This book is based on educational research conducted by researchers from the Department of Learning and Philosophy and the Confucius Institute for Innovation and Learning at Aalborg University. Empirically, it reports on different approaches to teaching and learning of culture, including a student-centered task-based problem-based learning (PBL) approach, a digital technology-supported approach and more. It also reports on how, when teaching and learning culture, teachers’ professional identity and the informal teaching and learning environment impact the teaching and learning of culture in different educational settings from primary school to university. A central theme in the book is the power of context. The studies illustrate in multiple ways, and from different angles, that “culture is not taught in a vacuum or learned in isolation”, but may be influenced by many factors both inside and outside the classroom; at the same time, culture also influences the context of the learning. The context may be “invisible” and hide itself as tacit knowledge or embedded values, or it may be very visible and present itself as a fixed curriculum or an established tradition. No matter what forms and shapes the context takes, the studies in this book strongly indicate that it is essential to be aware of the power of context in teaching and learning culture in order to understand it and negotiate it. This book suggests that teachers should not try to limit or avoid contextual influences, but instead, should explore how the context may be integrated into and used constructively in the teaching and learning of culture. This allowance of context in the classroom will allow for teachers, students, subjects and contexts to enter into a dialogue and negotiation of meaning that will enrich each other and achieve the established goal – acquisition of cultural awareness and intercultural understanding.

This book looks at educational institutions and their role as sites of learning in times of moral and political chaos. It highlights the erosion of critical pedagogical traditions in universities in India and registers the ongoing responses and struggles as educational experiences. This book develops a critical approach by redefining education from the perspective of learning as a political act to experience the complex network of learning activities beyond the confines of educational institutions. It also locates caste, gender and religious hierarchies in schools and universities in India. The book explores the extremely contradictory experiences of academic spaces that have resulted in the development of uncharted sites of learning. Being mindful of these multiple strands, the authors examine the culture of learning and reflect on the space for critical learning, activism, dissent and self-reflexivity in schools and universities in India. The goal of diverse experiences of learning is to derive new meaning to the conceptions of critical pedagogy as a political act for democratising education. This transdisciplinary book will be of interest to students and researchers of education, sociology, history, political studies and public policy.

This edited book examines cultures of learning from the perspectives of education, applied linguistics and language learning. The concept can be used to explore socio-cultural features of language learning and use contexts in educational institutions, and cultural practices of pedagogic activities and classroom interaction.

Cultivating a Culture of Learning: Contemplative Practices, Pedagogy, and Research in Education illustrates portraits of practice from a variety of teacher education programs, bringing together a rich collection of voices from diverse settings. Authors share their first-hand experience of cultivating a culture of learning as teacher educators and employing contemplative practices in their work with educators. Contemplative practices, pedagogy, and research are analyzed as essential components of cultivating cultures of learning in classrooms. Several chapters offer innovative models, pedagogy, and courses utilizing contemplative practices. The authors in this book advocate and express the importance of creating spaces where the inner life and qualities such as intuition, creativity, silence, and heart-centered learning are valued and work in partnership with cognitive and rational ways of knowing and being in the world. Authors explore challenges faced institutionally, with students, and personally. The insights and challenges shared in these portraits of practice are intended to stimulate conversation and engender future pedagogy and research in the field of contemplative education.

"This is a unique portrait of a group of working-class families whose 4 year old children start school on the cusp of the millenium in urban Britain. It is a brilliant analysis of ways in which parents, children and teachers strive to cross cultural and linguistic boundaries to come to a common understanding of 'school'. Beautifully written, it is essential reading for all involved in the education of young children." - Eve Gregory, Professor of Language and Culture in Education, Goldsmiths, University of London. "This book will challenge and support practitioners in their quest to improve early childhood practice. The use of theory is 'friendly' and the real-life examples of the experiences of young children and their parents really bring home to the reader the experience of inequality. Readers will rarely find a book which expresses the complexity of educational experience in such an accessible form. This is a valuable book for every level of early years training." - Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Institute of Education, University of London. * How does the home experience of children from poor and ethnic minority communities influence their adaptation to school? * How does the traditional 'child-centred' and progressive pedagogy of early years classrooms meet the needs of children from culturally diverse backgrounds? Starting School seeks to address these key questions by tracing the learning experiences of individual children from a poor inner-urban neighbourhood - half of them from Bangladeshi families - as they acquire the knowledge appropriate to their home culture and then take this knowledge to their reception class. The book highlights the small differences in family life - in parenting practices, in perspectives on childhood, and in beliefs about work and play - which make a big difference to children's adaptations to school. In other words, it shows how children succeed and fail from their early days at school. It shows too how the 'good intentions' of good teachers can sometimes allow children from certain backgrounds to become disaffected, and learn to fail; and it suggests ways of working with children from working class and multicultural families which may help both children and parents to gain a better understanding of school learning in the UK.

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.