Ratna Ghosh

Attributions of Success and Failure Comparison of Cultural Differences between Asian and Caucasian Children

Using children from Canadian Caucasian and Asian Indian populations, the hypothesis was assessed that Asian children would attribute both success and failure in achievement tasks, to stable factors of ability and effort. By contrast, the prediction was that Caucasian children would asume personal responsibility only for success but would attribute failure to unstable factors of luck, task difficulty, and inaccuracy of the evaluator. The rationale employed was that socialization training in certain cultures provides impetus for assuming personal responsibility for both negative and positive outcomes. Ss were given two performance tasks with success and failure outcomes, under conditions of high and low ego involvement. As hypothesized, Caucasian Ss took greater personal credit for success and attributed failure to luck, but Asian Ss assumed more personal responsibility for failure and attributed success to luck. The implications of the attributional patterns were discussed in terms of the socialization of Asian children competing for success and self-enhancement with their Caucasian counterparts.

Measurement of Family Involvement A Cross-National Study of Managers

This article reports on the development of a cross-culturally validated standardized measure of family involvement. Family involvement is operationalized on the basis of the motivational formulation of involvement and alienation (Kanungo, 1979) and studied in a bi-national setting. Data from heterogeneous samples of 269 Indian and 168 Canadian employees reveal that the eight-item family involvement scale has satisfactory psychometric properties. The scale passes the tests of internal consistency, unidimensionality, and construct validity in samples from both the countries. The usefulness of the scale for research and professional work is discussed.

Can education counter violent religious extremism

Abstracts/Résumés Violent religious extremism is a global concern today. As governments prepare their counter-terrorism policies, many focus solely on reactive measures such as military action and surveillance measures – hard power – that are responsive to individuals who are already radicalized. This paper argues that education should be incorporated into such policies as a preventive measure that not only makes students resilient citizens but can also address the psychological, emotional and intellectual appeal of narratives – soft power – that terrorists purport. In doing so, states can counter soft power with the use of soft power in a concerted effort among government departments, social institutions and communities. Our paper clarifies the complexities among fundamentalism, extremism, radicalism and terrorism, and summarizes a variety of push and pull factors that trigger radicalization; it offers as well specific pedagogical recommendations for the Canadian educational system to consider. Aujourd’hui, l’extrémisme religieux violent est une préoccupation à l’échelle internationale. Alors que certains gouvernements préparent leurs politiques antiterroristes, plusieurs autres ne se concentrent que sur des mesures réactives telles que les actions militaires et les mesures de surveillance accrue – hard power – visant particulièrement les personnes qui sont déjà radicalisées. Cet article souligne que l’éducation devrait être intégrée dans ces politiques comme une mesure préventive qui ne rend pas seulement les étudiants citoyens résilients, mais qui peut aussi s’attaquer au discours attrayant sur le plan psychologique, émotionnel et intellectuel – soft power – alimentés par les terroristes. Ce faisant, les États, à travers une action concertée entre les ministères, les institutions et les communautés, peuvent contrer le soft power en utilisant le soft power. Notre article explique les différences complexes entre le fondamentalisme, l’extrémisme, le radicalisme et le terrorisme, et met l’accent sur les différents facteurs qui déclenchent la radicalization. Il propose également des recommandations pédagogiques adaptées au système éducatif canadien.

Tagore and Education

An attempt is made here to capture some aspects of Tagore’s philosophy of education including those bearing on education in colonial India of his time. The outlooks he expounded on, led the educated classes of British India of his time to think and act outside the shackles of colonialism. Tagore’s educational philosophy and practice is outlined by delineating its liberating influence in the evolution of educational thought in colonial India at that time (1861–1941).

Women's Empowerment and Education: Panchayats and Women's Self-Help Groups in India.

While women have made many advances, their inferior status to men continues to be a global phenomenon. At a time of unprecedented economic growth, India is experiencing a dramatic intensification of violence against women and the majority of girls are still not getting equal educational opportunity. In one of the most important steps for the empowerment of women, the Indian government gave constitutional status to village-level councils or Panchayati Raj institutions and reserved 33% of the seats in Panchayats for women. In addition, women were organized into Self-help Groups to mark the beginning of a major process of empowering women, although not much attention was paid to womens formal education. Our aim was to explore the impact of these measures on womens empowerment in the states of West Bengal and Mizoram. In general, we found that affirmative action does ensure that larger numbers of women enter politics but it does not ensure that the women participate in politics and function as elected representatives, because of lack of education. Empowerment needs to be seen as a holistic outcome of processes of critical education that enables women to lead autonomous lives and the freedom to act. Both affirmative action and education are necessary to empower women who have suffered discrimination and lack of power always.

Further Unpacking Multiculturalism in the Classroom

In McGill University’s Faculty of Education, Multicultural Education is a required course in the degree programs of all students pursuing teacher certification, regardless of the subject areas or grade levels in which they plan to specialize – much as it is at other institutions within Quebec and in the rest of Canada. Yet in the authors’ experiences teaching this course, we have witnessed that the most challenging aspect of multicultural education is helping preservice teachers to gain understanding of how the legislative policy of multiculturalism might be applied to their every day teaching practice.

School Effectiveness: Pursuing Excellence and Inclusion

With explosion in educational services to all eligible people in all countries of the world there is a serious concern about the quality of education. The global knowledge economy demands educated citizens, and a skilled and innovative workforce. But the quality of schools is deteriorating and education is unable to produce the workforce needed for the rapidly advancing technology and the world market. The focus has therefore turned to effective schools that will bring countries to the forefront of the global market through its educated citizens. Despite a variety of empirical and analytical research studies, there are no criteria that enable schools to identify factors that will improve the effectiveness of schools.This brief paper is based on a keynote address given at the 2012 World Global Forum in Taipei and argues that in a world with globalization and rapid movement of populations, excellence in education must go hand in hand with educational inclusiveness. School effectiveness cannot be measured through international tests alone. Effective schools will use teaching strategies that are needed for students with diverse abilities, cultures and backgrounds for strong achievement in academic and other areas, but at the same time empower them with interpersonal/intercultural skills to face rapid change and life-long learning. To be effective, schools must strive for excellence with inclusion because excellence is enhanced and enriched by diversity.

Education and the Politics of Difference: Canadian Perspectives

Introduction Schooling and Society: Perspectives on Knowledge, Culture and Difference Issues in Multicultural Education Multicultural Policy and Multicultural Education: a Canadian Case Study Education and the Globalisation of Difference with Reference to the Post-September 11 World Multicultural Education in the Future References.