This paper examines the discourses and modes of representation embodied in educational historiography from the 1970s to the present and their implications for intellectual identity construction in SA. The paper shows how the theoretical foundations of the liberal and Afrikaner nationalist discourses, which vacillated between race and ethnicity,…

Prior research has identified ways in which parents and teachers contribute to learned helpless responses to failure, but little is known about the role that interactions with peers might play. In this study, the conversations of fourth- through sixth- grade children and their friends were observed after children experienced an achievement-related…

In recent years, governing through partnerships has become more and more common and is today reflected in a range of policy areas. In the following article, governing through partnerships is analysed in Swedish education policy around the turn of the millennium, where the notion of partnership has had a large impact. Using as its point of…

Three related studies conducted on the role of emotional transfer in email messages were studied in order to better understand Japanese college students' online communications and their broader participation in online communications. The first study investigated users' initiatives in preventing emotional misunderstandings when sending email.…

This article presents research conducted between 2002 and 2007 that examines user discourse, message flow, and exchange frequency in Web-only courses, blended courses, and then the same types of courses extended with a 3D online learning environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact that a 3D online learning environment has on…

This article examines interactions from tertiary-level foreign languages classes in which students challenge the heteronormative construction of their sexual identity. These interactions are triggered by questions that potentially reference students' real-world identities but which attribute a heteronormative identity to the questions' recipients.…

In this article we attempt to analyse how OECD knowledge production is integrated with the process in which Finnish education policy takes shape. This is done by analysing the "uses" of the OECD PISA Study by Finnish central government officials. The main question posed is: How do these officials interpret the PISA results so as to…

In this paper I deploy a synthesis of methods I term virtual literacy ethnography to investigate the diverse literacy practices of the project Schome Park. Participants have been engaging over a 15-month period in an innovative out-of-school project centred on use of the "(Teen) Second Life" three-dimensional virtual world. Some ethical…

This paper describes a corpus-based approach to teaching and learning spoken grammar for English for Academic Purposes with reference to Bhatia's (2002) multi-perspective model for discourse analysis: a textual perspective, a genre perspective and a social perspective. From a textual perspective, corpus-informed instruction helps students identify…

Analysis of interaction patterns is one of the most important indicators of quality of learning in educational web forums. Social network analysis (SNA) is gradually assuming importance in the study of interaction patterns as it focuses on the analysis of the interrelationships between individuals, thus providing a holistic perspective on group…

In this paper we will explore the nature of English as it is used in one Muslim country and argue that, far from being a colonizing language, English used in Pakistan reflects Islamic values and embodies South Asian Islamic sensitivities. Through analysis of the current discourses on the politics of the English language and a study of Pakistani…

This study investigates cross-linguistic influence (CLI)--also known as first language (L1) transfer--on referent introduction and tracking in oral narratives in Japanese as a second language (L2) within the framework of functional approaches to language learning. Narrative discourse produced by two groups of learners of Japanese, one whose L1 is…

This paper presents situated learning as a theoretical framework for conceptualising new ways to approach science education. Key constructs associated with this framework, including communities of practice, Discourse and identity, are introduced. I advance an argument to develop classroom communities of practice based on engaged citizenship…

There is not yet a great deal of research in formal online learning environments focusing on the seemingly "off-topic" conversations that small groups engage in as they complete learning tasks together. This study uses the theory of common ground as a framework to explore what participants are talking about when not discussing the concepts to be…

It is common to understand the governing of rural space as the outcome of a conflict between some romantic protectors of a lost past on the one hand, and the people who worry about creating economic values on the other. However, the power to shape the rural should not only be searched for in the open struggle between protectors and developers, but…