This paper is a critical ethnography of mathematics teachers in a Cameroonian private, mission school system. Findings from in-depth interviews with secondary mathematics teachers indicate that most of these teachers perceive their educational situation as disconnected, in several ways, from their cultures. However, most participants look to…

In the recent sociocultural literature, it is possible to identify at least three ways of understanding the development of individual agency in social practices: (a) through transforming the object of activity and through self-change, (b) through responsible and intentional membership, and (c) through resistance and transformation of the dominant…

This paper argues by way of analogy that the psychological descriptors of "masochist" and "sadist", a person who submits or dominates, respectively can aptly describe many aspects of the power relationships teachers and students experience within institutions of public education. Teachers operate in an often ethically contradictory position, torn…

This chapter continues the focus on learning, but now in the context of schooling. How does a practice approach explain language learning in relationship to language teaching and language testing? In Practice Theory, a foreign language classroom is a site for pedagogical practices and what students learn is how to participate in those practices.…

This paper deals with linguistic diversity as it occurs in a conversation over dinner between three young Turkish-Danish men living in Denmark. I argue that terms like "bilingual" or "multilingual" are inappropriate in order to describe this verbal interaction because these terms presuppose that linguistic production is divided…

Many schools are organised into departments which function as contexts that frame teachers' professional experiences in important ways. Some educational systems have adopted distributed forms of leadership within schools that rely strongly on the departmental structure and on the role of the department coordinator as teacher leader. This paper…

One town in a countywide school district wants to provide additional financial support for its students. The ensuing debate over governance, finance, and authority strains relationships across the county as multiple political actors and interest groups take sides. The school superintendent takes steps to provide a peaceful resolution to the issue,…

In this article, interviews with eight managers and questionnaires from 75 practitioners are analysed to explore their perceptions of the role of pacifiers (or dummies) within the nursery. Managers and practitioners source their knowledge from the media, family/friends, and short professional speech and language courses; however, their perceptions…

This article discusses the use of observation for reflective practice with older people, particularly the benefits and challenges of this learning tool. It outlines a study with 26 third-year Bachelor of Social Work students who undertook an elective course on reflective practice with older people. Using qualitative document analysis, the authors…

Power, powerlessness, and empowerment have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. Traditional applications of power tend to be autocratic and autocratic power continues to be accepted extensively in society. Increased use of alternative kinds of power is hindered by lack of skills, lack of opportunity for use, and inappropriate norms…

The central cause of the present sorry state of governance in many institutions is an historical misunderstanding as to the real nature of a college or university. Most institutions have inherited a formal organizational structure founded on the concept of hierarchy, a concept that is totally unsuitable to the needs of an institution of higher…

This article analyzes Dale's attempt to reconstruct a classical version of Marxist ideology and finds its onesided. Dale replies in an immediately following article. (MT)

Examined the effects of organizational context on subordinates' use of power tactics in upward influence attempts. Subjects (N=36) were assigned one of two forms of an organizational scenario. Results showed respondents to the positive scenario were more likely to choose rational power tactics over political power tactics. (JAC)

This research examines the following hypotheses: (1) that members of organizations with low power have one of four ways of balancing power as a preferred power-balancing style, (2) that such styles have biographical correlates, and (3) that certain styles will be overrepresented in organizations. (Author)

Examines the utilization of staff conferences within the large industrial organization and finds that for the 680 supervisors and managers surveyed, hierarchy of authority is strongly related to staff conference utilization; while contingency exposure is found to be only weakly related to holding staff conferences. (Author/JH)