes the early childhood development (ECD) policies, strategies, and programs in Egypt in 2001. Information was gathered from documents, observations in kindergartens and nurseries, interviews with more than 50 teachers and parents, and a survey of policymakers and program managers in Cairo, Egypt. The…

A study examined the role of worker-specific skills, occupational skill requirements, and job working conditions on the part-time/full-time wage differential. Analysis of research found that part-time employment was concentrated among jobs requiring a lower skill level and that measurable personal and location characteristics accounted for a large…

Human capital investment theory is used to determine why teachers in Texas are leaving the profession despite growing demand for their services. Data for 1978-79 show that an average White male high school graduate could expect to earn more than a teacher holding a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree. (PP)

Australian rural communities often suffer from psychological isolation in addition to geographic isolation. Human and social capital are powerful antidotes to psychological isolation and are closely dependent on learning. Rural schools can reverse the negative effects of isolation on educational outcomes if they first work on building human and…

South African development and education policy documents were analyzed to examine postapartheid government goals concerning educational equality and social justice. Documents concerning equity of educational access, quality, outcomes, and governance reveal a shift from a populist social-democratic orientation to a conservative neoliberal position,…

Studies economic problems threatening prospects for development in rural communities. Examines "key foundations" required for economic growth, job creation, and issues of human resource development. Concludes global and technological factors forcing traditional rural economies into decline. Suggests nonmetropolitan communities invest in…

Educational cost-benefit analysis, as practiced in both industrialized and developing nations, has been much criticized. Manpower planning, the principal alternative, has received even harsher criticism. The two approaches should be combined in empirically based projects that study recent graduates and chart their subsequent employment progress.…

Explores the background and context of the Australian federal government's new postcompulsory education and training policies. Examines the social, economic, and political context surrounding policy development and the "stitching together" of competing interests. The resulting policy directions, linking goals to equity issues, represent…

Suggests that children, as the nation's most precious social resource, are the shared responsibility of parents and government. Argues that current efforts to scale back social welfare programs in Canada need to be reversed, so as to provide children, and families with children, a decent minimum standard of living. (MDM)

Discusses how national unity can be maintained in countries such as Canada while accommodating ethnocultural diversity. Compares the human capital, cultural capital, and social capital of young boys from culturally mixed backgrounds. Suggests a situational identity that allows one to choose and to live according to the current milieu. (KS)

Of three reinvention avenues (market forces, limited competition, and systemic change), the last offers most hope for public schoolchildren. The new economy's most precious resource is people, not technology. Like the Broad Foundation, schools should enlist talented people, redefine roles, build leadership capacity, provide incentives for results,…

The British New Labour Party's resocialization project is based on certain desirable middle-class attributes: active consumerism, school monitoring, transmission of cultural capital at home, and possession of social capital. Problems will continue to arise, since only a limited number of schools and jobs are deemed "excellent." (Contains…

A whole flurry of new thinking and research about young people in the USA has been stimulated by Jeffery Arnett's theory of 'Emerging Adulthood'. This argues for recognition of a new stage of the life-course between adolescence and adulthood reflecting the extension of youth transitions to independence brought about by globalization and…

While no one can predict the future, today's economic and demographic realities suggest the opportunities and challenges that will face America in the years to come. The U.S. economy has already undergone dramatic changes in the latter part of the twentieth century. The extension of product and labor markets has expanded global competition, and…