In this article we explore similarities and differences between two school subjects, Norwegian and mathematics, taking a phenomenological perspective and a didactic meta-perspective (literacy perspective). Our argument is presented on three levels which together build on the perspective of meta-language. First we consider the level of discourse…

Analyzes play discourse participation frameworks in groups of different gender and age compositions, focusing on different ways that children "voice" a pretend play role. Uses a preschool classroom for an observational study. Finds significant differences in voicing used by older and younger play groups. Discusses results with respect to the…

In this article we examine the development, over 1 year, of mathematical discourse communities in 2 eighth-grade mathematics classes in a suburban public middle school. The curriculum topics included probability, functions, graphing, data analysis, and pre-algebra. The 50 students were heterogeneously placed; most were from upper-middle-class…

A study examined classroom discourse in three literature class discussions among 15 high school juniors and their teacher as they tried to make sense of "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." Participants' moves (what the students and teacher were trying to do with their language during the discussion);…

In research on classroom discourses, case studies have been used to describe the dynamics of effective and ineffective instruction. In other research, quantitative studies have identified global features of such discourse. The research reported here combined the advantages of both methods, investigating how generally effective classroom discourse…

A study analyzed the multiple purposes of songs in which children in early childhood classrooms sing and move their bodies to the lyrics, the discourses the songs mobilize, and the gendered positions the songs accomplish. Subjects, 28 students entering their first year in a suburban primary school in a large regional center in southern Victoria,…

This book presents nine studies conducted by teacher researchers who explore the oral and written discourse of learning communities--communities of students, communities of teachers, and communities in which students and teachers learn together. The studies focus on journal writing, conversation, story telling, geometry, computer technology, and…

To analyze some of the processes through which student voices and lived experiences can be either excluded or included, a study focused on elements of the classroom environment already addressed in previous analyses, examining "texts and talk" in two middle school English classrooms. The study analyzed how the classroom environments that…