Trickle-down economics is a fallacious metaphor that hurts working people and the civic commons. In this paper, we discuss the role and impact metaphors have in economics education. We explore the stickiness of "truthy" but ultimately false metaphors and offer economics educators alternative metaphors to displace this problematic…

This study consists of a categorisation of the vocabulary of chemistry, focusing on the terminological difficulties students face when learning this subject. Therefore, this classification intends to provide chemistry teachers an awareness of the language barriers students must overcome in their understanding of this scientific discipline. Two…

Metaphors are not only an inherent element of culture, but also powerful tools of thinking. In the paper analysis of metaphors used in theoretical stances, research outcomes reports, depicting world of adult education practice in Poland are discussed. First, a short review of theories of metaphor is presented. Then, the role metaphors can play in…

This paper begins by exploring the anti-colonial work of Tunisian scholar Albert Memmi in his classic book "The Colonizer and the Colonized" and determining whether the characteristics of colonization that he names can be successfully applied to the current relationship between modern humans and the "natural world". After…

In this commentary, the author presents his thoughts on two papers appearing in this special issue. The first, "The Importance of Language in Students' Reasoning about Heat in Thermodynamic Processes," by David T. Brookes and Eugenia Etkina (See: EJ1060728), and the second, "Varying Use of Conceptual Metaphors Across Levels of…

This article takes "measurement" as a will to determine or fix space and time, which allows for a comparison of ontological models of space and time from Western and Maori traditions. The spirit of "measurement" is concomitantly one of fixing meaning, which is suggested as the essence of the growth of the scientific genre of…

In this article, the author demonstrates how a Bourdieusian analysis of poetic transcriptions offers great potential for helping teachers and students to understand how they are responding to state policy mandates in schools. Specifically, the author uses Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital, and habitus to analyze two poetic transcriptions,…

Discussions of multilingualism in education, as exemplified by the articles in this issue, can be critically reevaluated using perspectives available from poststructuralism. These perspectives focus on the potential ambiguity of language and language practices. This, in turn, encourages us to question simple notions of the relationship of learners…

Some students enter the world of mathematics with a disadvantage. The authors explored the causes for this from a language-processing perspective. They were particularly concerned with students with potential learning disabilities or specific language impairments. They also explored the role of language-mediated instruction in creating an…

Numerous commentators argue that the worldwide use of English in education is an important outcome of colonialism. While accepting that there is much truth in this general conclusion, the present authors also recognize an irony. In too few cases do commentators base their arguments on historical evidence; in too many, they treat colonialism as an…

A comparison of the linguistic contexts of Scotland and Taiwan focuses on three aspects: (1) existence of two linguistic codes belonging to the same language family; (2) the status of one of those languages as the standard set by a larger, more powerful neighbor from whose perspective any other variety is likely to look like a dialect; and (3) the…