School environments in Finland are changing from traditional classrooms towards more flexible architectures. This change invites designers and commercial organizations to take part in re-thinking these environments by creating narratives of desirable educational environments. Their comprehensive furniture solutions promise flexible entities,…

What does it mean to have mathematical authority? How does it differ from pedagogical authority? We drew upon Goffman's (1981) ideas of author and animator to exemplify modes of mathematical authority that extend beyond the authorship of ideas. Through a series of excerpts from lessons in middle-grades mathematics classrooms, this paper emphasizes…

Within the modern institution of schooling, educators portray children as lacking in knowledge and maturity and try to restrict their access to the issues that undermine this assumed innocence. Such renditions of children produce hierarchical power relationships in which children's ways of knowing are seen as what Foucault (1980) called…

When Stephanie Smith became the principal of Seaford (Delaware) Middle School four years ago, she was told to accept the fact that the school would never be able to change its status as a school that needed to improve. She did not accept that. To improve performance levels, she set the expectations high. Her defiance paid off: the school is now…

This paper draws on Matthew's story to illustrate the conflicting discourses of being a boy and being a student. Matthew is 12 years old and in Grade Six, his final year at Banrock Primary (a K-6 Australian State School). School is far from a happy place for Matthew--his tearful accounts of his combative relationships with his peers and his…