This study explores how imagined communities based on U.S. mainstream values and social attitudes are embedded in multicultural children's literature through a critical content analysis of cultural representations in 24 Korean-American picture books. Korean-American culture is often defined through other Asian cultures in picture books and the collective interpretations of Asian culture perpetuate otherness and marginality of Korean-American culture. Otherness can be viewed through postcolonialism as a way to rethink and reconstruct the ways in which racial, ethnic, and cultural others have been repressed, misrepresented, omitted, and stereotyped by colonial mentality (Xie, 2000).The term "Asian American" was used after the Civil Rights movement by Asian Americans to claim a lawful right as representative citizens to reconstruct their own collective identities (Chae 2008). This collective identity of Asian American enhances misrepresentations of Korean culture as one of the Asian cultures. Korean-American culture in picture books is misrepresented through confusion with other Asian cultures, misunderstandings of Asian-Americans, and social mind-set of Korean-Americans. The study discusses the dominant social attitudes toward Korean-Americans as forever `new' foreigners because of the dominance of contemporary picture books which depict Korean-Americans only as recent immigrants. Ahmad (1996) states that postcolonial perspectives are often a polite way of saying "not-White" or Korean-Americans are "not-America-but-inside-America."A critical content analysis of 24 picture books published in the U.S. and 98 reviews of those books examines the representation and misrepresentation of Korean culture and Korean-American culture through the frame of critical discourse analysis and cultural studies. This study contributes to the previous studies of multicultural children's literature by differentiating from the collective approaches in which ethnic groups were grouped together in data collection and analysis.The findings of this study indicate that the "cultural diversity" celebbrated by U.S. multiculturalism has actually contributed to reinforcing the image of Korean-Americans as one of the Orientals by focusing too strongly on difference. The use of multicultural children's literature in classrooms needs to include a focus on difference as a tool used by readers to understand, not stereotype, a particular cultural group and should be combined with a focus on human connection and commonality.

Internationalist perspectives towards child labor have been adopted in India by both the national government and NGOs. These perspectives conceptualize childhood as a protected period of life lasting until age 18. Education and play, but not work, are considered appropriate activities for children. Although poverty has been acknowledged as a contributing factor, the reason children work has also commonly been framed as one of ignorant or unprincipled parents exploiting their children and squandering their future. The solution, according to anti-child labor discourse, is universal primary education.This dissertation problematizes such conceptions regarding childhood, education, and child labor. Drawing on fifteen months of fieldwork in Mysore, Karnataka, I examine community attitudes towards childhood and highlight incongruencies between internationalist and local characterizations. I compare community stakeholders' and government perspectives concerning education and children's work, focusing on household decision-making. I demonstrate that low-income parents want their children to obtain a good education, and are willing to expend limited economic resources to achieve that vision. Frequently, however, their goal is stymied by characteristics of the Indian education system or household crises that limit the ability to spend on education and create a need for additional income that a working child can provide. I explore how decisions regarding sending a child to work are negotiated, the perceived appropriateness of different types of work with regard to age and gender, and local ideas about formal and informal apprenticeship. I also consider the degree to which children are active agents in education and work-related decision-making.An understanding of parental decision-making requires exploration of the relationship between cultural, social, and economic capital and child labor. Research data revealed that low-income parents commonly lack the social connections and economic capital needed to convert a child's educational achievement into gainful employment. This caused some parents to view occupational training from a young age as a more pragmatic means of insuring a child's future.Finally, this dissertation provides insights into the commonly ignored relationship between alcohol abuse and child labor. Alcohol abuse often has serious economic, health, and social impact in low-income households that results in children having to work.

Behaving in a socially competent manner (i.e., interacting with other social actors in an effective manner by adjusting one’s goals and behaviours according to the demands of various social situations) is a complex process that requires various cognitive skills. The purpose of the current study was to determine the unique contributions of executive functions, theory of mind and verbal skills to socially competent behaviours in either a cooperative or a competitive context. The impact of manipulating children’s perspective-taking (e.g., taking the perspective of another person) on their socially appropriate behaviours was also investigated. Pairs of children completed a cooperative and a competitive social task together and were assigned to either focus on their own or another’s perspective. Children then completed measures of executive functioning, theory of mind, and verbal skills. Results revealed that executive functioning was related to more appropriate social behaviours in the cooperative task, even when controlling for theory of mind and verbal skills; however, this relation was not found in the competitive task. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of the manipulation of perspective-taking on children’s behaviours. These findings indicate that executive functions make a unique contribution to children’s socially competent behaviours in a cooperative social context.

Magistro darbe analizuojama vaikų teisė į mokymąsi be streso: mokinių ir mokytojų požiūriu. Didelė siekiamybė būtų mokinių teisės  į mokymąsi be streso įgyvendinimas. Aktuali ir įdomi tema tiek mokslui, tiek diskusijoms. Nepriklausomai nuo amžiaus, mokiniai mokykloje patiria didžiulį stresą ir nerimą. Taip yra dėl per didelio pamokų skaičiaus, dėl per gausiai užduodamų namų darbų, dėl nesutarimų su bendraamžiais, konfliktų su pedagogais. Kad mokinys mokymo įstaigoje nepatirtų streso, pirmiausia iš kasdienybės turėtų būti išgyvendintas pasityčiojimas, įžeidinėjimai (tiek iš bendraamžių, tiek iš mokytojų pusės), smurtas. Būtent paauglystėje svarbu padėti gerus pamatus mokykloje, o jei pamatu taps stresas, rezultatas taps apgailėtinu. Tyrimo objektas – teisė mokytis be streso saugioje mokymo (-si) aplinkoje.Tyrimo tikslas – atskleisti mokinių ir mokytojų požiūrį į teisę mokytis be streso saugioje mokymo (-si) aplinkoje.Tyrime dalyvavo 270 respondentų: 70 bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų mokytojų ir 200 bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų  6 – 12 klasių mokinių. Anketinės apklausos metodu tirta mokinių teisė į mokymąsi be streso, kaip mokiniai ir mokytojai apibūdina stresą, kas sukelia stresą mokykloje, kaip jie jį išgyvena, kaip mokiniai supranta agresiją, kur jie ieško pagalbos, jei tenka susidurti su agresija, ar žino savo teises ir pareigas, požiūris į mokyklą, ką veikia laisvalaikiu, ką veiks baigę mokyklą.  Tyrimu nustatyta, kad dauguma mokinių daugiau ar mažiau patiria stresą mokykloje. Ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / There are the analysis in Master’s work about children’s right to the learning without stress. What do pupils and teachers think about it? The large purpose may be learning without stress. It is very important theme for sense and for discussion.  The age is not important for pupils, they have got stress and worry. This psychological state are because of large lessons amount, and large homework amount, because of conflicts between  children and conflicts between children and teachers. If we want that pupils have not stress at school, the first what we can do: eliminate the mockery, the violence. To behave on good should teachers and school matters. We build strong base in teenage timeResearch object – the right to learn without stress at safe school environment.Research aim – to provide pupils’ and teachers’ attitude to the right in learning without stress at safe school environment.There are 270 respondents from basic schools: 70 teachers and 200 pupils, they have been learning in 6 – 12 forms. The questionnaire method lets to know facts about pupils’ possibility to learn without stress, and how pupils and teachers describe the stress, what make the stress at school, how they fill the stress. The interesting attitude is how pupils understand the stress and violence, where are they looking for the help, do they know there rights. The attitude to school: what is leather time, what pupils will do after the school ending. The research shows that the most pupils have got the... [to full text]

In this dissertation two studies are reported to explore the relation between parents’ goals for, beliefs about, and behaviour during parent-child shared book reading. In the first study, 92 parents rated the importance of potential reasons for reading with their children using the Parent Goals for Shared Reading Questionnaire (Evans & Williams, 2003). Ratings were completed longitudinally each year from their child’s junior kindergarten to grade 1 year. Factor analysis largely confirmed previous cross-sectional findings that the questionnaire items reflect distinct parent goals for shared book reading, including fostering reading skills, stimulating development, engaging in an enjoyable activity, and experiencing closeness with their child. The second study used data from the senior kindergarten year of this same sample of children to investigate the relation between parents’ beliefs about how to teach reading, how highly they rated fostering reading skills as a goal versus non-reading goal subsets, and their behaviour during shared book reading (i.e., the nature of the extratextual comments and error corrections made). Results demonstrated that, as parent goals to foster children’s reading skills increase, their tendency to provide the correct word in response to their child’s miscues decreases. When goals to foster reading skills were high, parents were more likely to use strategies that help their child to read misread words, regardless of their ratings of goals to engage in a positive experience with their child. However, when goals to foster reading skills were low, increasing ratings of the goal to engage in a positive experience related to decreasing instances of parents helping their child to read misread words. Furthermore, the goal to engage in a positive experience with one’s child was positively related to extratextual conversation not related to teaching reading but only when goals to foster reading skills were also low. Finally, goals to foster reading and constructivist beliefs both made independent contributions to the prediction of parents’ use of context cues to correct reading errors. Implications of these findings for literacy intervention programs targeted at the shared-book reading interaction are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

It is generally acknowledged that educating children entails limiting their social freedom, (or liberty), to some extent. The question is, how far can children's liberty justifiably be limited in education, and on what grounds? One approach to this issue adopted in recent educational philosophy involves the idea that development of 'free' persons constitutes a key educational ideal, if not the educational ideal itself. It is argued that children's liberty should be regulated in accordance with the ideal of developing 'free' persons. After arguing in Chapter One that freedom may be construed both as a relationship obtaining between human beings and as a form of personality development, I examine philosophically the connection between children's liberty in education and the development of 'free' persons. Some educational philosophers identify 'free' persons with rational, (autonomous) persons, and suggest that the development of reason is consistent with - and may actually presuppose - considerable restrictions on children's liberty. In particular, development of 'free' persons may require that children be initiated into the rational disciplines. Given the analysis of "social freedom" which I advance in Chapter Two, this requirement can be seen to constitute a serious curtailment of children's liberty. I argue that there are good reasons for challenging the view that to be a 'free' person consists in being rational, and then advance an alternative account of "free persons". This has quite different implications for the social freedom of children in education from those of the 'rationalist' view. Indeed, I conclude that whereas the 'rationalist' account of "free persons" is well-suited to justifying a considerable degree of unfreedom for children, mine more obviously lends itself to a positive end: namely, suggesting ways in which children may be offered increased social freedom by comparison with much current educational practice.

In most New Zealand schools, transition to school programmes are introduced based on adult perceptions aimed at avoiding negative experiences and assisting children in a successful transition to school, yet they run the risk of ‘over managing’ a child’s experience. This research considers how young children perceive the up and coming ‘rite of passage’ of ‘starting school’. Through placing an emphasis on ‘children’s voice’, it explores their expectations, feelings and understandings of school before and after starting. The study follows six children (two boys and four girls, aged from 4 years eight months to 4 years ten months at the start of the study) for approximately two school terms on their journey from an Early Childhood Centre to a primary school. A range of ‘child friendly’ methods were used to gather their understandings. Children’s ‘school comments’ were recorded by their mothers during their transition. Interviews were conducted with three teachers regarding their philosophies and practices of starting school. The findings identified three main themes in children’s initial knowledge about school. The children sourced further knowledge by asking their parents about any concerns or queries as they arose. They also expressed a need to prepare themselves for school. The children gained further understanding of school throughout their transition but did not truly grasp the concept of what school was about until they became ‘school kids’ themselves. The implications of these findings are discussed for transition to school practices.