The influence of policy texts upon learners depends largely on how much influence such texts wield. Policy discourses are one of the main means whereby policy texts, in the settings in which they operate, influence the value, the implementation and the inscribing of those texts on learners. The Economic and Social Research Council-based research…

Reflexivity is a professional requirement of the Adult Guidance Counsellor, with reflexive practice paramount to our work. From 2008 to 2010 I trained as an Adult Guidance Counsellor while working with an unemployed adult client group. During this time, I also journeyed through my first pregnancy. Towards the end of my training, I experienced a…

The aim of this article is to present the findings from a small exploratory case study of an open course on cyberpunk literature conducted at the Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU), an online grass-roots organisation that runs non-accredited courses. Employing actor network theory to inform an ethnographic-inductive approach, the case study sought to…

When groups form, they develop their own culture from the shared meaning created from their interactions. Humor is part of every social group, and when repeatedly referenced, it forms a joking culture. The joking culture of small groups influences group processes by smoothing group interaction, forming a collective identity, separating the group…

This article focuses on how issues of power and identity were negotiated when doing a critical sociolinguistic ethnography as a Spanish researcher in the Chinese educational context. Data come from fieldwork conducted in 3 different primary and secondary schools together in Zhejiang province, where inside- and outside-classroom…

It has become increasingly common for education scholars to claim a social justice orientation in their work. At the same time, education programs seem to be adding statements about the importance of social justice to their mission, and a growing number of teacher education programs are fundamentally oriented around a vision of social justice.…

Increasingly social scientists, including education theorists, find themselves having to fight an almost invisible racism that is masked by the racist undertones of the dominant discourse and practice of colorblindness. A continuous emphasis on colorblindness gives precedence to the role of race, diverting attention away from other forms of…

Our ethnography focuses on an urban community change organization within a predominantly African American and Latino population. Latino Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Theory help us understand the Spanish speakers' positioning and how particularities of Latinas/os' experience challenged power relations and group cohesion. Our findings…

Using the emancipatory research paradigm as a conceptual framework, this autoethnography reflects upon participant and researcher relationships within a larger qualitative research study that involved participants labeled "other". Issues relating to fear of the "other", building reciprocal relationships, and who gains from the research are…

This article draws on the articulation of a value for reflexivity that has accumulated within qualitative methods debates in the past decade. It demonstrates how reflexivity is interwoven with the concept of ethical mindfulness. The argument has developed from a consideration of the ethical dilemmas that were a salient aspect of an ongoing…

Using a sociohistoric developmental lens, this paper traces the construction of texts composed by fifth graders in an urban classroom in order to answer the following questions: How do children develop as writers in school? How do writing and drawing function in children's texts? How do teaching practices shape children's writing development?…

Interactive read alouds are important learning opportunities for emergent readers because teachers and peers can actively model and scaffold comprehension strategies, engage readers, and cultivate a community of learners. Using data from a 9 month ethnographic study in an urban kindergarten classroom, this article describes how the teacher's…

Sun protection is not commonly perceived as an important issue by adolescents yet this behaviour would, if adopted, confer significant lifelong protection against skin cancer. Despite the world's highest skin cancer rates, Australia remains a culture which values sun seeking, tanning and outdoor activities. This qualitative study used ethnographic…

Investigations of Chinese students and their approaches to learning have emphasised a dichotomy in "western" and "Confucian" approaches to education but in a longitudinal study of Chinese postgraduate students' academic adjustment to a British university the dichotomy is less than real. The focus of this research was on an…

This study examined the perceptions of three Muslim families on multilingual development in their children with autism. Findings indicate that the families' goal of maintaining normalcy in their children's life could not be attained without immersion in multiple languages. They believe that immersion in multilingual contexts helped their children…