Commitment is a complex attitude that is potentially influenced by the nature of the groups and is contingent on the context in which an individual functions. Thus, different sociocultural environments will prescribe different imperatives for individuals' or groups' attitudes toward their work, particularly teachers' commitment in a multi-ethnic…

While recognising the fact that historically teacher education and adolescent literacy are two fields that have had limited intellectual contact, the development of reading literacy is increasingly now accepted internationally as a core responsibility of all teachers and teacher educators. Adopting a socio-cultural perspective, this paper, drawn…

In this paper we initially address the main categories of Marxism, illustrating how Vygotsky has appropriated them as mediational meta-theoretical tools for building concepts for his psychological approach. In order to investigate the influence of Marxism in cultural studies of science education, we make an account of how current research,…

In this review essay we examine five categories of dialectical materialism proposed by Paulo Lima Junior, Fernanda Ostermann, and Flavia Rezende in their study of the extent to which the articles published in "Cultural Studies of Science Education," that use a Vygotskian approach, are committed to Marxism/dialectical materialism. By…

Practices of Biblical reading and interpretation are central to the literacy lives of those who call themselves evangelical Christians. More than one third of the U.S. population identifies as evangelical Christians, making evangelical Biblicism a pervasive and influential--if under-the-radar--literacy practice in U.S. life. Scholars of American…

This study investigates two Korean heritage language teachers' motivational practices in relation to their identity positioning as heritage language (HL) teachers. Constant-comparative analyses of teachers' interviews and classroom practices showed that the two teachers' identity positioning as HL teachers was partially shaped by their earlier…

Background: Effective co-practice is essential to deliver services for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). The necessary skills, knowledge and resources are distributed amongst professionals and agencies. Co-practice is complex and a number of barriers, such as "border disputes" and poor awareness of respective…

The research aims at exploring how macro and micro contextual factors have influenced on the construction of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' identity in education reform contexts in Chile based on sociocultural theories. Grounded theory was used in the methodological design to analyse and categorize data utilizing the ATLAS.ti…

Dynamic assessment (DA), having its theoretical base in Vygotskyan Sociocultural theory of mind, is a newly developed classroom assessment through which learners are helped to perform beyond their current ability. Drawing upon the theoretical aspect of DA, the present study explored the impact of DA on the development of speaking skills. To this…

Using sociocultural concepts of authoritative and dialogic discourse, I sought to examine 5th-grade teachers' questioning practices during small-group reading instruction to understand the differences between groups reading text on grade level and groups reading texts below grade level. The purpose was also to examine how questions functioned for…

English Language Learners (ELLs) are students who speak a language other than English; they are the fastest growing student population in United States' (US) public schools and will include over 17 million students by the year 2020 (NCES,2015). The dramatic increase in the ELL student population means that all mainstream classroom teachers will…

This paper outlines actions that educational change leaders can take to better meet their curriculum change obligations and responsibilities. In order to do this we extend Vygotsky's (1978) zonal theory and its many extensions and elaborations by positioning educational change leadership within this theory. We rename the zones to Zone of Principal…

This article tells the story of an attempt to bring about major educational reform of the curriculum and educational values in Kazakhstan, using action research as part of that process. The article begins with a brief and selective review of the literature on aspects of emotion and moves to an account of the context and history of the reforms,…

This study features the concept of "context" and how various macro, meso and micro features of the social system play themselves out in any setting. Using South Africa as an example, it explores the features that may constrain or enable professional development, quality teaching and the work of teaching and learning centres at eight…

The article presents experience of structuring and description of teachers' position in the process of forming socio-cultural identity of the person, detailed in regard to the process of formation of one of the subtypes of socio-cultural identity--Russian civil identity. We identified and described real subjective, nominally subjective and…