Alienation Differences between Hawaii and Singapore Secondary School Students

This cross-cultural study examines the empirical reality of adolescents by school ability groupings on dimensions of alienation in Hawaii, USA and Singapore. A total of 2172 students (ages 13-16) completed questionnaires on how they felt on four dimensions of alienation, namely powerlessness, meanin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asia Pacific journal of education 2001-01, Vol.21 (2), p.96-105
Main Authors: Mau, Rosalind, Yuanshan, Cheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This cross-cultural study examines the empirical reality of adolescents by school ability groupings on dimensions of alienation in Hawaii, USA and Singapore. A total of 2172 students (ages 13-16) completed questionnaires on how they felt on four dimensions of alienation, namely powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness and social estrangement. As expected alienation patterns differed in various cultural and ability groups. Although differences were found between students in Hawaii and Singapore, adolescents in both samples showed similarities on the four dimensions. The dimension of powerlessness was most salient for students in both Singapore and Hawaii. Students in higher-ability groups felt less powerless than students in lower-ability groups. Both Singapore and Hawaii students did not feel that they were wasting their time in school. Singapore students participated in extracurricular activities and followed rules to a greater extent than those in America.
ISSN:0218-8791
1742-6855
DOI:10.1080/02188791.2001.10600196