This issue "includes contributions on indigenous knowledge, the cultural context of learning and on the interplay between the so-called 'traditional' and 'modern' ways of education. It starts from the assumption that cultures are not static ... and that the Western need to encapsulate 'other cultures' ... has distorted our understanding of the way in which different cultures create, recreate and reproduce knowledge" (from the introduction). Case studies range from Egypt to Benin, Brazil and New Caledonia.