This study introduces performative identity as a lens for understanding student participation in discursive classroom routines and potentials for fostering student agency and enhanced learning. We argue that student negotiation of performative identities can facilitate productive transformations of individual and group trajectories. This study…

This paper studies high school classroom sequences, compiled through critical sociolinguistic ethnography, where norm-transgression is made explicit, and how authority is recovered by the teacher after an open period where class participants generally seize to digress. This way, we will be able to approach several dimensions of linguistic…

This paper examines the media coverage of the murder of a young Muslim girl in Mississauga, Ontario in December 2007. We examine how that coverage moved from concerns for a terrible family event to the use of the language of Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." We explore the nature of this exaggeration that occurs in times of…

We report an analysis of the language used by two instructors teaching two undergraduate mathematics classes that exhibited high student participation yet differed in their level of dialogical engagement. We focus on the way instructors' language contributes to opening or closing the opportunities for students' engagement with mathematical dialog,…

The development of transcripts is central to the work of many researchers yet questions of what and how researchers transcribe, and why, receive little attention in research literature. Conversation analysis is one research approach that has consistently addressed the integral relationship between theoretical and methodological perspectives,…

This study examines the effectiveness of using scholarly descriptions of inquiry-based teaching as a professional development strategy aimed at improving elementary teachers' social understandings (i.e., how teachers perceive their own and their students' social roles and relationships in the context of inquiry-based science instruction). The…

This paper is part of a larger project on teacher-student interaction and the contextual issues which shape them. It reported that the reticence of English majors is caused by the communicative environment that the teachers create in their interactions with their students. The data were collected through observations, audio- and videotaping, and…

The recent publication of "The New Zealand Curriculum" calls for students to become connected, creative, confident life-long learners. To realise this vision, fundamental change is required in the way teachers and students think about and participate in classroom-based teaching and learning. This paper discusses one aspect of an action…

In attempting to answer the question "How is disability represented in plays?" two approaches are considered, one semiotic and literary and the other concerned with notions of stereotyping drawn from disability studies. The five plays on which the discussion is based are school examination set texts, raising questions about classroom…

Communication is not a simple concept. On the contrary, it is one that entails multiple aspects of a complex process. It is interesting to see that there are many definitions of communication, some of which, in the authors' opinion, fit better in the educational environment by considering the impact of communication as one that influences all…

This study investigates how two groups of bilingual algebra students reasoned about rate, slope, and linear functions during peer discussions. This investigation brings together and advances research that investigates issues at the intersection of collaborative learning, algebraic reasoning, and the use of mathematical discourse practices. A…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a SIOP-based training on lesson preparation and delivery of elementary mathematics for English language learners. In a qualitative case study of six elementary teachers, data sources included videotaped observations of classrooms, lesson plans, and semi-structured interviews. Data…

Using a sociocritical approach to the study of language and literacy and discourse analysis, this article examines student initiated challenges in a sheltered English course with two types of English learners: native+, ESL students; and, recently, arriving ESL students. The analysis draws on 19 hours of video-recorded observations of…

Transitions in early childhood classrooms are changes from one activity to another or from one place to another. Well-planned transitions can be positive learning experiences for children. During transitions children can sing songs, follow a leader by copying his or her physical motions, practice counting, or even recite a favorite poem or nursery…

Task-based learning has been recommended in immersion classes in order to provide relief from the usual teacher-fronted lessons and increase the opportunities for student output. This paper presents one aspect of the data collected during the on-going evaluation of a late partial immersion French programme in an Australian school. It presents the…