Since the early 1990s, several researchers have found that African American teachers who are successful with African American students hold deep philosophical commitments to the concept of "social justice". While these scholars have convincingly articulated how "social justice" is a central feature of African American teachers' success with…

This study contributes to positioning theory by approaching the discursive and material mediation of classroom positioning from an integrated micro-, meso-, and macro-social perspective. I propose an analytic framework that unpacks the lived and ideological resources for positioning and their social and curricular implications for understanding…

This Bernsteinian analysis conceptualizes No Child Left Behind legislation in the United States as a recent and deliberate shift towards a ''performance'' model of official pedagogic discourse. The paper posits that this shift carries the capacity to fundamentally alter teachers' professional practices and identities. It examines particularly…

Within education, the term "research" is used in a multiplicity of ways. This paper draws on my own reflection of how educational practitioners experience shifting relationships to research. It suggests that within the further education (FE) sector, professionalism in teaching is measured through observation in the form of the Ofsted…

The effects of high-stakes, standardized testing on the curriculum are discouraging the teaching of multicultural, anti-racist content. Test-influenced educational environments contribute to the reproduction of racial and cultural inequality in education. Using the lens of sociolinguistics, the author asserts that high-stakes, standardized tests…

Sometimes materials used in schools with good intentions can have effects opposite from those stated. Through the microscopic analysis of a parent-student immigration interview assignment on a social studies unit on immigration, this article aims to uncover the hidden story that underlies the questions asked. In so doing, it intends not only to…

This dissertation examines depiction in American Sign Language (ASL) presentations. The impetus for this study came from my work as an instructor in an interpreter education program. The majority of ASL/English interpreters are second language learners of ASL, and many of them find some features of ASL challenging to learn. These features are…

Typically, the scientific method in science classrooms takes the form of discrete, ordered steps meant to guide students' inquiry. In this paper, we examine how focusing on the scientific method as discrete steps affects students' inquiry and teachers' perceptions thereof. To do so, we study a ninth-grade environmental science class in which…

In recent years there has been growing concern that the emphasis schools place on academic attainment has impacted negatively on children's mental well-being in the UK. In a bid to address society's growing concern for the mental well-being of children, the government has introduced policies into schools aimed at enhancing social and emotional…

This paper explores the dominant approach to education of ethnic minorities in Denmark. Using the concept of hegemony and the political-science distinction between monocultural and multicultural positions as approaches towards a situation of increasing linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity, the paper shows how a monocultural approach has…

In this chapter, the focus of attention moves from the contexts described in chapter 3 to the verbal, nonverbal, and interactional resources that participants employ in discursive practices. These resources are discussed within the frame of participation status and participation framework proposed by Goffman. Verbal resources employed by…

This study investigated the role of collective knowledge building in promoting scientific inquiry and achievements among Hong Kong high-school chemistry students. The participants included 34 Grade 10 (15-16 years old) students who engaged in collective inquiry and progressive discourse, using Knowledge Forum®, a computer-supported collaborative…

This paper reports on a study that investigates how different learning methods might affect the learning process of character handwriting among beginning college learners of Chinese, as measured by tests of recognition, approximate production, precise production, and awareness of conventional stroke sequence. Two methodologies were examined during…

In this article, and from the standpoint of an African American woman teacher/researcher, the author explores what happened when one African American adolescent boy known inside of school as a "severely disengaged" student cultivated literacy practices and events of his own volition in an after-school program. The author asks, how does race and…

As teachers negotiate the integration of new literacies in the classroom, one of their greatest resources may, in fact, be their students. In this essay, the use of dialogue between educators and a student is highlighted in order to demonstrate how classrooms are evolving in the area of new literacies. In regard to the integration of new…