To cope with the rapidly changing higher education climate, teachers need agency to act proactively in initiating and steering changes in practice. This paper describes an academic development activity in the form of a Change Laboratory, an intervention method based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, to facilitate agency among teachers. The…

In discussions of work-based learning in anglophone countries, a relatively new question concerns different learning opportunities for differentially positioned novices in the workplace. Basil Bernstein relates learners' positioning with respect to knowledge and within a community of knowers to variations in a discourse underlying and regulating…

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…

This comparative case study, framed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory and sociocultural understandings of literacy, investigated students' online literate activity in two eighth grade English Language Arts classes taught by the same teacher--one with a scripted literacy curriculum and the other without. During a year-long research project, we…

This paper is based on research that is concerned to provide insight into the pedagogical potential for interrupting heteronormativity and addressing the politics of gender expression/embodiment in the elementary school classroom. It is informed by an engagement with queer and trans theoretical literature that raises questions about restrictive…

The current research is conducted in the context of Second Life (SL) users in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The research uses the Symbolic Interactionism Theory (SIT), a social science based theory as theoretical framework to underpin it and help inform the research. The overriding purpose is to analyze evidence of…

This dissertation explores the ways that instructors at a community college perceive instructor-student rapport in online and face-to-face classes. While instructor-student rapport has been shown to play an important role in student retention and success (Benson, Cohen, & Buskist, 2005; Granitz, Koernig, & Harich, 2009; Murphy &…

The purpose of this research project was to understand how Cambourne's theory of social constructivism, particularly his four instructional principles, was applied to the teaching of writing in two rural multigrade Foundation Phase classrooms in the Western Cape. Multigrade schools account for 30% of all primary schools in South Africa, but in…

There is a growing body of scholarship in mathematics education that has attended to the salience of race in mathematics teaching and learning. However, in the context of secondary classrooms with equity-oriented instruction, we know little about race and processes of racialization, and even less from the perspectives of students of color and in…

This article presents evidence of the links between human rights education and social change by analyzing the long-term effects on 88 trainers engaged in a non-formal adult training program sponsored by a women's human rights group in Turkey, Women for Women's Human Rights--New Ways. In this article, I show the transformative impacts of carrying…

After-school programs, such as a STEM Career Club, can promote student interest, engagement, and awareness of STEM majors and fields, as well as encourage teachers to become more knowledgeable and competent in STEM areas. In this dissertation study, two schools were selected from a larger NSF-funded project to participate in this study. Teacher-…

In early childhood contexts, reading literature to engage children in critical discussions about ability and race--and how it impacts their daily lives--is a promising practice. Indeed, critical literacy scholars see the use of language, text, and discourse structures as powerful ways to address inequity in educational settings (Gainer, 2013;…

Public relations educators are frequently challenged by students' flawed perceptions of public relations. Two contrasting case studies are presented in this paper to illustrate how socially-oriented paradigms may be applied to a real-client project to deliver a transformative learning experience. A discourse-analytic approach is applied within the…

Digital technologies are increasingly accepted as a viable aspect of early childhood curriculum. However, teacher uptake of digital technologies in early childhood education and their use with young children in play-based approaches to learning have not been strong. Traditional approaches to the problem of teacher uptake of digital technologies in…

The question of how class size impacts on student learning has been debated for some time, not least because it has substantial financial implications for educational policy. The strength of this debate notwithstanding, results from numerous international studies have been inconclusive. The study from which this paper stems sought to conceptualise…