This volume makes available a wide variety of cultural perspectives on education and on economic and social progress. Contributors focus on three main questions, the answers to which are vital for understanding the needs of both national policy and personal fulfilment in widely differing cultures. The contributors examine the concept of the self that underlies the idea of virtue which facilitates learning in Japan, the Confucian-style bonding between generations in Chinese society and the authority of the traditional teacher with the modern Quaranic School. They study phenomena as diverse as the effect of Christian and Islamic influence on the native cultures of Africa, and the life strategies of Japanese business women, spanning a geographical range from Morocco to Fiji.