Drawing from 'intergroup contact theory,' which states that direct contact between groups can reduce biases, we developed a theatrical intervention to provide members of a college community with positive contact with autistic people and their stories. Autistic people helped create and perform the piece. Audience responses revealed reduced stigma…

This paper addressed the under-investigated question whether speech act moves can be identified and classified in conversation by examining the content, positioning, and strategic role of utterances in turns and turn sequences. To this end, offering exchanges were analysed in the transcripts of 31 open role-plays. These were elicited from American…

The present study examines the influence of social distance and power factors on the use of internal and external mitigating devices and strategies in the production of requests by Korean learners of Russian. The data was collected by using a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) containing twelve situations that varied in the facts of power and social…

Although stigma negatively impacts autistic people globally, the degree of stigma varies across cultures. Prior research suggests that stigma may be higher in cultures with more collectivistic orientations. This study aimed to identify cultural values and other individual differences that contribute to cross-cultural differences in autism stigma…

College students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unique social barriers and are often stigmatized by their peers. Communication and instruction researchers are uniquely positioned to foster an inclusive communication climate in the classroom that minimizes stigma and promotes peer acceptance. To do so, instructors must understand how…

Religion is a central element in global education, fundamentally affecting how students interact with diverse peoples and cultures and what they learn and experience in foreign environments. Nevertheless, the topic has received little attention for quite some time. This study investigates how students' religious backgrounds, identities, and…

This qualitative research study illuminates the experiences affecting first-year Chinese international students in the United States and gives insights as to how these students perceive interpersonal relationships at college. Participants shared reports of neo-racism and othering as negatively affecting their feelings of connection to other…

This study explores views on social fragmentation amongst participants from public and private high-achieving high schools in Mexico City. Whilst issues relating to social fragmentation have recently received more attention in Mexico, there is a lack of research in relation to the existing divisions amongst both school types. The paper aims to…

This article draws from inquiry-based research that explored the efficacy of practitioners' efforts to create an asset-oriented field experience with preservice teachers and middle school students, responding to the challenge of building a virtual learning community during the pandemic. Through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), we…

This article investigates how the use of the term "immersion" to describe one's experience abroad performatively interpellates individuals and reproduces power relations. A collaboration between an anthropologist (Doerr) and a study-abroad student (Suarez), it analyzes the student's interpretation of three types of experience he had in…

Programmes based on intercultural encounters with the 'Other' place culture and cultural difference at their centre. 'Cultural discourse' has even been defined as a new epistemology and praxis that plays a key role in the process of recognition. In the light of these assumptions, this study used ethnographic field work to examine the ways culture…

Meritocracy is used by governments in many societies as an 'effective' way to represent social justice and legitimise -- explain away -- class inequality. By focusing on a small number of working-class students who achieve academic 'success' and have reached elite universities in an ideal meritocratic environment -- Chinese schooling -- this paper…

Research in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) shows that English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms are not only embedded in dominant institutional, global, and local discourses about race, gender, and language, but often also reflect and contribute to the Othering and marginalization of students, as they are implicit or…

This article examines forms of implicit discrimination towards Muslim children in children's discourses of Otherness. Findings in this paper draw on qualitative data exploring the discourses of 17 children from a Year 6 class in a culturally diverse primary school in the East of England. Building on Critical Race Theory and Critical Discourse…

Teacher professional learning plays a critical role in education reform by enabling teachers to refine their professional skills and keep up with changing content knowledge, pedagogy, and trends in schooling. This study examines how and under what conditions principal instructional leadership contributes to teachers' professional learning in…