Language Ideologies and Practices in Ghana\u27s English Language Education: a Critical Analysis of Golden English and National Literacy Acceleration Program Formative Report

Ghana’s transitional bilingual education has received scholarly attention of policymakers and language educators. Despite the extensive scholarship on transitional bilingual education in Ghana, little has been done to examine the relationship between transitional bilingual policy: National Literacy Acceleration Program (NALAP) and language teaching materials (e.g., English Textbooks) to ascertain whether the two have a shared ideology in promoting multilingual education. Through the use of thematic analysis and discourse analysis tools, this thesis examines both linguistic and the rhetorical (specifically visual) features of Golden English. In this work, I emphasize the importance of storytelling as a language practice used to show local cultures and bilingual ideologies. Through linguistic features (words, sentences, and structures) and discourse makers in the NALAP report, I look at discourses that promote bilingual education with the aim of ascertaining whether such discourses of bilingual education are promoted in Golden English textbook, a textbook that is prevalent in Ghana’s primary (lower grade) education. The study’s findings show that while NALAP policy underlines the importance of multilingual language ideologies such as the inclusion of mother tongue and promotion of biliteracy instruction), language ideologies promoted in Golden English are centered around monolingual use of English, with Ghanaian language ideologies minimally integrated into images and names of local characters. Based on this study’s analysis and observations, I propose a number of innovation and approaches such as the integration of translingual approaches into the curriculum, effective representation of bilingual identities through localized contents, and teacher training that focuses on bilingual curricula and culturally sustained pedagogies to continually push for localized voice and identity of Ghanaian English learners

Putting research first? Perspectives from academics and students on first-year undergraduates learning research

Exploring the place and potential of ‘research’ in undergraduate degrees has stimulated higher-educational debate for decades, strongly influencing policies, practices and structures. This article’s consideration of some problems associated with teaching and learning about research during the first year of undergraduate degrees, helps throw that debate into a sharper light. Should first-year undergraduates be asked to learn from their own or others’ research, and what difficulties might they experience? What relevant previous learning about research, or lack of it, might they bring with them into their degree? Working with empirical data from across one English university, and literature from universities across the world, these questions are discussed by exploring first-year undergraduate teaching and learning, through the lenses of critical inquiry and constructivist grounded theory.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

A Review of the "Digital Turn" in the New Literacy Studies

Digital communication has transformed literacy practices and assumed great importance in the functioning of workplace, recreational, and community contexts. This article reviews a decade of empirical work of the New Literacy Studies, identifying the shift toward research of digital literacy applications. The article engages with the central theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic challenges in the tradition of New Literacy Studies, while highlighting the distinctive trends in the digital strand. It identifies common patterns across new literacy practices through cross-comparisons of ethnographic research in digital media environments. It examines ways in which this research is taking into account power and pedagogy in normative contexts of literacy learning using the new media. Recommendations are given to strengthen the links between New Literacy Studies research and literacy curriculum, assessment, and accountability in the 21st century

Shared Digital Experiences Supporting Collaborative Meaning-Making at Heritage Sites

A growing body of research testifies to the capacity for archaeological and other cultural heritage sites to generate wonder, attachment, personal transformation and restoration, family bonding and community building amongst their visitors. Using evaluation data from two related European Commission‐funded research projects, CHESS and EMOTIVE, we discuss here our work in developing mobile-based emotionally‐engaging digital stories for visitors to diverse cultural heritage sites. The sites range from world-renowned museums, such as the Acropolis Museum in Athens (Greece), to UNESCO World Heritage sites, such as the Çatalhöyük Neolithic archeological site (in Turkey). The evaluation studies feature detailed observations of visitors on‐site as well as post‐experience questionnaires and interviews, providing us with rich data on several axes; e.g. in relation to interactive story plot and narration, staging and wayfinding in the physical space, personalisation and social interaction. In this chapter, we specifically focus on shared experience and the impact that digital technology can have in promoting the cultural site as a social space. On the one hand, our findings testify that digital empathic stories can evoke narrative transportation, and even, in some cases, personal attachment and critical (self‐)reflection, which leads us to consider how their enchanting capacities might be pushed even further into the building of broader, collective social conscience. At the same time, the findings reveal the challenges, both conceptual and practical, of designing a shared digital experience in which visitors engage with the site and each other in meaningful ways

Combining Graphic Elicitation Methods and Narrative Family Interviews in a Qualitative Multimethod Design

Durch die Kombination verschiedener Methoden können Forschende die Stärken der einzelnen Verfahren nutzen, um die Einschränkungen der anderen auszugleichen bzw. ihr Forschungsthema umfassender zu untersuchen. In diesem Artikel gehe ich auf die Stärken und Schwächen von Timelines und Genogrammen (visuelle Daten, grafische Erhebung) im Vergleich zu narrativen Familieninterviews (verbale Datenerhebung) ein. Ich erkläre, warum wir diese Methoden in einem kollaborativen Forschungsprojekt miteinander integriert haben und erörtere, wie wir sie beim Sampling, der Datenerhebung und -analyse zum Zwecke des Vergleichs, der gegenseitigen Kompensation oder der Komplementarität verwendet haben. Die methodologischen Argumente werden mit empirischen Beispielen aus einem Forschungsprojekt zum Statuserhalt in Mittelschichtsfamilien veranschaulicht, um zu zeigen, wie wir die drei Methoden zur Untersuchung komplementärer Perspektiven auf individuelle und miteinander verknüpfte Lebensläufe sowie zur Analyse von biografischen Längsschnittdaten und Drei-Generationen-Beziehungen eingesetzt haben. Indem ich unser qualitatives Design anhand von Konzepten aus dem Mixed-Methods- und Multimethod-Diskurs (MMMR) reflektiere, beabsichtige ich, neue methodologische Perspektiven für qualitative und Mixed-Methods-Forschende aufzuzeigen. Des Weiteren möchte ich dazu beitragen, den MMMR-Diskurs im Hinblick auf noch unterrepräsentierte, rekonstruktive oder interpretative Ansätze voranzubringen. Insgesamt reflektiere ich das erkenntnistheoretische Problem, wie Wissenschaftler*innen und Untersuchungspersonen den Forschungsgegenstand durch unterschiedliche Methoden (re)konstruieren.By combining different methods, researchers can use the strengths of each to compensate the constraints of others and to more comprehensively examine their research topic. In this article, I elaborate upon the strengths and weaknesses of timelines and genograms (visual data, graphic elicitation) in comparison to narrative family interviews (verbal data collection). I explain why we integrated these methods in a collaborative research project, and discuss how we used them for the purposes of comparison, mutual compensation, or complementarity during sampling, data collection, and analysis. The methodological arguments are illustrated with empirical examples from a research project on status maintenance in middle-class families to show how we used the three methods to explore complementary perspectives on individual and linked lives and to analyze longitudinal biographical data and three-generation relationships. My intention is to open up new methodological perspectives for qualitative as well as mixed method researchers by reflecting on our qualitative design using concepts from the mixed methods and multimethod research (MMMR) discourse. Furthermore, I would like to contribute to advancing the MMMR discourse in regard to still underrepresented reconstructive or interpretative approaches. My overall aim is to reflect upon the epistemological problem of how scientists and respondents (re)construct the object of research through different methods

Emergent AI-Assisted Discourse: Case Study of a Second Language Writer Authoring with ChatGPT

The rapid proliferation of ChatGPT has incited debates regarding its impact on human writing. Amid concerns about declining writing standards, this study investigates the role of ChatGPT in facilitating academic writing, especially among language learners. Using a case study approach, this study examines the experiences of Kailing, a doctoral student, who integrates ChatGPT throughout their academic writing process. The study employs activity theory as a lens for understanding writing with generative AI tools and data analyzed includes semi-structured interviews, writing samples, and GPT logs. Results indicate that Kailing effectively collaborates with ChatGPT across various writing stages while preserving her distinct authorial voice and agency. This underscores the potential of AI tools such as ChatGPT to enhance academic writing for language learners without overshadowing individual authenticity. This case study offers a critical exploration of how ChatGPT is utilized in the academic writing process and the preservation of a student's authentic voice when engaging with the tool.Comment: 24 page

Investigating the Use of Digital Media in the Music Classroom with Experienced and Pre-Service Teachers

A Western Sydney research project investigated the question, “What are the practices of pre-service teachers and experienced teachers of music in secondary schools that successfully engage their students with digital media?” The hypothesis underlying the project was that digital media offers school students opportunities, and has the potential to allow more self-paced, interactive and personalized learning. Consequently, the research sub-questions were: (1) How are music teachers preparing students with the techniques and skills needed to take advantages of the opportunities that ICT offers? (2) How can music teachers develop their students\u27 capacity to use and contribute to this wealth of information? The participants in the study were five experienced teachers and four pre-service teachers, and the method was a multi-site case study approach. Data collected in the project provided positive findings about growing student engagement with digital media in a range of Sydney schools. Pre-service teachers engaged with digital media for performance, critical listening, composing and providing instant feedback. Experienced teachers tended to limit social networking to older students (16-18-year olds). Both experienced and pre-service teachers used technology for assessment and reflected deeply on the ways digital media changed their pedagogy

The Influence and Fusion of Online Films with Traditional Cinema: A Case Study of the Netflix Platform

The emergence and popularization of streaming movies have witnessed the change in acceptance mode and acceptance psychology of traditional movie and television, and broke the confinement of time and space. Taking Netflix, a streaming online platform, as a case study, this research endeavors to explore the impact of streaming movies on traditional cinema movies and their convergence utilizing literature analysis, classification and comparative analysis, case study research method, and data collection and analysis method

Panel: Individual and/versus social creativity

The creative act is often thought of as an individual, even lonely, one: the inspiration in the bath, the artist isolated in the garret. The research student has to demonstrate that they found new knowledge and that it was “all their own work”. But how often are these individual acts a realistic model of the creative process? Even if inspiration does come in the bath, how many conversations had taken place before that moment? How much time has the “lonely” artist spent in cafes arguing with other artists about their work? If individual research is so important why do we advise a good student to join a successful research department