This paper responds to some recent discussions in the Journal about how interview data can be used. While recognising the value of detailed analysis of the discourse employed in interviews to identify its formal features, it is argued that such analysis is not essential for all the purposes for which interview data can be employed in social…

"Remedial Trap." "Bridge to Nowhere." "Completion Divide." Such language used to describe the field of Developmental Education (DE), especially by those outside the field, is undeniably deficit oriented. In this manuscript, we initiate a dialog that critiques such portrayals of DE, particularly those that appear in…

Over the years neoliberal ideology and discourse have become intricately connected to making science people. Science educators work within a complicated paradox where they are obligated to meet neoliberal demands that reinscribe dominant, hegemonic assumptions for producing a scientific workforce. Whether it is the discourse of school science,…

For many years, research epistemologies and methodologies have been influenced by colonial perspectives in knowledge production. The focus of this article is to discuss ways in which research can be transformed for the purpose of including marginalized communities, such as Indigenous communities, whose knowledge has been systematically excluded in…

This article reflects on the epistemological steamrolling that the 2021 Ofsted Curriculum Research Review (OCRR) accomplishes: in part, by the positioning of the problem and solution through highly selective cherry-picking (omitting key causal factors); in part, through the discursive move of acknowledging complexity before offering simple and…

As reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards, concerns about the adequacy of education and career preparation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have led to fundamental shifts in the focus of K-12 science education. Such shifts are also highlighted in many of the articles within this special issue, and the…

Reverend Father Professor Amechi Nicholas Akwanya is one of the towering scholars of literature in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. For decades, and still counting, Fr. Prof. Akwanya has worked arduously, professing literature by way of teaching, researching, and writing in the Department of English and Literary Studies of the University of…

This article addresses the controversy surrounding the Safe Schools Coalition Australia. Certain politicians and media commentators have accused the initiative of harming the students it ostensibly aims to benefit. Those accusations have, in turn, been labelled 'homophobic' by supporters of the Coalition. This article suggests that the term…

In this paper, I offer a critique of "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" (NRC, 2012) and of the "Next Generation Science Standards" (Achieve, 2013). While the new version of the science education standards and the arguments put forward to support them are an improvement…

Dialogue might be the most appropriate medium for reflections on translingualism. In a dialogue conducted by email over the course of ten days, Steven G. Kellman and Ilan Stavans consider the validity and implications of linguistic determinism. Their conversation examines whether some words that seem to embody the unique "Weltanschaaung"…

To an unreconstructed cognitivist with experience of developing General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations and national tests in mathematics, the three papers which provide the core of this special issue (Morgan & Sfard; Morgan, Morgan & Tang) provided a refreshing opportunity to consider examination items from a…

In this interview, Vijay Bhatia freely reflects on his personal experiences, perceptions, and views about the development of Genre Analysis in the early eighties towards Critical Genre Analysis today. He offers his impressions about how professionals construct, interpret, use and often exploit generic resources in their everyday practice to meet…

In December of 2010, blogger Michael Fischer created Common CoreZilla as a referent to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and as a forum to talk about teachers' fears regarding curricular change and new regulatory requirements. "Common CoreZilla" has served as both an icon of terror and a promise of manageability, yet, despite…

Educational discourse, particularly since the advent of recent educational reform initiatives, has become saturated with a discourse of "high expectations." One can hardly hope to hold a conversation regarding the problems facing American schools without someone innocently remarking that of course students need to be held to "high…

This is a reflexive account of my experiences teaching online and blended doctoral research methodology courses and seminars. Vacillating between skepticism and affirmation, my thoughts mirror the many issues that arise from my daily professional practice and from what I have discovered in my quest to better understand the nature and workings of…