Public comments offered by citizens at local school board meetings play an important role in shaping the educational policy process. However, educational researchers have underexamined them in debates about educational policy change. Drawing from critical discourse analysis, this study examines the public comments offered at a school board meeting…

This article reports the results of a participatory action research study into Norwegian generalist music teacher education, that intended to develop spaces for preservice music teachers to foster agency and prepare for future teaching. We aimed to challenge the discursive practice of generalist music teacher education through participatory action…

One of the products of globalization in sociolinguistics is the emergence of transnational regimes in language policy, in which power is exercised across boundaries of traditional nation states. This paper engages with audit culture, a transnational policy mechanism which involves the continuous evaluation of nation states' performance through the…

Widening participation in England has been framed around two primary needs; raising attainment and raising aspiration. Whilst aspiration is complex, policy definitions often frame it in narrow economic terms and see access to higher education as primarily about developing a workforce, the underlying logic being that to improve social mobility that…

The current study examines gender representations in Dummett et al. (2016) EFL textbook, Keynote, at Middle Eastern University in the Middle East. Keynote is an EFL textbook that is used to teach students in English for Business I and English for Business II courses. The study followed Fairclough's (1989, 1995, 2001, 2015) three-dimensional models…

YouTube polyglots are an online community whose origin can be traced to the late 2000s, when language learning forums and YouTube videos of language learning enthusiasts began appearing online. This article draws on critical discourse analysis to examine the discourses of language learning that are manifest in polyglot videos and websites. It also…

Despite the proliferation of video-based instruction and its benefits--such as promoting student autonomy and self-paced learning--the complexities of online teaching remain a challenge. To be effective, educators require extensive training in digital teaching methodologies. As such, there's a pressing need to examine and comprehend the…

This paper explores the alarming phenomenon of violent extremism in university campuses. It probes "why education fails to prevent violent extremism in this case?" Drawing on Robert Cox's distinction of "problem solving" and "critical theories," the paper examines policy discourses that aim to prevent violent…

Intermediary organizations play an increasingly important role in public policy related to higher education, particularly related to the completion agenda. This study addresses strategies employed by intermediary organizations to communicate to policymakers regarding college completion. Using rhetorical analysis, we examine 72 documents to…

Many governments have launched the top-down early childhood curriculum (ECC) reforms to enhance the accountability of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The present discourse analysis of latest ECC policies across four diverse but representative countries -- Australia, China, New Zealand, and Singapore -- aims to examine the…

The purpose of this study was to understand how the social and cultural practices of classroom literacy instruction afforded students opportunities to make meaning with texts. Research was conducted from a sociocultural perspective that focused on students as participants in social learning, in a context of interactive relations. This study was…

This article analyses the narratives and counter-narratives which characterised the struggle between the Chicago Public School Board (CPS) and the Chicago Teachers' Union (CTU) preceding the 2019 Chicago teachers' strike. This was an extraordinary event which has received little scholarly attention. The paper explores the types and uses of the…

Purpose: The study investigated the change of the position of the official social science basic documents, textbooks and teacher's opinion in relation to the general understanding of the market economy in the context of the modern Russian economic life. Design/methodology/approach: The article was prepared on the basis of the critical discourse…

In this conversation analytic study, we investigate requests for assistance in the third-age (65+) language classroom. Seven Dutch seniors participated in a one-month course of English as a foreign language. We found that these seniors asked many language-related questions which fell into one of three categories: (1) production-oriented questions,…

During teacher-centred classroom interaction, teachers often fail to solicit volunteer turn-takers. Even if students display their unwillingness to take a turn at the moment, teachers sometimes have no choice but to allocate them the turn, to move forward with the ongoing pedagogical activity. In such a moment, there can be a conflict between the…