Teacher training on environmental education (EE) is a key element of promoting the restoration of ecological systems and insuring inclusive and equitable human development. Science and biology teachers play a significant role in favoring EE at Brazilian schools. This study investigates the presence of EE in the curriculum and aims to interpret the…

In 2003, Jennifer Grossman wrote an opinion piece for "The New York Times" titled "Food for Thought (and for Credit)" with the opening sentence: "Want to combat the epidemic of obesity? Bring back home economics." That thought seemed to simmer for awhile and then in 2011, Professor Helen Zoe Veit wrote another opinion…

This article explores the place of discourse about religions in education by comparing two very different schools. It initially outlines some of the current debates around religious discourse, notably in dialogue. A theoretical frame for analysing religious discourse in schools is proposed, combining a theorisation of three levels of dialogue with…

Currently, the inner dynamics of teacher identity transformations remain a "black box." Conceptualizing preservice teacher identity as a complex dynamic system, and the notion of "being someone who teaches" in dialogical terms as involving shifts between different teacher voices, the study investigates the dynamical processes…

Analysis of discursive practices in science classrooms within STEM schools may provide meaningful information about the nature of these classrooms and, potentially, their uniqueness. Full descriptions of current practice can serve as a foundation for exploring the differences in instructional norms within STEM specialized schools and across…

School readiness is currently a strong focus for education policy in England. However, understanding what it means to be ready for school, and how this is reflected in policy and enacted in practice, are sites of contention. This paper explores the genesis of the current disparity in understandings in the context of the English education system. A…

We present findings from an in-depth study on a school-based multi-disciplinary learning community in the context of practice teaching in university pre-service education. We elaborate on one of the three predominant patterns of talk identified, the "star" pattern, and show how it created particular power relations in the discourse which…

Quality in education at the tertiary level is constantly questioned, and increasingly "professional standards" are offered as the solution to the perceived decline in quality. Foucauldian archaeological analysis of teacher graduate and geography graduate standards in Australia is conducted, revealing tensions between the different…

This paper investigates the language of the 2009 NSW Stage 6 English Syllabus. I argue that the language of the syllabus aims to create two distinct subjects: Subject English, that is, what students learn; and the subject position of its students, that is, what students are expected to become. Analysis reveals themes of personal development and…

The concept "language legitimacy", which entails issues of social class, ethnicity and culture as well as those of dominance and power, is a very important one with implications for both educational policy and practice. This article begins with a brief discussion of the two major ways in which the concept of "language…

School leadership as a key for school reforms has become a dominant theme in education, as demonstrated by a growing body of research during the last 15 years. Still, little attention has been paid to how changing international discourses on school leadership are translated into national public policy documents during the last decade. As such,…

The discourses around feedback and assessment within higher education are often proliferated as critical to student learning, and attention to student (dis)"satisfaction" is often high on the agenda. As academics spend extensive time and effort on the production of summative feedback, this paper draws on the initial findings from a…

This qualitative inquiry, situated within the social networking site, Facebook and an urban public library, examined the way six Black adolescent girls represented self and made sense of and disrupted representations of Black girlhood through book club discussions of the street literature text, PUSH by Sapphire. Online discussions, field…

Studies of teacher beliefs have been important in teacher education research since the late 1960s. For the most part, these studies have utilized representational approaches that conceptualize teachers' beliefs as individualistic and representative of teachers' mental states. However, a growing body of scholarship suggests studying talk at the…

We applied techniques from systemic functional linguistics to examine how a student and a tutor construed meaning related to linear functions during a 1-1 tutoring session. The student and tutor varied in how they discussed rates of change. This difference highlights that there are multiple correct ways to use this term in algebra, although small…