Tests, especially high-stakes ones, occupy a prominent role in education and impact on students' personal and professional trajectory. Therefore, it is crucial that they are well understood. Enhancing understanding of the workings of tests requires a multidisciplinary approach, one that treats tests not only as assessment instruments, but also as…

Various neuropsychiatric disorders are a common feature today, not least in educational contexts where Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common diagnosis. The dominant perspective regarding ADHD is biomedical. This perspective has been questioned and challenged in various ways. The aim of this article is to think ADHD through…

This article describes a narrative study exploring the challenges that international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter when using humor in North American university classrooms. Twenty participants were recruited from twelve teaching fields. Each ITA participated in two interviews and a videotaped teaching observation. The participants talked…

The quality of rural teachers is a key factor affecting the quality of rural education. A better understanding of rural teachers is the basis for strengthening their development. It is possible to obtain a more holistic understanding of rural teachers' work and life through their identity. Based on a wealth of case-based information, rural teacher…

This article focuses on the Indonesian film "Cin(T)a," which features the interfaith and multiethnic love between two college students. I apply intergroup contact theory, critical pedagogy and grounded cosmopolitanism to the reading of the movie in order to demonstrate two key points. First, higher education is a contact zone, where…

The research presented uses intersectionality theory as a lens to study the racial identity construction of four African American young adolescent girls. The findings suggest that race was largely situated in a Black-White discourse for the girls in the study. When limited information was provided in home, school, and community settings, the…

This article explores how a formal state examination system operates as a tool which enables the cultural reproduction of the middle classes in an increasingly market-driven education system in Ireland. It is based on a study of a group of final-year girls approaching the high-stakes terminal Leaving Certificate examination. The success of this…

In this ethnographic study, I draw on interviews, audiorecordings of course meetings, observation notes and student work to explore the experiences of White preservice teachers in two sections of a Social Contexts of Education course. The instructors of both sections sought to challenge students' color-blind racial ideologies. Whereas prior…

This article examines the school choices of families who have recently experienced downward mobility during the economic crisis in Spain. Based on semi-structured interviews we analyse the educational strategies of the families in a Bourdieusian framework, focusing on how they cope with the loss of their perceived social status. Prior to the…

Needs analysis (NA) plays a significant role in developing tasks that create opportunities for natural language use in classrooms. Preemptive NA, however, does not necessarily predict the contingently emerging interpersonal and social variables which influence learners and teachers' behaviours. These unpredictable variables often lead to a gap…

An important aspect of learning a foreign language is encountering the sociocultural orientations associated with it. The present qualitative study focuses on an Iranian setting of English language teaching (ELT) to explore the potential reflection and reproduction of certain cultural attitudes and lifestyles in this context. A total of 200 hours…

Educational technology researchers have often overlooked the effect of culture on teachers' use of digital technologies in their pedagogical practice. Several technology integration models, such as the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), have also failed to explain the connections between…

This article examines the socio-cultural activities that have direct and indirect impacts on critical thinking practices in primary science classrooms and what kinds of teachers' activities help to foster the development of critical thinking practices in children. Meanwhile, the constructivist and the socio-cultural theoretical dimensions have…

The teaching and learning of science in school are influenced by various factors, including both individual factors, such as member beliefs, and social factors, such as the power structure of the class. To understand this complex context affected by various factors in schools, we investigated the formation and sharing process of science classroom…

This article examines how the pre-migratory experiences of 90 Bhutanese, Burmese, and Iraqi refugee youth shape their aspirations, needs and capabilities as they transition to postsecondary education and work in the American urban context. It further explores how their schooling experiences in precarious urban school districts influence their…