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Research has indicated how diverse books contribute to a more culturally responsive pedagogy, allowing children to identify themselves in the stories they read and gain an appreciation for others whose lives are different from theirs. Moreover, a sensitive discussion of and critical responses to diverse picturebooks is found to positively influence a child's social and emotional learning competecies, apart from increasing a child's cultural knowledge and serving as a catalyst for social justice. This paper is meant to broaden early childhood educators' repertoire of picturebooks that can be used in the classroom to also include international titles (translated into English from their original languages) and multicultural titles to facilitate affective engagement with these narratives and introduce social and emotional learning skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management and responsible decision-making). This paper provides a list of diverse books (from the Netherlands, Japan, Lithuania, Spain, Germany, France, Argentina – among others) for students in early childhood (from preschool to third grade) thematically organized across the five social and emotional learning competencies. Strategies such as book-bonding and literacy bags for family engagement will be shared while using the framework of culturally responsive teaching in an early childhood setting. Recommendations for how family members can be more involved are included, along with critical literacy strategies that include conversations, multiple perspectives and the sharing of authentic experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study is based on an in-depth thematic analysis of 20 interviews with German and Israeli adult survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) by religious authority figures (RAF). This paper aims to explore survivors' experiences within the Jewish ultra-Orthodox and Christian communities, as well as to draw comparisons between the abusive structures and disclosure in these two contexts. The results point to the complexity of CSA by RAF, which is embedded in the survivors' perceptions of themselves as emotionally and cognitively captured by the perpetrators who are a symbol of a parent or God and faith. The participants expressed great concern regarding disclosing the abuse against the backdrop of familial, cultural, and community inhibitors, such as fear of social stigmatization, inability to recognize the abuse, and the taboo of sexuality discourse. The survivors' traumatic experiences were intensified in light of negative social responses to disclosure and encounters with insensitive officials. A comparison of the cultures revealed differences regarding the nature of community life and educational institutions, which may have shaped the disclosure and recognition of the abuse. The study highlights the importance of comparative follow-up studies related to this phenomenon in order to examine its universal and unique cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Germans paid close attention to how Japan won not only on the battlefield but also in the arena of public opinion, having smoothly fused censorship and propaganda into their objectives. Germany did not fight in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. After the German censorship law of 1874, newspapers had a I Sitzredakteur i (sitting editor), a straw man who was legally responsible and would go to prison ( I sitzen i , to sit, means being in prison) when a paper violated censorship laws. For nearly 30 years, I have contemplated why wartime press-military relations have varied from war to war and country to country, starting with my first academic book, I Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and the American Press and Radio in World War II i . [Extracted from the article]

This paper is aimed at analyzing verbal and nonverbal strategies in terms of body contact, face-to-face contact, and discourse style during the first three months of life in two cultural communities that have been characterized as embodying different cultural models of parenting: German middle-class, and Nso farmer families. It can be demonstrated that the Nso mothers have significantly higher rates of body contact during the assessments of free-play interactions during the first 12 weeks than the German women. The German women on the other hand demonstrate the expected increase of face-to-face contact, whereas the Nso women demonstrate a significantly lower and stable pattern of face-to-face contact over the assessments. The German mothers use an agentic discourse style, whereas the Nso mothers use a relational discourse style. Moreover, body contact and a relational discourse style form one parenting strategy, whereas face-to-face contact and the agentic discourse style form another parenting strategy. The results demonstrate culture-specific parenting strategies that not only differ with respect to the amount of behaviors expressed, but also the developmental course of particular behaviors. It is also evident that socialization strategies are expressed in different behavioral channels. The role of sociodemographic variables is particularly discussed with respect to their impact for defining sociocultural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International migration of couples is rising. Still, there is little evidence on men's and women's domestic work hours before and after migration. This is despite the fact that domestic work provides deep insights into family life and, for migrants, is directly linked to integration. Therefore, this study examines how immigrant men and women change their domestic work hours following migration, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our results show that domestic work hours increase for both genders after immigration. However, men are more responsible for running errands than women in the first years after migration. In the long term, the gender gaps return to the pre-migration state, with women shouldering a greater load than men. Accordingly, this study shows that migration only has a short-term impact on couples' division of domestic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent literature, there are no academic studies on divorce and domestic violence among Syrian refugees in Germany. To contribute to filling this gap, the current study addresses the question: What are the main causes of divorce and domestic violence among Syrian refugees in Germany, and how are these two phenomena interrelated? The present study is based on 14 qualitative interviews with divorced Syrian refugee men and women in Germany, all of them are Muslim with different economic backgrounds from urban and rural areas in Syria and got divorced shortly after their arrival to Germany. The data were analyzed and coded following Mayring's guidelines for content analysis. The findings suggest that domestic violence results from conflicts of interest in marriage and divorce between Syrian refugee men and women. The present study uses the economic theory of marriage and divorce by Cary Becker to show how Syrian refugee women's "gains" of divorce in Germany exceed the "gains" of remaining married and how that leads them to divorce their husbands. In contrast, divorce is a heavy loss for Syrian refugee men. In addition, it shows how this conflict of interest results in domestic violence, by which the men resist their wives' eagerness to divorce and interpret the marital relationship according to Sharia law and Arabic traditions in order to keep their old patriarchal authority. However, this interpretation is inapplicable and criminalized by the German family legislation, and unwanted by their wives. The findings, through the example of Syrian refugees in Germany, imply that the causes of divorce and domestic violence among refugees in some regards are unique in comparison with natives and migrants. That means that we need more studies on this topic in different socio-cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting lateness—that is, meetings starting past the pre-scheduled time—can be viewed as a disruption to the temporal pacing of work. Previous research in the United States indicates that late meetings produce less optimal outcomes, but empirical insights concerning the extent to which experiences of meeting lateness are similar or different across different cultures remain sparse. While prior work suggests differences in how individuals from different cultures experience time-related phenomena, globalization trends suggest increasing similarities in employees' work experiences, and potentially similar experiences of meeting lateness across different cultural settings. We explore this idea in a cross-cultural study of meeting lateness in China, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. We empirically establish the cross-cultural relevance of meeting lateness and their generally negative outcome. We show how meeting lateness relates to perceptions of impaired meeting processes, meeting outcomes, and group-related attitudes across cultures. We discuss these findings in light of extending meeting science to different cultures as well as contributions to the debate between cross-cultural differences versus globalization tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do expansive body postures increase self-esteem in children? Power posing is a popular but also controversial topic. Still, there has been no research on the possible effects in children. To investigate the influence of power posing in children, 108 German fourth graders were randomly assigned to a high versus a low power posing group. Self-esteem was self-reported; feelings were assessed indirectly. There was an effect of power posing on self-reported global and school self-esteem. Furthermore, children who had performed high power poses in comparison with those who had performed low power poses mentioned more positive feelings, higher power feelings, and a more positive student–teacher relationship. Results are interpreted with regard to the context and the cultural dependency of the power posing effect. Implications for school practice are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Woman in Berlin (1954) has undoubtedly shaped global understanding of wartime rape. The present article focuses on the diarist's use of humor to process her disorientation, assert her subjectivity, and build affective links with other victims. I consider how the diary's tone influenced its reception and thus how aesthetic analysis might illuminate the conditions under which stories about sexual violence become audible, as well as the ways in which the "cultural politics of emotion" (to quote the title of Sarah Ahmed's 2004 study) can both foster and obstruct human rights projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Quantitative survey research findings reveal that Western countries have lower rates of public stigma surrounding mental illness than other nations. However, qualitative media research across selected Western countries reports differences in stigmatising messages. Here, we take an in-depth look at country-level data exploring both similarities and differences in this stigma across three countries. Specifically, we use previous findings on global differences in public stigma and media to examine whether there is a correspondence between themes in newspaper reporting and variations in attitudes across seven stigma dimensions. Methods: The Stigma in Global Context – Mental Health Study provides nationally representative data from Iceland (N=1033; response rate=71%), Germany (N=1255; response rate=63.16%) and the USA (N=1425; response rate=67.31%). We limit analyses to respondents who received a vignette describing an individual meeting clinical criterion for schizophrenia or depression. Exploratory data analyses are used to examine overall patterns and cross-national differences. Results: Graphical analyses show patterned similarities, especially for more individuals endorsing social distance as contact becomes more intimate. However, results also corroborate cross-national differences documented in media research. More Americans endorse evaluations of dangerousness, to both self and others. Fewer Icelanders report exclusionary tendencies, whilst Germans report the most consistently moderate levels of stigma. Conclusions: While Western nations tend to report similar, lower levels of stigma globally, they each have unique areas of concern. Anti-stigma programs must take note of both similarities and differences to tailor their efforts to the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the connection of love styles with relationship satisfaction on the basis of cross-cultural research, including Bosnia, Germany, Romania, Russia, and German immigrants from Russia and Turkey. Love styles include romantic love, friendship love, game-playing love, possessive love, altruistic love, and pragmatic love. The validation of the measurement model across cultural groups was successful because partial measurement invariance was secured, which allows for the application of correlation, regression, and path analysis. Results indicate that the effects of love styles on relationship satisfaction were consistent across cultures with the exception of game-playing love that negatively predicted relationship satisfaction for Germans, Romanians, and Turkish migrants but not for Bosnians, Russians, and Russian migrants. In addition, cultural variation occurred with respect to the strength of the associations. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to universality and cultural relativity. In general, the effect of love styles on well-being turned out to be manifold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous research has theorized about team interaction differences between the German and U.S. cultures, actual behavioral observations of such differences are sparse. This study explores team meetings as a context for examining intercultural differences. We analyzed a total of 5,188 meeting behaviors in German and U.S. student teams. All teams discussed the same task to consensus. Results from behavioral process analyses showed that German teams focused significantly more on problem analysis, whereas U.S. teams focused more on solution production. Moreover, U.S. teams showed significantly more positive socioemotional meeting behavior than German teams. Finally, German teams showed significantly more counteractive behavior such as complaining than U.S. teams. We discuss theoretical and pragmatic implications for understanding these observable differences and for improving interaction in intercultural teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the shifts in German discourses about multiculturalism and the failed experiment of multiculturalism from the early 1990s into the 21st century by analyzing anxieties about emerging ‘ethnic ghettos’ and ‘parallel societies’ in Europe. In these discourses, ‘Europe’ functions simultaneously as an example for the failures of multiculturalism and as a bastion of western values in need of protection. The second part of this article shifts to a discussion on creative political interventions that expose these tensions and contradictions and emphasize the historic dimension of racialized exclusion in Germany and the European context. They describe the effects of social exclusion and propose (often syncretic) translocal forms of solidarity and activism. In their irreverent, playful and performative interventions, activists and artists develop strategies to counter the essentialist culturalisms that underpin the debates about European integration, multiculturalism and the crisis of multiculturalism in the German context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Patient-reported quality of life (QOL) is an outcome measure in clinical trials in multiple sclerosis (MS), but translated QOL instruments may affect the actual comparability of data.Objectives: We aimed to investigate possible differences in QOL in MS between cultures and countries. We employed the Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS) Version 4 questionnaire, which is a state-of-the-art QOL instrument.Methods: Some 484 MS patients from Austria (145), Germany (144), and Poland (195) aged 20—60 years, and stratified for sex and disease severity as measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score completed the respective FAMS translation and a socio-demographic questionnaire.Results: Analysis of variance and post-hoc Scheffé-test showed that 64% of the FAMS items were answered significantly differently (p < 0.001) between the three countries. A multivariate regression analysis including all the available disease-related and socio-demographic variables revealed the factors age, EDSS score, employment, social contacts, MS course, and country to be significant predictors of both the total FAMS score and the score for items answered differently between the three countries.Conclusions: Differences exist in the QOL of MS patients from Austria, Germany, and Poland which seem to lie beyond the impact of disease severity. They appear to be related to culture or other country-specific factors, as country was an independent predictor of differently answered items of the FAMS and thus also of the whole FAMS. QOL instruments should consider this aspect to faithfully reflect subjective information such as patient-reported benefit of treatment in multinational clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The naming practices of immigrants are studied as an example of their emotional identification with the host society and with the society of origin. Using data from the project 'Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children', the article analyses if the first name chosen for their child by Turkish parents in Germany is a name that is common only in Turkey (emotional separation), only in Germany (emotional assimilation) or in both countries (emotional integration). Most of the parents choose a Turkish name for their child, but girls are more frequently given names that are common in both cultures than are boys, while German names are only rarely chosen. Intermarriage strongly decreases the probability for separation in naming and especially increases the probability for the integration option, while the presence of a parent with German citizenship enhances assimilation more strongly than it does integration. Families who are more traditional and religious tend to choose a Turkish name. The results of the choice of first name are compared to those of analogous analyses of the respondents' identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study examined relationships at the individual level of analysis between work group collectivism and work centrality and pride in work, and the moderating effects of nations on these relationships. Participants from Ecuador, Germany, India, Mexico, and the United States completed questionnaire measures of the constructs of interest. Multiple-groups confirmatory factor analyses were performed to evaluate and control for psychometric nonequivalence in the measurement of latent constructs, prior to multiple-groups structural equation modeling analyses of the relationships between work group collectivism and work centrality and pride in work. Results showed positive relationships between collectivism and work centrality and work pride in each country, and non-significant differences between countries in these relationships. Tests of mean differences at the nation level of analysis also showed somewhat higher work centrality and pride in work among countries that scored higher in work group collectivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with German nurse scholar Gerd Bekel and British nurse scholars Francis C. Biley and Kirstin Fragemann is presented. Bekel shares his personal vision of nursing in 2050. Biley and Fragemann tells about their personal vision of healthcare in 2050. Bekel reveals the manner of viewing quality of life in Germany.

The goals of the study were to examine whether fundamentalism and authoritarianism could be distinguished by the Big Five factors of personality in American, Romanian and German samples, and to determine whether fundamentalism and authoritarianism could be distinguished by factor analysis in any of the three cultures. The results in all three cultures indicate that fundamentalism and authoritarianism have virtually identical personality correlates. In all three cultures, the two constructs were indistinguishable via exploratory factor analysis and could only be distinguished via confirmatory factor analysis, although direction-of-wording effects dwarfed the differences between fundamentalism and authoritarianism. The findings suggest that researchers should view fundamentalism as religious authoritarianism, and should therefore be cautious when making inferences about religiosity from research on fundamentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elias' view of democracy and German Sonderweg is discussed by looking at his analysis of intellectuals. How should the figuration of culture and politics be conceived at a time when the civilizing process could trigger both democracy and autarchy? It is argued that Elias's answer was that democracy is always accompanied by discontinuity in existence, and that the Weimar Republic therefore needed intellectual spokespersons promoting tolerance of political uncertainty. Such democratic culture demanded a fair balance between involvement and detachment. Elias claimed that intellectuals ought to act as defenders of chance and a fragmented society, and moreover as critics of political romanticism and utopian myths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 10 years, queer Türkiyelis in Germany have become more visible in the urban queer scene by delineating institutional and extrainstitutional spaces. How do they manage and negotiate these spaces with each other and in the context of interacting with people from different--that is, non-Turkish--backgrounds? And do the ways in which these spaces are managed have the capacity to work against prejudices both in the German queer community and among the wider Türkiyeli population? Queer Türkiyelis employ strategies of space management that resist fixed ideas of identities and bounded cultures that multiculturalist discourses and the media might otherwise enforce. In place of fixed identity politics based on ethnicity and national belonging, there are, instead, spatial management strategies at work that create homelike spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To illuminate the persisting division between East and West Germany, this article explores temporal aspects of East German culture and their impact on German unification. Arguing that approaches to GDR time in the contemporary literature border on oversimplification, the article focuses on different layers of time in East Germany. It also deals with possible time-related sources of conflict between East and West Germans, such as contradictory temporal work practices. On the basis of ethnographic and documentary evidence, the article argues that ordinary members of the German public may be more subtly aware of clashes in time cultures than this literature suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In public, popular, and scholarly discourses, Turkish migrant youth appear as relentless agents of revitalized Turkishness or Islam in the midst of European modernity. Contrary to this seemingly intuitive assumption, I argue in this article that the manifest diversity of migrant youth cultures is facilitated and authorized by the discursive and institutional resources available to them in Berlin, the metropolis in the making. Particularly significant for the cultural projects of Turkish youths are transnational cultural flows and contemporary discourses of plurality, human rights, and equality, which (en)gender their presence in the public spaces of Berlin and complicate 'national' configurations of belonging and conventional conceptions of otherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the ideological centrality of visual practices in the cultural politics of nationalism, immigration and diaspora. Tracing the genealogy of overseas Chinese in Germany, it demonstrates that the process of racializing European identity as 'white' constitutes the enabling narrative movement for ongoing social and political discrimination against non-Western nationals. It concludes by arguing that new discursive categories and visual paradigms are needed to account for Germany's multicultural society in the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war has brought new realization of the terrible consequences of international anarchy. The bankruptcy of nationalism as a system of world organization is proclaimed on every side. People are exhorted to adopt internationalism as a way of life, as though by an act of will we might create a master for the monster, rampant nationalism, which has perhaps reached its climax in modem Germany and Japan. The long, slow processes of cultural growth are disregarded, and people turn with high hope to the magic of conversion as a solution to their problems. With techniques of control developed by modem research people perhaps can increase somewhat the tempo of change but cultural growth is much more an organic than a mechanical process. They are likely to find the obstetrician's techniques are more effective than those of the inventor. They can do much to guarantee the health of the society which is giving birth to a new one, relieve somewhat the pain and anxiety which accompanies it, and prevent birth trauma but if they hurry the process too much we may produce abortion or those very traumatic experiences we seek to avoid.

This article focuses on the use of the word kultur in the German war federation. It was between 1860 and 1870 that Matthew Arnold entered on his campaign to give the word culture a new virtue and power in English: the power to transform the whole social system of England. Although Arnold failed to introduce into English the moral connotation which he wished the word culture to bear, he succeeded in raising the word to a higher level by widening and strengthening its intellectual and aesthetic meaning. The word cultur, the Latin cultura, was introduced into Germany from France; and thanks to Johann Christoph Adelung, a typical German scholar of the universal type, the date of its introduction can be fixed with some precision. The immediate popularity of the word and its prompt condemnation by J. H. Campe are exactly typical of the attraction experienced by Germany for French ideas and of the constant reactions against them. One event in the history of the word cultur, has been almost forgotten at the present day, owing to later political developments. Cultur in Germany began its career nobly and with higher claims than the word culture in England or in France.