Pedagogy is an inherently spatial practice. Implicit in much of the rhetoric of physical space designed for teaching and learning is an ontological position that assumes material space as distinct from human practice, often conceptualising space as causally (and simplistically) impacting upon people's behaviours. An alternative, and growing,…

School discursive practices produce and reproduce acceptable notions of the good mathematics teacher, thereby shaping identity and agency in becoming a teacher. In this paper, I draw on key aspects of Bourdieu's social field theory--his conceptual "thinking tools" and his reflexive sociology--to explore the relations and discourses of…

Grouping children by achievement levels is a thriving practice in New Zealand primary school mathematics classrooms. In this paper we look at the impact of a formative intervention project--"Developing Communities of Mathematics Inquiry"--that required a whole-school shift to mixed achievement grouping. Engeström's Cultural Historical…

Over the last two decades, a sense of awareness has arisen that universities are facing important challenges. This article focuses on the challenge that could be broadly termed as "the digitisation of academic work", yet without assuming that this digitisation would be an explanatory factor clarifying the precise nature of contemporary…

Background/Context: Student teaching represents a critical component of most teacher education programs. However, there is significant variation both in the contextual factors that preservice teachers (PSTs) encounter in their field placements and in the ways that teacher educators mediate PSTs' learning in relation to those placements. In…

In a time that some have argued is "postracial" following the election and reelection of Barack Obama (see Wise 2010, for discussion), this paper argues that antiracism is a crucial theoretical framework for music education. I explore three areas of music education, in which such a framework can push toward change. The first area speaks…

This paper provides a critical appraisal of approaches to reflexivity in sociology. It uses data from social network research to argue that Archer's approach to reflexivity provides a valuable lens with which to understand how people navigate their education and career pathways. The paper is also critical of Archer's methodology and typology of…

In the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011--2015), the Chinese Committee of Science, Technology and Education, the main body for the central government's innovation policy, highlights the strengthening of the scientific--technological base and the upgrading of domestic innovative competences, and places the industrial focus on seven new strategic…

Labour conflict in school districts is a largely neglected area of educational research. This study examines the perceptions, actions, and decisions of union and district leaders using social movement theory to describe, analyze, and interpret contentious contract negotiations in three school districts in the Pacific Northwest region of the US.…

The purpose of this article is to examine the process of collaborative working between teachers located in separate faith-based schools in Northern Ireland. Drawing on theories of intergroup relations, and with reference to in-depth interviews with teachers in post-primary schools, the article shows that despite earlier research which identified a…

Much of the research in educational technology with a primary concern over how technology enhances learning has been criticized as privileging the immediate learning settings over the other dimensions of learners' social life and the wider social and economic contexts in which learning and technology are located. The ability to develop a rich…

This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project "Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First…

This study is based on interviews with White students graduating from a student affairs preparation program as well as a literature review of whiteness in education. Applying "critical race theory," the author examined the ways that students and institutions protected whiteness. Institutions and those within them concerned with equity must have…

There is international concern over persistent low rates of participation in postcompulsory science--especially the physical sciences--within which there is a notable underrepresentation of girls/women. This paper draws on data collected from a survey of more than 9,000 10/11-year-old pupils and 170 interviews (with 92 children and 78 parents)…

This paper addresses the life and educational experiences of Ainu women, using the framework of postcolonial feminist theory. It explores the extent to which two factors--gender and ethnic minority status--affect young Ainu women as they attempt to enter mainstream society. The authors analyse life history interviews from three Ainu women aged 25.…