Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective by Ofelia García . Malden, MA : Wiley‐Blackwell , 2009 . pp. xiv + 481.

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97498/1/jola1130.pd

How Much is Learning Measurement Worth? Assessment Costs in Low-Income Countries

Timely and credible data on student learning has become a global issue in the ongoing effort to improve educational outcomes. With the potential to serve as a powerful diagnostic tool to gauge the overall health and well-being of an educational system, educational assessments have received increasing attention among specialists and the media. Though the stakes are high, relatively little is known about the cost-benefit ratio of various assessments compared to other educational expenditures. This paper presents an overview of four major types of assessments — national, regional, international and hybrid — and the costs that each has incurred within 13 distinct contexts, especially in low-income countries. The findings highlight broad variation in the total cost of assessment and the cost-per-learner. This underscores the importance of implementation strategies that appropriately consider scale, timeliness, and cost-efficiency as critical considerations for any assessment

The Place of English in Expanding Repertoires of Linguistic Code, Identification and Aspiration among Recent High School Graduates in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

This dissertation investigates the comparatively high use of English among 48 high school graduates aged 18-25 living in the semi-rural Mankweng area of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study focuses on the interaction between the participants’ increased use of English and their processes of individual and social identification. Discourse analyses of focus group and individual interviews, triangulated with descriptive data from two questionnaires about educational experiences, media usage and language attitudes, suggest that the participants recognize both the potential consequences for identification that linguistic code choices carry, and the desirability of equitably managing—or as some call, “balancing”—these choices and consequences. Participants’ discourse indicates two factors shaping how they “balance.” One is their physical and social location. Post-apartheid freedoms of mobility and media engagement are positioning youth to tinker with historically persistent ideologies of languages as “traditional” or “modern”, “white” or “black,” “urban” or “rural”. Amidst these changes, the participants evaluate their own and others’ abilities to “balance” based on where one lives and works. A second “balancing” factor is the perceived strength of one’s sense of “African” group belonging, or “roots.” Most participants consider family or village ties as the basis for strong “roots”; certain others consider their ethnolinguistic backgrounds equally integral. In any case, one must avoid the perception of one’s roots being too “strong” or “weak,” as this can threaten “balancing.” A second finding is that, as a “balancing” strategy, participants claim that using African codes is “necessary” in oral conversation with elders at home, and that using English is “necessary” for both written language practices (especially cell phone messaging) and as a linking language in multilingual locations such as the local university campus (which half the participants call home). This strategy uses “necessity” as a way to problematize individual agency and responsibility for code choices deemed undesirable. This study is significant because it highlights the unpredictability of language practice trends in rapidly changing societies, and offers implications for multilingual education. It also invites further investigation into how opportunities for crossing linguistic and cultural boundaries expand with social, political and technological changes.Ph.D.Education StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86351/1/ababson_1.pd

They Are Only Going to Steal Your Cars: An Ethnodrama

The center of this ethnodrama (Saldaña, 2011) is a monologue voiced by an African-American teacher: “It’s one of those schools where if your heart is not in it, your kids are going to feel it. And then, she gets awesome teachers, but our principal knows how to make them go away! Like I did. I stayed for two years—you have to believe in your kids. You have to believe. But if you don’t believe; if you tell your teachers, ‘Don’t worry, because they are only going to steal your cars.’ Then.

Blue Hill Ship Building

https://digitalmaine.com/blue_hill_documents/1180/thumbnail.jp

Goodbye to All That!: Juried Ethnodramatic Performance for the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew Babson performing in Goodbye to All That! : A Teacher\u27s Last Year in the Classroom at the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Forum, University of Pennsylvani

Goodbye to All That!: Juried Ethnodramatic Performance for the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew Babson performing in Goodbye to All That! : A Teacher\u27s Last Year in the Classroom at the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Forum, University of Pennsylvani

Goodbye to All That!: Juried Ethnodramatic Performance for the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew Babson performing in Goodbye to All That! : A Teacher\u27s Last Year in the Classroom at the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Forum, University of Pennsylvani

Goodbye to All That!: Juried Ethnodramatic Performance for the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew Babson performing in Goodbye to All That! : A Teacher\u27s Last Year in the Classroom at the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Forum, University of Pennsylvani

Goodbye to All That!: Juried Ethnodramatic Performance for the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew Babson performing in Goodbye to All That! : A Teacher\u27s Last Year in the Classroom at the 35th Annual Ethnography in Education Forum, University of Pennsylvani