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The paper's objective is to define a theoretical approach to building a conceptual model of empiric research into behaviour of students in relation to learning and factors shaping it, variables and indicators of this model, present the results of the nationwide study revealing the behaviour of students in relation to learning and the content of learning reinforcement in the context of the present-day Russia. As an empirical research method the questionnaire survey was used. Based on the analysis of empirical data the nature of changes in academic performance of students depending on the grade was demonstrated, the role of external and internal factors fostering learning and the mechanism of their impact was described. High significance of interest and motivation as factors driving students' academic performance was determined and the probabilistic performance model was built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally argued that, in the context of Imperial Germany, public primary education was used to form “loyal citizens” and to build a nation. In this paper we analyze to what extent state spending on primary education affected participation at general elections and votes for pro-nationalist parties. We combine census data on the composition of school funding with federal election data at the level of 199 constituencies in five-year intervals from 1886 to 1911. Panel estimates of models with constituency and time-fixed effects show that an increase in the share of central spending is positively related to the vote share for pro-nationalist parties. Results on voter turnout are weaker and less clear cut. Estimates of models with lagged state spending by category of expenditure are consistent with the role of indoctrination of public primary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates preservation education options for library and archive students at degree granting institutions in South Africa through examining the following questions: which institutions offer separate classes or modules dedicated preservation issues; what academic levels are the existing classes directed towards and how often are they offered; what preservation issues are covered in existing classes and modules; what is the preservation-related experience of the instructors, and; how do South Africa's offerings compare internationally? The paper also evaluates the appropriateness of the preservation content offered against established benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the historiography of the Brazilian education starting with the consideration about the appearance and development of the field of history of education in Brazil covering five aspects: 1) preservation of the memory of the Brazilian education; 2) introduction of the subject History of Education in the curricula of the common schools and in the courses of pedagogy; 3) historiographic production about education; 4) organization of research groups in the history of education; 5) circulation of the production of the field of the history of Brazilian education covering the different forms of publicity consubstantiated in the different types of events and in the different types of publications in the area of history of education. Then, there is the consideration of the course of the historiography in the Brazilian education as a process of construction- deconstruction of the educational memory. Finally, in the last part, there is the critical appreciation of the historiography of the Brazilian education in the current situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper provides a comparative perspective on the development of public primary education in four of the largest developing economies circa 1910: Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). These four countries encompassed more than 50% of the world's population in 1910, but remarkably few of their citizens attended any school by the early 20th century. We present new, comparable data on school inputs and outputs for BRIC drawn from contemporary surveys and government documents. Recent studies emphasize the importance of political decentralization, and relatively broad political voice for the early spread of public primary education in developed economies. We identify the former and the lack of the latter to be important in the context of BRIC, but we also outline how other factors such as factor endowments, colonialism, serfdom, and, especially, the characteristics of the political and economic elite help explain the low achievement levels of these four countries and the incredible amount of heterogeneity within each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to introduce this special issue by setting out what seem to be some of the major theoretical and methodological issues raised for comparative education by the increasing prominence of the discourses of the knowledge economy, which, it is argued, represent a particularly strong version of globalisation and its possible relationships to education systems, and hence an especially acute challenge to comparative education. It focuses on the possible implications of these changes for each of the three elements of ‘national education system’. In terms of the ‘national’ it discusses the nature and consequences of methodological nationalism, and emphasises the emerging pluri-scalar nature of the governance of education. In terms of ‘education’, it argues that education is now being asked to do different things in different ways, rather than the same things in different ways. In terms of ‘system’, it is suggested that the constitution of education sectors may be in the process of changing, with a development of parallel sectors at different scales with different responsibilities. Overall, the article suggests that we may be witnessing the development of a new functional, scalar and sectoral (non zero sum) division of the labour of educational governance. Finally, it addresses the question ‘what is now to be compared’ and considers the consequences for both ‘explaining’ and ‘learning’ through comparative education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TEACHERS HAVE BEEN left out of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century labour history just as they have been ignored, as workers, in the history of education. This paper investigates themes in the history of elementary public school teachers' work in Quebec and Ontario during the period when state school systems were being put in place and public teaching forces were becoming predominantly female. During this period teachers contended with the introduction of new subjects and methods, the introduction of increasing amounts of paperwork, and a growing insistence on discipline and uniformity in increasingly hierarchical work places. In addition they had to deal with unhealthy working conditions and conflicts over who was responsible for the upkeep and physical improvement of schools. Although, by the turn of the century, increasing workloads, difficult working conditions, and low pay had pushed urban women teachers to form single-sex protective associations, most schoolmistresses failed to identify with other organized workers. Neither self-identified workers, nor the professionals they aspired to be, they began to understand one major source of their problematic status when they perceived that this derived, in large part, from their Status as women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an author's introduction of the six papers discussed in the November 2005 issue of the journal "Comparative Education." Emphasis on the nature and quality of the values and attitudes promoted by citizenship education in Australia, Canada and England; Discussion on the nature and quality of values, attitudes and citizenship and comparisons of the three educational systems; Insights into the influence of market force culture on British and German academics.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss various papers published within the issue, including one on religiosity and education in antiquity, one on a bishop model for the sixth century period, and another on Brazilian education during the 19th century.