Metaphors offer a lens through which language teachers express their understanding of their work. Metaphor analysis can be a powerful reflective tool for expressing meanings that underpin ways of thinking about teaching and learning English as a second/foreign language. Through reflecting on their personal teaching metaphors, teachers become more…

In physical education (PE) and sports there is little theoretical and empirical knowledge about transgender people, and particularly, on how they are and can be imagined within this context. In this paper, we present and analyze a pedagogical activity based on the reading and discussion of a fictional representation of a transgender person within…

While many research methods courses challenge students to make sense of their own researcher identities as they relate to research paradigms and perspectives, there is a lack of research that examines how students actually go about constructing these identities, particularly at the level of discourse. In this study, we attended to graduate…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Student Voice and includes: (1) Youths in Action--Intergenerational Leadership (Aurelio M. Montemayor); (2) The Role of Conversation…

This study investigates how students who are peripherally positioned in computer science-based, collaborative group work meaningfully engage with the group activity in order to learn. Our research took place in the context of a one-day, all-girl robotics workshop. This work proceeds from the premise that learning about programming is mediated most…

Each summer, faculty and academic deans from institutions across the country make their way to the Wye River campus of the Aspen Institute on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for a weeklong seminar. Described as professional development, it often turns out to be much more. The Wye Seminars have at their core a collection of classic texts--from Plato…

This article reviewed the literature on parental rearing styles and used responses from an online discussion forum to investigate people's opinions towards parental rearing styles and strategies when children use hand-held devices. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used as an analysis method via micro, meso and macro multi-level…

Recent articles on teaching controversial topics in schools have employed Michael Hand's distinction between "directive teaching," in which teachers attempt to persuade students of correct positions on topics that are not rationally controversial, and "nondirective teaching," in which teachers avoid persuading students on…

Open Space Technology is a cumbersome name for a participative conference model that enables dynamic inclusive engagement and challenges traditional, highly structured hierarchical conference formats. Based on self-organising systems, (Wenger, 1998) Open Space Technology conferences have an open process, start with no agenda and empower the most…

Students' judgments about "what counts" as mathematics in and out of school have important consequences for problem solving and transfer, yet our understanding of the source and nature of these judgments remains incomplete. Thirty-five sixth grade students participated in a study focused on what activities students judge as…

Participant observation is a topic covered in most Introduction to Communication Research classes and specialized courses on qualitative inquiry. However, as humans are natural observers in everyday life, students may not appreciate the importance of systematic and thoughtful observation and note taking. The purpose of the one-to-two class period…

The current paper explores the discursive complexities of teaching and learning in inclusive, critically oriented classrooms. It argues that to accomplish the ontological goals of higher learning, we need to focus on the construction of student voice, or the ability to be considered in and have influence on teaching and learning. The paper further…

This chapter discusses how college students can develop democratic dispositions and a civic identity through learning how to engage in deliberative dialogue on public issues.

Breaking bad news can be one of the more difficult aspects of being a school psychologist. Whether it is the first or the hundredth time delivering such news, these conversations can be uncomfortable and daunting communication tasks. The comfort level with delivering bad news is important to consider. Discomfort can lead a school psychologist to…

This article reports on a small-scale study that examined student engagement with and participation in a university online discussion forum site. The main aim of the study was to identify factors that encourage or discourage student participation in the forum. The study involved the tasks posted on the forum site with which students could engage…