The practice of advising bilingual parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to speak in a single language, often the majority language of the region, with their child with ASD seems to be common. Such advice, however, is not grounded on empirical evidence but appears to be based more on logical arguments and assumptions. In this…

In this ambitious issue, the reader is treated to an eclectic array of approaches to a pressing topic--How should educators consider the diversity of immigrant student experiences? With 1 in 4 students in classrooms coming from an immigrant-headed family, how should teachers be thinking about that student experience? Given that very few teachers…

This article explores why we need to be intentional about the literature we explore in our English language arts classrooms. It explores the question of what literature should be considered and strategies for using democratic practices in support of literature circles. It also reinforces the importance of collaborative practitioner research to…

This article offers the concept of critical professional praxis as a framework for naming and addressing difference-neutral practices in education (an approach that does not consider the effects of power and privilege associated with social differences in teachers' beliefs, ideas, and actions). Critical professional praxis is using both formal and…

As a response to the 2013 special issue of "Discourse" on marketisation and equity in education, this paper suggests it is important to understand how school sectors (independent, Catholic and government) continue to play a significant role in how we constitute education, markets and equity in Australia. The first part of this paper…

For the 25th anniversary issue of "English Teaching Forum," published in 1987, the author wrote about the diversification of the language teaching field. Her point then was that during the preceding years from 1962 to 1987, the language teaching field had diversified: Where earlier there had been a unified approach to language teaching, by 1987,…

Those who teach literacy usually accept the idea that reading, writing, and study strategies are developmental. Youngsters develop their literacy from birth on, and, to some teachers, dividing literacy education into steadfast designations such as early childhood, elementary, middle, secondary, and college learning (which may have pragmatic value)…

Bloom and Webinger (2011) present an intuitively agreeable proposition: embedding topics within an engaging and meaningful context can promote many desirable learning behaviours and outcomes. As instructors, Fred Phillips, Nathalie Johnstone, and Brandy Mackintosh have seen this play out many times in their classrooms. Thus, in a sense, they were…

This essay presents the theoretical framework and main results of a research on intercultural mediation which has been performed in eight multicultural classrooms of Italian secondary schools. Intercultural mediation is conceived as a form of dialogic communication which should empower empathic and equal relationships between the participants by…

In this article the author tells the story of her experiences with a high school U.S. literature class composed of English language learners (ELLs). The students were from a variety of nations and cultures, spoke several different languages, and had a wide range of English proficiency levels. During their time together, the author and students…

In "The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education," Cochran-Smith and Zeichner's (2005) review of studies in the field of teacher education revealed that many studies lacked theoretical and conceptual grounding. The author argues that Derrick Bell's (1980) interest convergence, a principle of critical race theory, can be used as…

If we are to fully understand and adequately respond to the multicultural question in European education, it is necessary to develop rich empirical descriptions and theoretically rigorous explanations of policy processes and effects. For example, we need to be able to characterise and explain the differentiated ways in which education policies and…

On May 21, 2005, President George W. Bush delivered the commencement address at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As candidate and as president, George W. Bush had developed a reputation for paying close attention to the concerns of the conservative evangelical Protestants who cement his political base. Few institutions of higher learning…

This article is intended to aggressively stimulate provocative ideas about educational practices. In a time when the status quo is easier and more cost effective to maintain in public schools, Dr. Fenwick English attacks these views with a postmodern challenge. It is time for school leaders to consider more than one solution to the problems they…

Growing concerns about retention and attrition rates in a mass and increasingly marketised higher education system have encouraged the idea that "meeting learner needs" should be a key focus for institutional attention. It is suggested that this approach is unrealistic, however, because of the extent of the diversity which it attempts to…