In this chapter, the author provides an overview of how the Internet, a byproduct of our times, is shaping our culture and society in profound ways. He notes some of the major concerns and perils of the Internet age and concludes by pointing out how and why certain countries are targeting the Internet in terms of increased regulation and…

Human acts are sometimes inspired by some desire for survival while on other occasions, however, by a move to show power over others. In this struggle, diverse forces tend to pull people in different directions, yet there is often a group that exhibits more power over the other, while the second group--those with less access to control--ends up…

For much of the past century, scholars have questioned the viability and sustainability of liberal arts colleges, and empirical research suggests that the number of liberal arts colleges has declined in recent decades. In one study, of 212 colleges identified as liberal arts colleges in 1990, only 130 continued to serve primarily a nonprofessional…

Teacher leadership has been variously defined but generally understood as expanding teachers' visions beyond their own classrooms. Bilingual education teachers, working with emergent bilingual students in often marginalized situations and contexts, must develop a critical consciousness to embrace leadership identities. This requires engaging in…

The growth of TWBE programs--mainly due to the surging interest of White English-speaking families--presents the field with myriad challenges and hopeful possibilities. Critical scholars in bilingual education point to an urgency to reissue Guadalupe Valdés's "cautionary note" due to a neoliberal path targeting TWBE programs, posing a…

The role of faith-based schools is increasingly debated within a context of school reform, rights and plurality in multi-ethnic societies. The Catholic schooling system in the Irish Republic (always referred to as Ireland in the text) represents an interesting case internationally because of the extent to which Catholic education is structurally…

What should grandparents be expected to learn in longevity societies experiencing rapid social transformation? Grounded theory was initially applied to identify assumptions, goals and curriculum. The Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory was developed to record the observations of grandparent attitudes and behaviours as seen by grandparents,…

Retaining students, particularly in the 16- to- 24-year-old category, is a constant challenge for adult basic education programs nationwide. Educators need to understand factors that affect adult learners' experiences, have a better understanding of ways to motivate adult students in a nontraditional school setting to enhance their engagement, and…

The instructional strategies implemented by the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in an international technical college in Saudi Arabia did not prepare students at an intermediate level of proficiency on the Common European Framework of Reference. As a result, more than 77% of the first-year students were not progressing to the…

Differential cognitive performance across cultural contexts has been a standard result in comparative research. Here we discuss how societal changes occurring when a small-scale traditional community incorporates elements from industrialized society may contribute to cognitive development, and we illustrate this with an analysis of the cognitive…

Chile is a developing country with a rapidly expanding economy and concomitant social and cultural changes. It is expected to become a developed country within 10 years. Chile is also characterized as being in an advanced demographic transition. Unique challenges are posed by the intersection of rapid economic development and an aging population,…

This article is based on a paper first presented at the Performance Studies international annual conference on Performing Rights at Queen Mary, University of London, 2006. It has been rewritten specially for this themed issue of "RiDE" in light of my research following publication of "Theatre Ecology: Environments and Performance…

One of Seymour Sarason's most original and important works was his book, The Creation of Settings and the Future Societies (Sarason, 1972). In it, he offered numerous insights about what goes wrong when "two or more people come together in new relationships over a sustained period of time in order to achieve certain goals." His hope in writing the…

This article presents the author's response to Paul Standish's "Registers of the Religious". Addressing what he calls the "global", Paul Standish starts from MacIntyre's observation that people live in a world characterized by a vocabulary of value whose purchase on life is no longer authentically experienced: "MacIntyre's diagnosis of the…

The focus of this article is on the role and contribution of policy research in contexts of social transformation. With reference to education transformation policies in post-apartheid South Africa, the argument is developed that research studies vary in their contribution to change, as a function of the paradigmatic assumptions and methodological…