What place has grammar in the English curriculum? An analysis of ninety years’ policy debate: 1921 to 2011.

Since 1921 England’s governments have commissioned enquiries into English and literacy teaching, leading towards published recommendations and requirements for English grammar teaching. Governments’ officially sanctioned publications represent their policy aspirations for English and literacy. Research studies have explored the subsequent challenge for schools and teachers who must integrate grammar into a subject whose wider philosophies may conflict with an explicit grammar element. My study draws on critical theory to analyse the ideological discourses of English grammar these official policy documents reveal, and how they conflict or coincide with wider ideologies of English and literacy in schools. My study uses a two-stage analysis. First is an intertextual analysis using a corpus approach to identify the data’s grammar topics through its keywords and argumentation types. Second is a qualitative critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the documents’ main ideas and ideological discourses. The CDA analysis reveals three main ideological discourses of grammar, namely of ‘heritage and authority’, ‘standards and control’, and ‘life chances and skills’. These discourses are constructed from both prescriptive and descriptive traditions of linguistic thinking, and draw on ideological perspectives of teaching and teachers, learning and learners, and changing philosophies of English over time. The findings show no direct connection between the topic keywords policy authors use and the ideological positions they adopt. But there is a clear trend in argumentation approaches used to make hoped-for claims for grammar’s place and benefits in subject English. The discourses found question whether teachers are sufficiently prepared for grammar teaching and whether learners are sufficiently prepared for communicating in the workplace. The policy ideologies of grammar found in the qualitative analysis are finally re-mapped against wider philosophies of subject English to identify the broad policy trends

Internet as an ideology nationalistic discourses and multiple subject positions of Chinese internet workers

Ideology works. This article examines how the Internet as a capital actor has become a nationalist ideology in China. Disclosing how nationalism serves to facilitate the expansion of China-based Internet platforms in the age of informational capitalism, we directly confront the Chinese Internet as an ideology apparatus that works to fulfill a dual logic of capital and territorial power. This article contributes to the study of three types of Chinese Internet workers: programmers, white-collar employees (excluding programmers), and assembly-line workers, and focuses on how nationalist discourses are created, which enthrall but at the same time are questioned by different workers who help fabricate nationalism as well as challenge it. We conceptualize topos of threat and referential strategy of collectivization as cultural and media tactics, driven by the nationalistic sentiments that form part of the “common sense” of Chinese users. We further analyze the multiple subject positions of Chinese Internet workers into hegemonic position, negotiated position, and oppositional position to discover the complexity of labor subjectivity which may create discrepancy or sometimes even challenge the Chinese Internet as an ideology. This study sheds light on how subject positions could disrupt a homogenous process of merging nationalism with populist sentiments, a conservative ideology that is prevalent in today’s China

Intercultural communication and critical pedagogy: deconstructing stereotypes for the development of critical cultural awareness in language education

This study researches the problem of gender stereotypes that Spanish language undergraduates uphold against Hispanics and develops critical pedagogical approaches through the reading of a literary text for the deconstruction of such stereotypes so that students can think and act in less biased and prejudiced ways. This thesis develops the argument that stereotyping is a form of oppression, and through empirical research in three case studies, this research demonstrates that stereotypical oppression can be addressed by Critical Pedagogyfor the development of „critical cultural awareness‟. This thesis provides answers to three operational sub-questions addressed in each of the three case studies, which contribute to answering the main overarching question in this study of how can Critical Pedagogy help in the deconstruction of stereotypes for the development of „critical cultural awareness‟. This study found that a literary text can bring stereotypical thinking out to the fore for analysis and reflection, and that a reader-response approach to literature can trigger past experiences that reveal essentialising discourses of otherness. The research reviews the effectiveness of the use of an „identity-focused‟ critical pedagogical intervention for the development of a „self-regulation strategy‟ as a mental reasoning exercise to control bias and stereotyping. The results indicate that students tend to transpose stereotypical binaries and create new ones, whilst developing further views of cultural realities as being fluid, dynamic and contradictory, constantly being reconstructed and renegotiated. However, the findings indicate that a „self-regulation strategy‟ may be insufficient to appreciate the oppressive nature of stereotyping. Therefore, a Critical „Pedagogy-of-the-Oppressed‟ intervention is implemented, whereby students describe and „name‟ their own experiences of suffering stereotyping during their year-abroad experiences with narratives of stigmatisation, discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation. A tentative pedagogical model, a teaching tool and a „grammar of interculture‟ emerge from this study for the deconstruction of stereotypes in the development of „critical cultural awareness‟ for practical teaching practice and classroom use

What Does It Mean To Be A Learning Support Teacher? A Life-History Investigation Of Ten Learning Support Teachers In The East-Coast Of Ireland

There has been a rapid expansion of the learning support (LS) teaching service in Ireland since 1999 with approximately one in fifteen primary-school teachers currently working as learning support teachers (LSTs). Although there is a small body of quantitative research on LS teaching, there are no qualitative studies on LSTs themselves. This gap in the research is unfortunate because of the importance of studying teachers’ lives and perspectives as a key to understanding teaching, a now well-established position in biographical research on education. Using life-history interviews within a social constructivist paradigm, this study investigates the identity and work practices of ten LSTs in primary schools in the east-coast of Ireland. The study is based on the assumption that valuable insights into the work and identity of LSTs can be gained by examining their views and beliefs and the discourses through which they understand themselves and their work. A combination of grounded theory and discourse analysis is used to examine the language they use to construct themselves as LSTs and the discourse of LS teaching. The evidence from the study shows that there is a recognisable way of using language and engaging in specific practices that can be described as a discourse of LS teaching. The LSTs are both constructors of and constructed by the discourse of LS teaching. Their accounts show that they perceived themselves, and believed others perceived them to be, different from mainstream class-teachers. Using the overarching concept of ‘difference’, three themes were distilled from the LSTs’ accounts and used to analyse the data: their craft knowledge, the teaching of reading and parenthood. Their accounts display a potent union of theory and practice which was guided by their professional craft knowledge. They presented themselves as expert teachers of reading, comfortably embracing different models, thereby displaying their multiple positions and the complexity of the reading process. Drawing on their experiences of parenthood they constructed an identity for themselves as teacher-parents and parent-teachers. The findings have implications for the provision of in-service and professional development for LSTs. If, as their accounts suggest, the discourse of LS teaching pushes LSTs and their pupils into marginalised positions, it is important to scrutinise this discourse so that the exclusionary assumptions underpinning it are explored. The insider perspectives gained from the life-history accounts offer worthwhile insights into the intuitive craft of teaching in general and the teaching of reading in particular

The Republican-Liberal Continuum: De-Polarizing the Historiographical Debate

The historiography of the American Revolution and the Early National Period remains a polarized debate. Historians attribute either classical Whig republican ideology or classical liberal ideology to influencing those periods. However, republicanism and liberalism exist along a philosophical and practical continuum. Because Louis Hartz attributed American liberalism exclusively to John Locke, I first examine Locke’s relationship to Algernon Sidney, observing similarities between these exemplars of liberalism and republicanism. Next I examine the confluence of Thomas Reid’s commonsense moral philosophy (via John Witherspoon) and republicanism, particularly concerning views on man and moral liberty. These commonalities are further demonstrated in Thomas Jefferson’s agrarianism. Arguing that philosophical interface in republicanism and liberalism has occurred since Plato and Cicero, I underscore a philosophical problem apparent even in classical thought: that individuals are inescapably embedded in community. I conclude that the “boxed-off” paradigms of republicanism and liberalism are no longer useful due to the philosophical and practical commonalities exposed

Asian Values, Asian Democracy

“Asian values” is more than the articulation of cultural difference; its propositions of “Asian Capitalism” and “Asian Democracy” indicate a project to legitimise particular economic and political structures that have come under challenge. While capitalism and authoritarianism may have elective affinity, the “end of history” thesis argues that contradictions in late-capitalism would threaten authoritarianism and propel societies towards liberal democracy. Singapore’s “Asian Democracy” is significant in its ability to detour at history’s end and to re-amalgamate authoritarianism with (late)-capitalism. “Asian Values,” by emphasising communitarianism and consensus over conflict, creates a normative centre that guides media policy, civil society and inter-personal interactions. Good Asian citizens value prosperity over Western dreams (of non-consensual democracy). They also subordinate personal whims to the good of the community - the “silent (Asian) majority.” By allowing ideological pluralism without fragmentation, “Asian values” de-legitimises dissent and legitimises authoritarianism. The Singapore one-party government’s hegemony is based less on belief than on rhetorical compliance, which is produced through a combination of consent, consensus and coercion. Coercion (authoritarianism) is tolerated or consented to upon a consensus that it is worthwhile to trade freedom for prosperity and that there are no viable alternatives. Fuelled by personal desire for prosperity and pressurised by social expectations, citizens privatise/subordinate their dissent, producing an aura of public support for the government. This appearance of ideological unity crucially accords one-party governments the legitimacy to claim to represent the nation and deny multi-party representation. Despite the importance of economic legitimacy to the Singapore government, an economic crisis is not necessarily an ideological/hegemonic crisis because it is the hope rather than the reality of prosperity that sustains its hegemony. This relative autonomy from economic conditions, together with its anti-pluralism nature and its claim of cultural legitimacy makes “Asian Values” a superlative ideology for the evolution of government authoritarianism into soft/popular authoritarianism, thereby enabling Asian Democracy to carve a new trajectory and spark off a resurgent of authoritarianism

"'Girls getting it together': a study of race, class and gender through the writings of young women"

This thesis attempts to examine the relationship between educational processes and class and gender reproduction. Such an investigation cannot avoid the ways in which racism and sexism affects the lives and schooling of young women. A significant theme running through the study addresses structuring processes within schools, the organisation of family life and the social relations of female waged labour. The study attempts to analyse the complexity of female social experience by bringing together the writings of young women across class, racial and educational boundaries. An unusual aspect of the study lies within the method of data collection. The writers who were drawn from a variety of class and ethnic backgrounds were encouraged to write about the material and emotional circumstances of their lives. The instances that are used within the study highlight the ways in which class, gender, racial and patriarchal relations produce contradiction, conflict and resistance. The act of writing is not only seen as a way of examining specific experiences, it is also seen as a means of developing cultural literacy. Working class women, girls who have moderate learning difficulties and women from ethnic minorities seldom see definitions of their own specific social world portrayed within literature. The act of writing is used to examine the material circumstances of women’s lives in relation to class and ethnic associations as well as in relation to male power relations. Finally, the thesis emphasises the significance of writing as an educational and political strategy which can be used to examine both male and female forms of consciousness

"What was once rebellion is now clearly just a social sect": Identity, ideological conflict and the field of punk rock artistic production

I advance a sociological reappraisal of the Western punk rock youth cultural artistic form. Contrasting prevalent perspectives correlating punk rock culture with adolescent rites of superficial social rebellion, I argue that the art form often exudes an underappreciated level of sophistication. I argue for the presence of two dominant strains of punk artistic logic, and demonstrate how each correspond with popular trends in neo-Marxist social theory. However, I also note that these competing logics promote contradictory forms of punk artistic conduct. Incorporating the perspectives of Pierre Bourdieu, I link this imperative for ideological division with the punk artists’ placement within fields of cultural production. Drawing from the artistry and testimonies of historically significant punk artists (and artistic consecrators), I argue that notable instances of punk ideological debate simultaneously function to allow punk artists to compete amongst one another for claims to artistic distinction and authority. I consider significant case studies wherein ideological debates double as tactics through which artists bolster their own claims to distinction in striving to delegitimize the authority of their ideological competitors. I question whether the primary function of ideological punk artistic debate stem from sincere ideological imperatives, or concerns surrounding the processes of accrediting individual claims to artistic legitimacy within the punk artistic field. Critically considering the interaction between collectivist punk artistic ideologies and the individualistic imperative of asserting personal claims to authoritative punk identity, I conclude that movements toward internal differentiation ultimately undermine punk rocks’ capacity to serve as a substantive counter-hegemonic artistic movement