Achieving the goals Education for All (EFA) has been a major concern of education in developing countries since 1990, but its realization does not seem to be easy. One of the major reasons that make realization of EFA difficult seems to be the limited access to school education for girls. especially in South Asia and Africa. Dakar Framework of Action 2000 also indicated that EFA goals could not be achieved without promotion of girls' education. Researches have been made to identify factors obstructing girls' education, but most of them seem to have been focusing on economic situation. However, research should also be made from different aspects such as socio-cultural dimension of education. Noticing the gender disparity in Pakistan, a survey was conducted in September 2005 to the parents in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan to identify social-cultural factors that might have affected on them. The field survey was analyzed from three viewpoints: parents' decision making factor, parents' understanding on the economic participation and the amount of information. The results of the survey revealed that the levels of recognition on the importance of education of their daughters were generally low for parents who have a conservative view of marriage and women's economic participation.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the psychological effects of grades and class hours on young English learners. Participants were 466 students (128 third, 120 fourth, 100 fifth, and 118 sixth graders) who have 35 class hours of English activities, and 479 students (130 third, 114 fourth, 97 fifth, and 138 sixth graders) who have 70 class hours of English class time. It was found that, in the 70 hours group, perceived competence in English, interest in English, willingness to communicate in English, willingness to read, write, and speak in English when they become junior high school students, and motivation were all more salient psychological factors than they were in the 35 hours group. Although two variables, perceived competence in English (PCE) and willingness to read, write, and speak in English when they will become junior high school students (WTRWS), correlate with English abilities, there was a difference between them, namely that the negative effect of English anxiety on PCE was greater than that of WTRWS.

This article aims to investigate the features of new curriculum (2004 curriculum/ Competency Based Curriculum) in Indonesia regarding the curriculum theory, globalization, nationalization and localization.

The features of new curriculum are: 1) using the term of competency in all levels, 2) using the same framework as other countries use, 3) using the same disciplines as other countries use (aiming at the education for building the whole personality, improvement of zest for life, assurance of life long learning and authentic assessment). By using the concept of competency, Indonesia aims to solve the problem of education system, to realize the life-long education, to match between the real world and the school education and to improve the comprehensive education, suitable education for different needs, and so on.

From the viewpoints of globalization, it appears that new Indonesian curriculum, to a certain extent, aims at the global responsibility education which may encourage students to take positive action for global issues such as human rights, democracy, peace and conflict, etc.

With regard to nationalization, Pancasila education was changed to modernized civic education, but the national identity is still the basis of education. Concerning localization, the symbol of the localization, Muatan Lokal (Local content subject), was changed from a compulsory subject to an elective one. But the new curriculum aims to build the citizen who can participate actively to build a just local society with critical thinking skills.

Also, some problems in the organization of the elements of competency and the way of assessment were observed in the new curriculum.

In Germany, many books about constructivist didactics are published. The purpose of this study is to clarify what are the characteristics of constructivist didactics in Germany and how traditional didactics evaluates constructivist didactics.

There are three kinds of arguments about constructivism in Germandidactics. First, there is a position critical of traditional didactics, using a radical opinion of constructivism. In this position, constructivism is used as the theoretical base of a new concept of didactics.

Second, there is constructivist didactics, which is evolved by constructivists. This position is characterized as a movement to stop a gap between constructivism and classroom practice.

And third, there are descriptions in basic literature about didactics written from the perspective of traditional didactics. Here, constructivist didactics is placed as one of the didactic models. Though constructivist didactics has some problems, for example, its concepts about knowledge or learning are limited to a consideration of teaching in the classroom, constructivist didactics is about to solve them.

This paper explores an educational practice by "teaching materialization" of popular culture. Traditionally, students are implicitly seen as passive victims of popular culture influence. However, both Henry Giroux and David Buckingham argue that students can acquire "critical" discourses on popular culture, and that they reconsider their relations to popular culture.

According to Giroux, the media and popular culture are "ideological apparatuses", by which students are oppressed. However, students also produce a new meaning in popular culture. He offers a new possibility of understanding how the production of the meaning is tied to "emotional investments" and "the politics of pleasures".

Buckingham says that students use popular culture for the purposes of making sense of their lives and of their positions in the world. The relationship between popular culture and students are mutual. He attempts to move beyond textual analysis. And he indicates the possibility of media production work in educational practice.

Giroux and Buckingham think that students experience with media production/consumption between their activeness and passiveness. From this view, this paper suggests that an educational practice by "teaching materialization" of popular culture should become a political practice with regards to identity of students.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the unit plan to introduce new perspective of society by criticizing the unit plan "Considering maps, could you think what's the map?" developed by Dr. Ikeno (Hiroshima University), and other graduate students in Hiroshima University in 2004.

Their unit plan is the epoch-making plan of map learning. Usually, the unit plan of map learning is based on the copy-theory of map. But their plan depends on the composition-theory of map. Dr. Ikeno explained the merit of this. He said their unit plan can change not only the students' perspectives of the map, but also the students' perspectives of society. The students who studied this unit plan would be able to understand that everything in society is constructed by someone with the latent intention, he said.

I thin their unit plan is not enough to change the perspectives of society and develop critical thinking skills. Their unit plan does not include the viewpoint that map is one of the media that reproduce ideology. If students know maps have the function of the ideological reproduction, it is easier for the students to discover the function of the ideological reproduction included in others in society. We need to develop a new map learning unit plan with the viewpoints of ideological reproduction theory.

This is a study with the object of explaining the difference and the similarity between the meaning of teaching practice recognized by undergraduates who have experienced teaching practice and that of teaching practice by in-service teachers reflected on the past concerning those experiences. In this study, the data was gathered from 137 undergraduates who had already experienced practice teaching and 233 in-service teachers.

The findings of this study were as follows: 1) Undergraduates have recognized that they understood practice situation of school education in teaching practice, whereas in-service teachers have not, 2) Both Undergraduates and in-service teachers have thoroughly perceived that teaching pradice allows them not merely to learn what children think along with teaching skills, but also to learn a sense of mission, consciousness, and aptitude for their teaching profession, 3) Neither Undergraduates nor in-service teachers have recognized that it is feasible to obtain fundamental knowledge as to both school and classroom management from their teaching practice. Throughout their teaching practice, however, both of them will need to acquire more capabilities.

Hereafter, a more effective teaching practice program will be required to solve these issues.