This critical duoethnography takes silence in classroom discussions as a sociocultural artifact that reveals the norms of the society that upholds it. In this research, we made visible and explored the content of silence we experienced as international graduate students. We found that repeated patterns of silence in classroom discussions acted to…

This paper gives an account of the history of foreign language values in Sweden from the seventeenth century to the present. The paper is informed by sociocultural standpoints on language and language learning according to which language is a dynamic tool that is appropriated by individuals to achieve particular purposes, and that dialogically…

Schools that achieve strong results for black students address racial dynamics directly, empower students to bring their whole selves to school, and teach in ways that leverage students' experiences and cultures. These schools do four things to ensure success with their black students: They direct attention, strategies, and resources to black…

There is a burgeoning interfaith movement in U.S. higher education, inspired, in large part, by global events, and aimed at promoting tolerance of religious diversity. While there are various supporting arguments and approaches to this type of student programming, social justice oriented approaches--that is, approaches specifically centered around…

This article offers a critical interpretation of the current trends in instructional models for English language learners in California. We review key instructional models and analyze them from traditional (teacher-centered), progressive (student-centered), and critical orientations (society- and power-centered). These instructional models share…

In this article, we explore the meanings of literacy, and more specifically of reading, in the Mexican context from a sociocultural perspective and as a social practice, underlining the technologies, competence, knowledge, beliefs, and values that permeate literacy use. We consider the historical, cultural, and multilingual specificities of…

Far from following a linear process from its conception to its implementation, an educational design often involves discrepancies between what its promoters intended and what the participants actually do. In this paper, drawing from a sociocultural perspective to learning, we focus our attention precisely on some of the discrepancies observed…

The present article offers a reflection on creativity and creative pedagogy emerging out of an ongoing dialogue between three authors placed in two very different sociocultural contexts--Denmark and Colombia. Despite obvious geographical, economic, and cultural differences, similar concerns animate our practice when it comes to the question of…

This article considers how diplomacy can be refined and amplified within the field of multicultural education. Focusing on Native American peoples in particular, I argue that the multiculturalist emphasis on cultural diplomacy overlooks the political difference of First Nations peoples. In contrast to a multiculturalist cultural diplomacy, the…

The "purpose" of this article is to illustrate how potential learning is related to hegemonic speech genres. This we do through examples from two religious education (RE) classrooms, one Norwegian and one Swedish. By presenting important dimensions of speech genres used in RE classrooms, the article also contributes to developing theory.…

Thayer-Bacon uses this opportunity to further explore Ranciere's ideas concerning equality as described in "The Ignorant Schoolmaster" and their connection to democracy, as he explains in "Hatred of Democracy". For Ranciere, intelligence and equality are synonymous terms, just as reason and will are synonymous terms. Ranciere recommends the only…

Perhaps more extensively and provocatively than any other contemporary theorist, Henry Giroux has theorized the relationship between youth and democratic public life. Beginning arguably with his first book, Ideology, Culture, and the Process of Schooling (Temple University Press, 1981), and continuing across a number of critically acclaimed works…

Studies on second language (L2) learners' strategies tended to characterize strategies as individual learners' cognitive predispositions or personality traits, leaving a critical question unanswered: Why do learners use different strategies in different contexts? From a sociocultural perspective, this article pursued this question by focusing on…

This article calls for an examination of identity and difference from a sociocultural perspective in art therapy theory and practice. Identity markers such as race, class, gender, and sexuality have tended to be seen in isolation and in ways that hamper the ability to understand and theorize difference. In constructing knowledge and in advancing…

The strategic goal of the long-range social and economic development of the Russian Federation is that of rising to an economic and social level in keeping with Russia's status as a leading world power in the 21st century, a country that occupies an advanced position in the global economic competition and reliably provides for the nation's…