Development of skills for the critical analysis of media texts--an important task of media education. However, media literacy practice shows that students have the problems with the discussion/analysis of entertainment genres in the early stages of media studies, for example, the difficulties in the process of understanding and interpreting the…

This paper begins with a brief discussion of aesthetic theory, especially as it relates to art education. Then, to see how theory may apply to practice, it describes an investigation into the manner in which encounters with artworks unfold, how meanings are constructed and values articulated, based on the study of four volunteers' interactions…

Glaserian grounded theory methodology, which has been widely adopted as a scientific methodology in recent decades, has been variously characterised as "hermeneutic" and "positivist." This commentary therefore takes a different approach to characterising grounded theory by undertaking a comprehensive analysis of: (a) the philosophical paradigms of…

Dempsey has provided a commentary on our study (Carter, Stephenson, & Strnadova, 2011) examining the reported rates of use of instructional practices by Australian special educators. Examining this commentary, it is evident that on many issues we are on the same page and agree on many of the fundamental conclusions to be drawn from the study.…

This article asks what applied linguistics can learn from related disciplines with regard to the collection, analysis and representation of qualitative interviews. It assesses the contributions of qualitative sociology, anthropology, discursive psychology and outlines four "discourse dilemmas" which might provide the basis for a more critical and…

According to Alasdair MacIntyre's influential account of practices, "teaching itself is not a practice, but a set of skills and habits put to the service of a variety of practices" (MacIntyre and Dunne, 2002, p. 5). Various philosophers of education have responded to and critiqued MacIntyre's position, most notably in a Special Issue of the…

The present article offers a commentary and critique of the research presented by J. Owen, M. M. Leach, B. Wampold and E. Rodolfa (2011). Given the complexity of the research methodology, findings, and conclusions, the authors provide a concise summary of findings, study limitations, and conclusions followed by a detailed critique of the study.…

The academic study of youth culture has changed markedly in the past two decades. The early 1990s saw a "cultural turn" as the sociological focus moved from "institutional and structural features of society to the study of culture". Andy Bennett begins this article with a critical evaluation of the "cultural turn" and its impact on the field of…

There is a set of people in China's cyberspace today that is called "angry youth." Angry youth, to put it nicely, are young people who are angry about something. Young people are often angry. As they enter society, they find innumerable obstacles in their way, such as, experts and specialists, rules and regulations, seniority and orders…

Psychotherapy for clients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is different to therapy with most clients because these clients are multiple, comprising one or more host, and one or more alter personalities. The necessary components to be addressed in order that clients can live successfully either as a multiple or as an integrated person are…

In this commentary, we critically review the contribution of the sociologist Erving Goffman (1922-1982) to understanding recovery from problem drug use. Previous research has indicated that drug users have a "spoiled identity" and must restore a "normal" or "unspoiled" identity in order to recover. This argument has been linked to Goffman's…

This article responds to an article by A. Gupta, D. Hammer, and E. F. Redish (2010) that asserts that M. T. H. Chi's (1992, 2005) hypothesis of an "ontological commitment" in conceptual development is fundamentally flawed. In this article, I argue that Chi's theoretical perspective is still very much intact and that the critique offered by Gupta…

Hannah Arendt's critique of education in 1950s USA provides an important way of understanding the development of citizenship education. Her theory on the nature of childhood and her concepts of natality and authority give insight into both the directions of current policies and practices, and the possible future states into which these elements…

In 1999, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) convened a national task force to draft Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. ACRL has recently launched a revision to those standards. The original standards were influential because they helped advance a national need in higher education at the time: a…

This paper explores what might be seen as a paradox at the heart of the current push to "globalize" education: at a moment when administrators, especially in higher education, are seeking to globalize their programs (often for reasons having to do with increasing international competition and decreasing funding for education), global…