As language technologies have become more sophisticated and prevalent, there have been increasing concerns about bias in natural language processing (NLP). Such work often focuses on the effects of bias instead of sources. In contrast, this paper discusses how normative language assumptions and ideologies influence a range of automated language…

Both Seychelles and South Africa are experiencing serious challenges with regard to providing for the need to employ the required number and quality of teachers -- needs that are differentiated according to specific areas of competencies. In the paper, it is argued that each of the education systems of these two countries should have a…

Today students confront more than writing, reading, and arithmetic in school. Students witness and participate in various forms of bullying at an alarming rate. As educators we must help create an environment that is conducive for all students to learn, and to fully understand and address the problem of bullying in the schools, we must first…

Located in the Republic of Ireland, and drawing on "figured worlds theory" (Holland et al. 1998), the focus of this paper relates to the shaping of positional identities among a cohort of novice elementary teachers, during their initial year of workplace practice, post-graduation. The concept of "figured worlds" helps make…

The construction of multi-link causal reasoning chains was investigated in 24 collaborative discussions involving 160 underserved fifth-grade children. The effects of group features and individual characteristics on seven causal chain models were tracked in the discussions. Children's basic English proficiency, talkativeness, and perceived…

Against the backdrop of the historical 2008 presidential election, I discuss the ways that the election of marginalized group members to public office can be used to silence the discourse on the social marginalization of group members and to remove these analyses from their appropriate context. I emphasize the need to materialize alternatives to…

Quality education aims at the full participation by all learners. This requires identifying the strategies for overcoming the barriers to full participation for individuals and groups, which experience discrimination and marginalisation. Social inclusion is strengthened when hitherto uncovered and excluded population is brought into the mainstream…

The study investigates educated Arab's preference for using foreign words in Arabic oral discourse. A corpus of commonly used English/French words was collected. A sample of language and translation students and faculty was tested and surveyed to find out whether they were familiar with the Arabic equivalents to foreign words commonly used,…

This study explored relational schemas in children's friendships. A total of 96 children (45 males and 51 females from grades 3, 4, and 5) from an urban elementary school in the northeast participated in both phases of the study. During phase 1, children completed a series of sociometric measures: (1) peer liking nominations; (2) peer disliking…

The study examined social status as determined by conceptions of friendships, perceptions of social competencies, and behavior in school in 23 learning disabled (LD) Caucasian boys, 8-11 years old; 23 nonLD controls matched for age, sex, race, IQ, socioeconomic status, and homeroom; and 141 nonLD children both boys and girls, in the third grade…

In Sundanese, a western Austronesian language, speech levels allow the speaker to establish social identity through talk alone, using multiple linguistic forms with very different pragmatic meanings. These words are deference and demeanor indexicals, as in the French formal versus informal second person. It is argued that although they do exist,…

Two theories about the effects of industrialization on an individual's attainment of social, educational, and occupational status are examined in this study of 12 Japanese regions in varying stages of development. The first, the theory of industrialism, suggests that as development occurs, the attainment of educational and occupational status…

This paper discusses the concept of equality and its role in the politics and economics of distributing social goods, costs, authority, and value. Specifically addressed is the question of who is to be made equal to whom. Various definitions to be considered in answering this question are examined: (1) simple subject-regarding equality; (2)…

The primary purpose of this study was to compare, from a social/cognitive perspective, computer free play with more traditional preschool free play. Secondary objectives were to find out whether there were gender differences in the duration and type of computer play and whether receptive language differences or sociometric status affected the use…

Although studies have suggested that moods may affect motivation, the nature of these effects remains obscure. To clarify the relationship between mood and motivation, manipulated mood and self-reports of mood were related to paper-and-pencil ratings of motivational orientation. College students (N=70) in Happiness Induction and Sadness Induction…