Vietnam’s extraordinary performance in the PISA assessment: A cultural explanation of an education paradox

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study how job flexibility influences job satisfaction among Mexican professionals, and focus on the role of key socio-cultural moderators relevant to Mexican society. Design/methodology/approach The paper explore how this relationship may be more important for women, employees with dependents such as children and elder parents and younger generations of professionals (e.g. Millennials). Findings The authors find that job flexibility is positively related to job satisfaction. This relationship is stronger for employees without dependents, as well as for younger generations of professionals (e.g. Millennials). Surprisingly, the relationship between job flexibility and job satisfaction does not differ by gender. The findings explain why job flexibility is more conductive to job satisfaction for employees without dependents, who tend to belong to younger generations. Originality/value Overall, the findings present important implications for managing job flexibility in Mexico and other Latin American countries, particularly for younger professionals.

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while the opposite was expected for the latter. Men were expected to exhibit no change. In fact, no systematic change in any variable was observed for any group. Even unsystematic change was minimal. This suggests that the survey instrument is highly reliable, but it does not support the biological hypothesis for political orientations. Attempts to test biological explanations of observed political behavior are reasonable enough given the underdeveloped status of the research. Testing for biological roots of male-female political differences is justified by extant literature. Given this, what inter-pretation should be placed on the negative empirical results just reported? One might conclude that reasonable though the attempt may have been, there is little justification for further work in this field. Indeed, at least by implication, the case for cultural explana-tions of sex differences in politics is strengthened. If negative results can stimulate more imaginative inquiry into cultural explanation, they still serve a very useful purpose, for there is much to be done here. Similarly, though they should not have been deterred by positive findings, persons who seek more equitable status for women through modification of the cultural environment may take heart from this, for it does underscore the likely efficacy of their strategy. There are other implications to this effort. First, it is possible to do actual research about the importance of biological variables in political behavior. The process does not have to be difficult; ques-tions generated by the literature are amenable to straightforward research. One study producing negative results in a single area can-not represent closure across the whole broad question of biology and political behavior. Hopefully this work will stimulate further think-ing on related concepts in the discipline. Finally, it is unlikely that the question of whether there are biological roots to male-female political differences will be regarded as definitively settled at any time in the near future. Perhaps this will encourage measured, re-sponsible research into the matter; it would not do to leave this area of inquiry entirely to chauvinists and polemicists. NOTES

Biopolitics and Gender ◽

10.4324/9780203056301-7 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 152-220

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Political Behavior ◽

Systematic Change ◽

Cultural Environment ◽

Negative Results ◽

Biological Variables ◽

Political Orientations ◽

Cultural Explanation ◽

Political Differences ◽

Near Future

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A Cultural Explanation of Progressive Local Politics

The Cultural Contradictions of Progressive Politics ◽

10.4324/9780203113677-13 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 149-181

Keyword(s):

Local Politics ◽

Cultural Explanation

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Why Do East Asian Students Do Well in PISA? A Cultural Explanation

PISA Ranking ◽

10.1142/9789813200739_0003 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 39-54

Keyword(s):

East Asian ◽

Asian Students ◽

East Asian Students ◽

Cultural Explanation

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Dialectics versus polemics in Chinese rhetoric: A study of indirection in Chinese and Chinese ESL argumentative writing as compared with English argumentative writing

Chinese as a Second Language Research ◽

10.1515/caslar-2019-0002 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 29-55

Author(s):

Lorrita Yeung

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Significant Proportion ◽

Instructional Materials ◽

Argumentative Writing ◽

Language Writing ◽

Chinese Rhetoric ◽

Argumentative Essays ◽

Cultural Explanation ◽

Chinese Writing ◽

Chinese And English

AbstractThis study investigates Chinese indirection in argumentative writing. It examines whether there is a fundamental difference between Chinese and English rhetoric in their preferred method of argument, as suggested by instructional materials on how to argue effectively (Liu, Lu. 2005. Rhetorical education through writing instruction across cultures: A comparative analysis of select online instructional materials on argumentative writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 14. 1–18). A comparative analysis of 90 argumentative essays respectively written by expert Chinese and English writers, and advanced Chinese ESL learners reveals that while the English essays tend to adopt a polemical style that persuades by defeating opposing arguments, a significant proportion of the Chinese essays show a dialectical style which examines opposing positions without taking sides and yet rising above them to resolve conflicting issues. A significant number of Chinese ESL writing follow a similar dialectical pattern although not as frequently as their expert writers. A cultural explanation is attempted to account for the phenomenon. It is also argued that the dialectical model, while subsuming earlier rhetorical models adopted for analyzing Chinese writing, may hold the key to studying Chinese differences from the English in written arguments.

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