Reviews values evident in early discussions about the social effects of distance education in New Zealand. Public debates and emergent literature are characterized by extreme positions indicating deep value conflicts. Most discussions were driven by ideological commitment to principles, such as egalitarianism, communitarianism, and…

Dominant discourse about participation in adult education assumes that (1) participation is good; (2) participation equates with formal learning; (3) learners are individuals, abstracted from their social context; and (4) there are barriers to participation, not resistance. These assumptions obscure issues about informal learning, collective…

This article examines the further spread of non-traditional quotatives to the speech of adolescents in Glasgow, Scotland and how these forms might have been transmitted. (Author/VWL)

Examines the role of the Spanish discourse particle "no" for negotiating agreement and disagreement in Spanish-English bilingual conversations from Gibraltar. A sequential analysis of twelve conversational exchanges shows how language choice is an important linguistic resource for negotiating agreement and disagreement in interactions.…

Adopts a conversation analytic approach to the study of educational talk-in-interaction. The focus is on the production of typical talk in a university-seminar context. (Author/VWL)

Draws on data from three Head Start programs to examine how "culture" influences program improvement. Shows how culture takes shape through dynamic interactions in particular contexts, constituting identities, structuring social relationships, and privileging particular forms of knowledge. Highlights the importance of illuminating forces…

Discusses how social identity plays a significant role in defining the nature of classroom interaction. Describes how unresolved conflict emerged when the development of authentic student voice in narrative autobiography was the primary and perhaps only objective. Presents an example of the ways in which asymmetrical power relations influence how…

Explores how womanist sermons can be used in the writing classroom with other-literate students to help them produce hybrid discourse that problematizes and expands what is acceptable and progressive rhetoric within the academy. Demonstrates how exploring womanist sermons can help non-traditional students create provocative and analytical essays…

Pinpoints specificities of computer-aided corpus-based work in foreign language pedagogic contexts and assesses how they can feed into language teaching and learning practices generally, despite the ostensible pedagogic and processing shortcomings of corpus-based work in these kinds of contexts. (Author/VWL)

Using a situated cognition framework, 24 vignettes of literacy practices were examined in 4 Canadian settings: community-based, workplace, family, and school-based literacy. Literacy researchers appear constrained by behaviorist, normative perspectives despite the shift toward humanist perspectives. (Contains 51 references.) (SK)

Draws on two research projects in South Africa to describe and discuss the language practices of teachers in primary multilingual mathematics classrooms. Contends that while at a general political and pedagogical level it makes sense for teachers to encourage and use code-switching as a learning and teaching resource, this is not a straightforward…

This paper proposes a set of methods and a framework for evaluating, modeling, and predicting group interactions in computer-mediated communication. The method of sequential analysis is described along with specific software tools and techniques to facilitate the analysis of message-response sequences. In addition, the Dialogic Theory and its…

This paper outlines a case for the reconfiguration of the public sphere as discursive space, arguing that such a reconfiguration better enables investigations into public debates on education. The paper focuses on one such investigation, which studied one newspaper's reporting of a review of the school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. It…

This article describes research that investigates how conversations between educational psychologists and teachers are influenced by the mediating artefacts that are used. Sociocultural and activity theory is used and more specifically, approaches based upon Engestrom's conceptual models form a basis for analysing different types of artefact…

Most Forum Theatre practice encourages as many 'spect-actors' as possible to intervene directly on stage as part of the investigation of an oppressive social situation. Such practice is in line with Boal's advice (in "Games for actors and non-actors") that 'the keener the desire to take action, the more the spect-actors hurry on to the stage'.…