Although systemic reform seems to be a broadly accepted framework for educational change, concrete reform projects still face the uncertainty of how to meet the necessary requirements. This paper considers the case of a curriculum reform process in primary mathematics education that has a focus on the involvement and influence of parents. The data…

The expression of surprise--at something unexpected--is a key form of emotional display. Focusing on displays of surprise performed by means of reaction tokens (akin to Goffman's "response cries"), such as "wow, gosh, oh my god, ooh!, phew," we use an ethnomethodological, conversation-analytic approach to analyze surprise in talk-in-interaction.…

More and more companies now rely on the benefits of e-mail communication as a means of ensuring customer service. To date, very few publications have explored the role of this medium in the establishment of an interpersonal relationship between customer and company. In a descriptive study, the e-mail replies of producers were investigated with…

Disciplinary variation in academic writing has been explored for the most part by comparing a particular genre, such as the research article, across different disciplines. However, genre theorists have not systematically studied relationships among related genres. It is argued in this article that a study of relationships among related genres from…

The moral panic concerning "boys' underachievement" is well established in the UK and Australia, and is spreading to other countries. Feminists have articulated concerns that this debate has reflected a "poor boys'" discourse with negative permutations for girls' schooling; and there is much evidence to support this claim.…

Previous researchers have found it challenging to disentangle the memory and language capabilities of the famous amnesic patient H. M. Here, we present an original linguistic analysis of H. M. based on empirical data drawing upon novel spoken discourse with him. The results did not uncover the language deficits noted previously. Instead, H. M.'s…

Classicist Steven J. Willett is amazed at the president of the Philological Association, who wants to abandon the "metanarrative" that has always supported our culture. Apparently, the Greek and Roman origins of Western thought are merely an "old story that won't work any longer." Professor Willett's answer to this is a stinging indictment of the…

Composition theory is unique in that it attempts to take student voices and identities seriously, to incorporate them into the very fabric of the class, the research, the conversations. In order to accomplish this, teachers must continually ask difficult questions about themselves, their pedagogy, and their responses to student writing, even if…

This article presents a rejoinder on the commentaries of the authors' article titled, "The Idea of Testing: Psychometric and Sociocultural Perspectives." In different ways, each commentary has made a productive contribution to a multidisciplinary dialogue about educational assessment. The authors acknowledge that dialogue across disciplinary…

The research involved examining the nature of the transition that students experienced in progressing to junior high school from primary school. Students' experiences were chosen as the focus of the research because the issue of substance being investigated was that of alienation. The main methodology that was used was the qualitative procedure of…

With its recent entry into the European Union (EU) and the adoption of multiethnic democracy as a national policy, a key challenge for Poland is to transform its education policy and practice in ways that are consistent with multicultural and pluralist values. This paper examines Poland's efforts to address these issues by exploring changes in the…

This case study investigates the media discourse from Houma and Pointe-au-Chien tribal leaders in Louisiana on their experiences with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One section briefly engages the discourse as discernable from the reports found in Native American and non-Native American news media. Included is a brief yet close examination of these…

Recent research of student writing has included a few studies of the statement of purpose submitted as part of the admission process to programs of study, which have indicated variations in expectations by disciplinary gatekeepers. These studies indicate a need for further study of statements of purpose submitted to different departments, informed…

The present ethnographic case study investigates how the identities of immigrant minority pupils are constructed in a multicultural classroom in a Flemish primary school. From the analysis of the class teacher's discourse, it emerges that both Flemish native pupils' identities and those of immigrant minority pupils are constructed as homogeneous:…

This article reports on key aspects of a theory generative study into social presence in text-based online learning environments. The focus of the article is the nature of social presence as experienced by online learners in those environments. Employing a collective case study design, the study accessed online learners' experience-based heuristic…