Detailed analysis and examination of key concepts

¶ … educational background of 2 or more Cleft National Cultures. The Cleft Cultures consist of the following: Malaysian, Nigeria, Israel, Italy, & Belgium

One of the most unique facets of the modern Israeli state it is simultaneously homogeneous and heterogeneous character. On one hand, Israel has an official religion, because it is the self-designated homeland of all of the Jewish population of the world. On the other hand, because it embraces Jews from all over the world, Israel's population may compose that of a highly educated doctor or a recent immigrant from a developing nation with little access to education. Within Israel as well: "Education in Israel has been characterized historically by the same social and cultural cleavages separating the Orthodox from the secular and Arabs from Jews. In addition, because of residential patterns and concentrations -- of Orientals in development towns, for example -- or because of 'tracking' of one sort or another, critics have charged that education has been functionally divided by an Ashkenazi-Oriental distinction, as well" (Israel: Education, 2007, U.S. Library of Congress). However, despite these divides, Israel also has notable universities for professional education, as well as fine primary and secondary institutions of schooling within its borders, and thus resembles the modern United States.

Italy is a similarly diverse and highly regionalized nation, as the quality of education may vary from North to South, much like the cultures of these different regions within the nation. However, much like school system of Belgium, Italy and Belgium, like most European nations have a certain element of cohesiveness because of a state-set curriculum and because higher education is based upon an examination system, a system also paralleled in Malaysia. State examinations and national curriculums may help create greater unity in Cleft national cultures (Gannon, 2006). Finally, Nigerian education is even more diverse: "There were three fundamentally distinct education systems in Nigeria in 1990: the indigenous system, Quranic schools, and formal European-style education institutions. In the rural areas where the majority lived, children learned the skills of farming and other work, as well as the duties of adulthood, from participation in the community" (Nigeria: Education, 2007, U.S. Library of Congress). Nigeria has a national, European-style entrance examination, but like Israel, it also has religious schools that rivals in dominance, and it has the additional dividing element of rural educational systems with little ties to the larger nation.

Equality Matching Cultures," "Market Pricing Cultures," and "Cleft National Cultures"

Market pricing cultures are based upon individualism. They place a high value upon the free market culture and a system of enterprises where inequality may result, but this is deemed acceptable because the free market presumably allows for a meritocracy, where the strongest will survive, and because opportunities are equal, even though results are not equal. Equality matching cultures, in contrast, value community over individualism, and sustaining the community through collective efforts and bargaining rather than through monetary exchanges (Gannon, 2006).

American belief in individual merit, the ideal of the self-made person, and also the equation of financial success with personal success are all a product of its market pricing culture. Equality matching has its roots in indigenous community survival, and tends to stress a need for continuity with the past. It might also see individual striving as dangerous to the community.