Dialogic pedagogy aims to promote deliberative democratic skills, virtues and practices within an equitable and empowering classroom environment. This article problematizes the practice of setting classroom ground rules in light of dialogic pedagogy's democratic aspirations. Specifically, we explore the space for dissenting voices within the…

Research suggests that readers learn about word meanings from the various contexts of words in texts. Therefore, context clue instruction is often recommended as a way of boosting students' word learning skills. Ideally, such instruction should focus on context clue types that are common in authentic texts. We examined the prevalence of context…

Using a qualitative case study design and applying a sociocultural theoretical perspective, support for self- and co-regulated learning in an elementary Spanish and English dual-language classroom was documented. The multi-age classroom comprised 33 students acquiring English and Spanish, at school (52% female students; 20 fourth grade and 13…

The current study examines the effects of the sociocultural context of primary school reading among Arabic- and English-speaking students in the UAE. Using a sample of 16,391 fourth graders (English: n = 10,507; Arabic: n = 5,884) from the 2016 Process in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), results revealed that while early language…

Research in educational linguistics is now challenging the efficacy of monolingual approaches that often dominate educational practices in multilingual settings. In most African nations where multilingualism is the norm, there remains a persistent reluctance by educational stakeholders (principals, teachers, parents, and students) to embrace…

In this paper, we present excerpts from ethnographic data collected when a diverse classroom of children, some of whom were multilingual and others monolingual in English, used iPads to make videos. We discuss the practices, social relations, objects and material conditions that emerged as the children engaged in this production, with special…

Any episode of learning and teaching is necessarily situated in both space and time. But, whereas the spatial arrangement of the classroom remains relatively constant, change is the very essence of the learning that takes place within it. Such is the nature of the data to be examined in this paper. The same curriculum unit was taught by the same…

We describe a collaborative project in which university researchers, teachers and Grade 4-5 English language learners (ELLs) investigated the sociohistorical contexts and practices in which the ELLs participate, through a "community scan". Many observers have argued that schools and teachers have such minimal knowledge of the…