This article considers the role that the examination of text plays in empirical language policy research. It begins by examining the state-of-the-art in language policy, observing that a core focus on action represents a shared characteristic of the various strands of discursive and ethnographic research over the last two decades. That is, the…

Against the backdrop of growing sociolinguistic interest in transnationalism, this paper uses the notion of "scale" as an "ideological project" (Irvine in "Scale. Discourse and dimensions of social life," University of California Press, California, 2016: 214) to study situated discursive performances of…

In this article, I offer a reflexive auto-ethnography to revisit questions about knowledge and research practices in international contexts, influenced differently by aspects of globalization. Specifically, I position my experience of the Vanuatu research moratorium on "foreign" researchers of 2013/2014 as a lynchpin to analyse and…

This article explores the relationship between travelling education policies and a 2008 Mexican high-school reform from the perspective of Mexican educators. Using an ethnographic approach, consisting of interviews, classroom and community observations, and document analysis, study findings show that the educators participating in this study…

The last two decades have seen the emergence of a global education paradigm that has reimagined education through the lens of neo-liberal ideology. Education policy agendas and discourses in current times are globally governed through transnational networks, which have increased the opaqueness of education policymaking. For critical policy…

Utilizing "assemblage," a notion associated with Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we explore what discourses of transparency can, and cannot, accomplish in a network of education reform that includes schools, government agencies, and community organizations. Drawing on data collected between July 2011 and March 2013 in an…

In the wake of the enactment of Sweden's Language Act in 2009 and in the face of the growing presence of English, Swedish universities have been called upon by the Swedish Higher Education Authority to craft their own language policy documents. This study focuses on the discursive negotiation of institutional bilingualism by a language policy…

The increasing use of zero tolerance discipline policies in the USA has led to a "discipline gap," in which minoritized students receive harsher and more frequent suspensions and expulsions than their peers from dominant cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Though disciplinary decisions are made by educators at the school level,…

This paper addresses the ideal of "citizenship" in the US and how particular meanings of history, culture, and language are encoded in government policy and practice. The US government (Citizenship and Immigration Services) presents citizenship as a commitment to shared knowledge and values, and it requires applicants to possess…

This dissertation studies the creation and implementation of service learning policy and the implications of these programs for democratic citizenship and political participation. The project focuses on service learning centers at three universities in the Los Angeles area, framing the creation and implementation of these campus-wide centers as an…

This article relates key findings from an ethnographic study into the implementation of the Rights-Based Approach in Tanzania. The Rights-Based Approach is a burgeoning approach in international development that emphasises the rights of citizens and the duties of the State to provide services to the poor. By using the theoretical frameworks of…