Drawing on the concept of figured worlds, we examined how four preservice teachers in a monoglossically oriented teacher preparation program developed their professional identities and sense of agency as dual language teachers. Figured worlds are socially constructed and culturally recognized realms with a story line and actors who also actively…

In order to internationalize higher education, universities across Asia have engaged in aggressive recruitment of international students and increased provision of English-medium instruction (EMI). While many studies have examined Asian international students' intercultural interactions during class discussions in Western/English-speaking…

Teachers' participation in curriculum development is an area of research that has not been given adequate attention in the context of Saudi Arabia. This critical exploratory study investigated the issue of teachers' marginalisation in the curriculum development process with the aim of problematising power relations in Saudi Arabia's education…

Sociolinguistic and sociocultural features of the source language can be ideally transferred to the target language when the translator's cultural background knowledge has a high overlap with the source language culture. This signifies the crucial role of national cultural distance from the source language society in the quality of translation of…

The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC) has attracted growing attention among practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The aims of this study were to identify typologies of professional learning teams based on measures of professional learning engagement, and assess their linkages with teachers' value orientations.…

Bullying in schools has escalated far beyond childhood teasing. In recent years, torture, murder, and suicide have been associated with bullying (van der Kolk, Weisaeth, & McFarlane, 2007). While bullying is unacceptable behavior in any school, it is particularly problematic in Catholic schools, which must embody Gospel values. Catholic…

In this paper I report on the sociological and educational particulars of "The Biodiscovery Space" exhibition of the Life Museum of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using Basil Bernstein's framework of pedagogic discourse and recontextualization. Data for analysis was obtained from interviews with the exhibition…

How people learn is influenced by the cultural contexts in which their learning occurs. This qualitative case study explored challenges Korean medical students and tutors experienced during their PBL sessions from a cultural perspective using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Twelve preclinical medical students and nine tutors from a large Korean…

Education has embraced the idea of an "asset approach" to working with families and children, creating a focus on developing collaborative relationships with families by building on what they bring to the table. In this paper we explore what happened when early childhood teachers entered homes to learn from families and identify their…

In this article I first discuss how in Singapore the concept of meritocracy captures both elitist and egalitarian aspirations, and the ways in which its education policies have for a long time vacillated between these conflicting dimensions. I then argue that critical studies of meritocracy need to go beyond an understanding of the term as an…

In all, 26 Turkish early childhood educators were asked to describe a moral dilemma they faced in their classroom, the circumstances that made the situation a dilemma, and why it was a moral dilemma. The dilemmas described arose from conflicts between teachers and children, teachers and parents, and teachers and administrators. Dilemmas described…

Far from following a linear process from its conception to its implementation, an educational design often involves discrepancies between what its promoters intended and what the participants actually do. In this paper, drawing from a sociocultural perspective to learning, we focus our attention precisely on some of the discrepancies observed…

Recent concern surrounding sports coaches' interaction with young people has reflected a fundamental change in the way coaches and others regard the role of sports. In this paper, we consider the identification and definition of the contemporary sports coach (whether acting in a professional or volunteer capacity) as, in Foucault's term, a…

This article is a commentary on the seven papers in this special issue of "Sex Education." A compelling theme interwoven throughout all the articles in subtle and explicit ways is the role that adults play in the lives of students, particularly in the ways in which adults impact how students enact and respond to the multiple…

High-stakes standardized literacy testing is not neutral and continues to build upon the legacy of dominant power relations in the state in its ability to sort, select and rank students and ultimately produce and name some youth as illiterate in contrast to an ideal white, male, literate citizen. I trace the effects of high-stakes standardized…