Authors of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) adolescent novels have recently moved away from addressing the "problem" of sexual identity and have instead focused on personal and societal "acceptance" of non-normative sexualities. Within the increasing number of "acceptance" titles published depicting gay males,…

Taking broadly sociocultural or sociolinguistic perspectives, the five contributions to this special issue investigate various aspects of the co-construction of knowledge, as this is manifested in K-16 classrooms in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While the authors of these papers address different educational settings, student…

This paper uses methods from conversation analysis to investigate a well-documented practice from mundane conversation (self-initiated self-repair) as it is accomplished during the interactions of one adult learner of English. The interactions took place during her classroom talk-in-interaction over the course of 18 months. The research describes…

A new generation of networked classroom technology immerses students and teachers in the group-level construction of powerful mathematical and scientific concepts. We examine these networks from a sociocultural point of view as a new form of mediating artifact. We present a mixed-method, microgenetic analysis to characterize students'…

P. M. Greenfield's new theory of social change and human development aims to show how changing sociodemographic ecologies alter cultural values and learning environments and thereby shift developmental pathways. Worldwide sociodemographic trends include movement from rural residence, informal education at home, subsistence economy, and…

Few studies on English language learners (ELLs) focus on teachers' perceptions of bilingualism and bidialectalism and describe the impact of those perceptions on language arts pedagogy. While numerous studies have explored the teaching of diverse students and the negative effects of standardized tests on the quality instruction these students…

The game SO LONG SUCKER was designed in the United States in 1964 with the aim of showing how potentially unethical behavior necessary for winning was inherent in the game's incentive structure. Sessions with East Asian participants, however, led to very different game dynamics in which collaborative rather than antagonistic behaviors occurred.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate socio-cultural factors underpinning curriculum change by examining teacher beliefs in the context of professional development. Scottish teachers in the study were participating in policy implementation based on formative assessment. Teachers were selected who were positive about the formative assessment…

This discussion emphasizes the importance of collaborative learning methods to compensate for the legal restrictions placed on school districts by Arizona's anti-bilingual education law, Proposition 203. Grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of learning, peerlingual education is described as an invaluable resource based on the linguistic…

It is estimated that more than 12 million children in India under the age of 14 engage in paid labor at least part time, due mostly to economic reasons. Dominant discourses about childhood however conceptualize childhood labor not only as unethical but as exploitation. This article explored the tensions between Western notions of childhood…

As a professor in a graduate program in college student affairs, the author thinks of herself as an expert on the college experience. For the past 12 years, she has taught courses and conducted research on college students, their learning and development, the campus environment, and trends in higher education. Like any good scholar, she makes it a…

We analyse the implementation of a new New Zealand physics curriculum from a socio-cultural perspective. We explore the development of the curriculum document and examine the obstacles to its implementation. Change was compromised by the lack of any intersubjective linkage between teachers and the curriculum designers. The teachers' own community…

The paper presents a new way of understanding and investigating inter-professional learning across agencies for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in schools in England. It considers specifically speech and language therapy staff and school staff learning to work together and working to learn together in…

This article presents two essays that focus on the challenges presented by students' self-disclosures in their writing. The authors have read each other's essays and provided their brief responses. This cross talk between the writers continues, in a more deliberate way, the cross talk generated by their essays.

The aims of this article are to address how learning is constituted and can be studied as a phenomenon in interaction and to discuss how teaching and learning are related. Theoretically, the article argues for and discusses constraints and affordances for relating sociocultural understandings of learning as changing participation to "conversation…