This commentary focuses on the challenging views and creative insights inspired by the four articles in this special issue of the journal. The studies have integrated creativity research with social psychological and cultural perspectives. I have highlighted the unique contribution of how Karwowski, Tanggaard, Glaveanu, and Hennessey have each…

This paper employs the innovative method of Elicited Metaphor Analysis to present original research in Malaysia into students' metaphors for 'language'. We summarize reasons why language and first/ second language learning are centrally important in education, and show patterned features of language metaphors in proverbs and in teacher talk about…

In this article we critically evaluate the case made by proponents of academic language (AL) that AL is functionally necessary for schooling due to specific functional advantages of AL. We consider three examples of AL introduced by AL proponents in order to show (1) that AL proponents have been too quick to accept the ALH, (2) that functional…

Although studying teachers' online interactions has gained momentum in recent years, little is known about interactional development in online communities. The present study addressed this gap by exploring discursive change in second language teachers' interactions in an online professional development (PD) course structured around mobile phone…

Despite growing interest in the studies on Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), its operation in the forms of individualized and group-wide has been controversial. To cast some empirical light on the issue, this study was designed to study the applicability of the two scenarios of ZPD-based instructions to the writing accuracy of two levels of…

Deficit language concerning historically marginalized students pervades much of education today. Black, Brown, and Indigenous children experience marginalization and dehumanizing practices in classrooms instead of participating in a safe space to learn and grow. For this paper we employ a crucial component from Critical Race Theory to address…

This article analyzes the processes and findings of a collaborative action research (CAR) project that aimed to analyze the potential of materiality to radically transform the way English was taught and learned in an underprivileged public school in Spain. The CAR drew on "new materialisms" and "new literacy studies" to explore…

This article examines the promotion of lifelong learning (LLL) in Singapore through a new national initiative known as the SkillsFuture movement. It is argued that the attainment of LLL is confronted with three key challenges, the first being the sociocultural preference for academic rather than vocational education in Singapore. Secondly, there…

This work of critical social theory explores how formal music education in modern capitalist societies mirrors the hierarchical, means-ends, one-dimensional structures of capitalism. So, rather than consistently or reliably empowering and emancipating children musically, school music can tend to marginalize, exploit, repress, and alienate. The…

At the heart of "Rethinking the 'Adolescent' in Adolescent Literacy" is a call to English language arts teachers to examine the very assumptions of adolescence they may be operating from in order to reimagine new possibilities for engaging students with the English curriculum. Relying on a sociocultural view of adolescence established by…

Many higher education scholars, policy makers, and practitioners continue to ignore the intersections of race and gender when focusing on campus sexual assault (CSA) for the undergraduate student population. This race-evasive approach contributes to incomplete and inaccurate understandings about the ways Women of Color students experience CSA.…

Art educators have been promoting Community-Based Art Education (CBAE) in schools in order to enhance students' sense of socio-cultural identity and contextual learning about local art and culture. It cannot only bridge the gap between the students' daily lives and the communities and art, but can also enhance their inquiry, discovery and…

Learner autonomy has been a focus of research for last more than three decades. Teachers are considered a potential instrument in bringing change but their role, however, received little space which is observed recently, particularly in developing learner autonomy in language classrooms. This paper examines the beliefs of Pakistani English…

Assessment for learning (AfL) is integral to teaching and learning, and has as its central foci (i) pedagogical intervention in the immediacy of student learning, and (ii) the students' agency in the learning and assessment process. The role that students adopt in AfL is consistent with the idea of self-regulated learning, which involves students…

This questionnaire study examined the beliefs, practices and constraints related to learner autonomy reported by 359 teachers (mainly expatriate) working on an English Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) at a university in Saudi Arabia. The teachers associated learner autonomy primarily with notions of independence and control and saw it as the…