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Marginalized Stakeholders And Performative Politics: Dueling Discourses In Education Policymaking, Celina Su

Publications and Research

American urban education policy debates pivot around dueling lines of discourse on what ails inner-city youth; such students are portrayed as emblems of a largely African-American and Latino ‘culture of failure’, even as their voices remain largely absent from debates about them. In response, youth-led organizations attempt to forward youth as political stakeholders. I draw upon ethnographic data from two such organizations to examine the performative aspects of their campaign work. I focus on how they engaged in (1) counter-scripting, to imagine themselves as political stakeholders and substantively prepare themselves for their new roles, and in (2) counter-staging, to gain …

Using Knowledge Building To Support Deep Learning, Collaboration And Innovation In Engineering Education, Glenn W. Ellis, Alan N. Rudnitsky, Mary A. Moriarty

Engineering: Faculty Publications

Knowledge building is a potentially transformative approach to engineering education. In knowledge building students participate in an interactive discourse in which they work together to broaden ideas, reform problems and share knowledge - the result being a deeper level of understanding and the collaborative production of new knowledge. In 2009 we conducted a knowledge building pilot study in the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College. In this study students worked together to formulate a question about the potential for a conscious machine and then engaged in an intensive knowledge building discourse. Assessment data showing the effectiveness of the approach and …

The Challenge To Foundations And Leadership: Critical Discourse, Hegemony, And The Power Of Traditions, Deron R. Boyles, Douglas Davis

Deron R. Boyles

This paper is a representational conversation between the authors-a social foundations professor and a leadership professor-regarding a leadership program in which both faculty members teach.

Taking Care Of Business: Advertising, Commercialism, And Implications For Discourse About Schools, Deron R. Boyles

Deron R. Boyles

This essay challenges the long-standing notion that the overriding purpose of U.S.A. public schools should be to produce future workers for corporate America. It questions the current discourse-the language we use when we talk about schooling, teaching, and learning. In effect, this essay takes exception to the undergirding assumption that public schools are primarily in existence as avenues for private gain. The claim is that a new language of inquiry and critique is needed in order for teachers and students to realize a significant, if untapped potential for U.S.A. schooling: namely, critical analysis of the taken-for-granted.

The Economics And Financing Of Urban Schools: Toward A Productive, Solution-Oriented Discourse, Faith E. Crampton

Educational Considerations

Across the nation, a surprising number of both critics and advocates of urban schools demonstrate a naïveté about the limits and possibilities of funding in relationship to the academic success of urban students.

Adolescent Literate Identity Online: Individuals And The Discourse Of A Class Wiki, Amanda J. Mccollum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine students' representations of their literate identities in what Gee (2008) calls Discourse that developed among 105 high school students— 103 10th-grade and two 11th-grade students—using a wiki for class work, collaboration, and social interaction. The theoretical frame for the present study was drawn from of four bodies of literature. Through a reciprocal process of positioning self and others (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999), individuals come to form and display their literate identity (Heath, 1991) within a community of practice (Wenger, 1998). Their interactions reflect norms, values, and accepted ways of being within …

Toward A Theory Of Female Subjectivity, Dimitra Cupo

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Poststructuralist accounts of gender provide a useful theoretical space to unpack the workings of power and domination as they structure the organization of our language, representations, concepts, and discourse in general. One significant flaw of this theory is a failure to adequately account for the social realm of embodied individuals, social interactions, and interpretive moments. In this paper, I offer conventional femininity as a particular type of gendered habitus that highlights this theoretical flaw as it necessarily links what is promising and useful about poststructuralist accounts of gender with the physical, social, interactive, and interpretive everyday lives of women.

The Nature Of Transfer From The Concepts And Vocabulary Taught In A Character Education Unit To Students Classroom Discourse, Marianne E. Gill

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study was conducted to inform my teaching practices on character education. The purpose of this study was to better understand the nature of transfer from the concepts of character taught in lessons to students' classroom discourse. Data were systematically collected from student comments, class meetings, and student reflection journals during a 13-week character education unit. Their discourse was coded and analyzed for evidence of transfer through an iterative process that allowed for ongoing comparison of the data. Evidence of transfer was identified only once prior to the eleventh week of the study. However,during the eleventh week, evidence …

Labor Pains: An Exploration Of The Complex Roles Of Identity, The Body, And Policy In Surrogacy Discourses In India, Jennifer Aimee Sandoval

Communication ETDs

This study applied communication theory about the body, identity, and policy to analysis of the process of surrogacy in India. Using qualitative interview methods and discourse analysis, the study aims to increase understanding of how the process of transnational surrogacy emerges, and the impact it has on participants. Interviews were conducted in Ahmedabad, Anand, and Mumbai with doctors, health officials, surrogates, and activities. The interview data was used to answer four research questions that worked to identify how the process of surrogacy is communicated and enacted, how surrogates bodies are positioned, how surrogates construct their identities, and how policy constructs …

Discourses Of Diversity: Negotiating The Boundaries For Equity, Inclusion, And Identity Through The Discourse Of Socially Situated Subjects, Hannah Oliha

Communication ETDs

The demographic changes in the U.S. and the contestation of taken-for-granted social dynamics are breeding fragmentation and discursive struggles over individual, group, institutional and national identities. Questions of who fits into the category of "American," who should be included in U.S. institutions, and the boundaries for their inclusion have taken center stage in this 21st century moment. Unsurprisingly, the word "diversity" has taken on epic proportions and is now the channel for engaging in these conversations centered on issues of equity, inclusion and difference. This dissertation explores the multiple ways diversity is viewed in one U.S. institution, higher education, to …

Conservative Think Tanks And Discourse On Immigration In The U.S., Emily J. Langerak

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Immigration is an issue that has sparked heated debate throughout U.S. history. Old immigration narratives continue to inform the debate, reminding us that we are a "nation of immigrants," but also cautioning against uncontrolled "floods" of immigration. These narratives are commonly employed to promote specific policies, and fuel both backlashes against immigration and celebration of our immigrant heritage. Think tanks, whose success depends upon their reputation as reliable sources of scholarly policy analysis, are often regarded as providing exactly that. This study examines the writing of three prominent conservative think tanks - the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the …

Making The Significant Significant: A Discourse Analysis Examining The Teacher's Role In Negotiating Meaning Of Text With Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Keith Standiford Wheeler

Dissertations

This study reports data from a three-month discourse analysis of a fifth-grade teacher`s language used to negotiate meaning of text with linguistically and culturally diverse students. Specifically, I use Gee`s (2005) discourse analysis methodology to examine the teacher`s language-in-use for seven building tasks of language--significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics (the distribution of social goods), connections, and sign systems and knowledge--in a micro level analysis for eight teaching episodes covering reading and/or social studies instruction. In doing so, I conceptualize categories and subcategories of language use for each of the language building tasks. I find that the teacher used instructional language …

Who Owns Disability? An Investigation Into The Politics Of Representation, Shelby Forbes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I show how a community of professionals providing equine therapy to individuals with disabilities discursively make sense of their enterprise. A market metaphor illustrates how disability is constructed as the capital sustaining the livelihood of their industry. Disability is a problem-centered concept. It is generally conceptualized according to a medical model which locates disability within the individual, as opposed to understanding it in a sociological sense which accounts for structural, cultural, and communicative factors. Therapy, on the other hand, is problem-determined-it needs to explicitly determine a problem to be treated in order to sustain itself as an …

Commodifying My Culture: An “Appalachian” Reflects On Her Role In Sustaining A Limited Discourse Of Appalachia, Amanda Fickey

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Nationalism In Charles De Gaulle's Speeches During World War Ii, Mayavel Amado

Theses and Dissertations

In a world where conflicts and supranational entities have emerged, nationalism has become an important topic for scholars in different fields. While much debate exists on what this term actually means and encompass, little attention has been paid to the rhetoric of nationalist leaders. Through scholarly and popular literature nationalism has often been confused with patriotism and populism. This work intends to look at what nationalism is, based on patterns drawn from observations in the rhetoric of nationalist leaders (sometimes opposing them to populist rhetoric) and at the same time it intends to expose Charles de Gaulle's nationalism in his …

Confronting Oppression Not Enhancing Functioning: The Role Of Social Workers Within Postmodern Practice, Phillip Dybicz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article represents a philosophical hermeneutic endeavor to explore the meaning of oppression as it expresses itself within social work practices based in both modern and postmodern thought. Practices based within the Modern Discourse, drawing from an authority base of scientific expertise, exhibit a disconnect between the goal of enhancing functioning and social work values and concerns such as confronting oppression; this disconnect must be bridged by the social worker. Practices based within the Postmodern Discourse are founded upon the notion of confronting oppressive narratives as their main goal; social work values are an essential component in this process.

Modality Analysisa Semantic Grammar For Imputations Of Intentionality In Texts, Carl W. Roberts, Cornelia Zuell, Juliane Landmann, Yong Wang

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Modality analysis is a text analysis methodology that affords comparisons of how people from distinct cultural contexts differ in their accounts of why one or more of their numbers find specific activities possible, impossible, inevitable, or contingent. The technique is built around a two-part semantic grammar, the application of which involves the identification of modal clauses in texts, the classification of these clauses according to their modal forms, and the identification of rationales associated with the clauses' modalities. We show that with sufficient training the method affords high interrater agreement. After providing a few tips on data-collection strategies, results are …

“We Lost Our Culture With Civilization” – A Critical Analysis Of The Internalization Of The Development Discourse Vis-À-Vis Systems Of Knowledge In Senegal, Karla Giuliano Sarr

Master's Capstone Projects

Critical analysis of the complex interplay between development ideals and local conceptualizations of knowledge forms and education methods are essential if we are to promote holistic, responsive, and culturally appropriate development efforts. Since the end of World War II, and the independence movements that greatly changed geopolitics in the 1960s and 1970s, development prevails as the dominant paradigm in current relations between countries of the North and South (Escobar, 1995; Rahnema & Bawtree, 1997). Development, intrinsically linked with neo-liberal policies and globalization (Peet, 1999), defines not only how Northerners perceive the South, but also, how Southerners perceive themselves, their ways …

Review Essay – Emmanuel Melissaris’S Ubiquitous Law: Legal Theory And The Space For Legal Pluralism, Derek Mckee

Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy

Legal pluralism can be traced to early 20th century attempts to situate law in its social context. It later gained prominence as part of a moderate-left critique of the administrative-welfare state (and was echoed in right-wing economic critiques). In the last two decades, left and right visions of informality and pluralism have converged in a “governance” agenda, with a distinct global dimension. But the idea of making law respond to society, with which pluralism is closely associated, rests on a paradox. It presupposes the ability to identify something as law and something else as society. But each of these concepts …

Traitor In Our Midst: Cultural Variations In Japanese Vs. Oklahoman Public Discourse On Domestic Terrorism In The Spring Of 1995, Carl W. Roberts, Yong Wang

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

When “one of our own” commits mass murder, mechanisms that sustain our social order are opened to question. Based on two samples of newspaper editorials written in 1995 ‐ either after the poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway or after the Oklahoma City bombing ‐ evidence is provided that Japanese editorialists advised strategies for retaining order, whereas Oklahoman authors endorsed ones for reestablishing it. In accordance with Simmel’s distinction between faithfulness and gratitude as social forms, Japanese advised faithful continuation of wholesome interactions with their terrorists, whereas Oklahomans expressed gratitude for rescue workers’ assistance. We apply modality analysis to …

Discourse And Wolves: Science, Society, And Ethics, William S. Lynn

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

Wolves have a special resonance in many human cultures. To appreciate fully the wide variety of views on wolves, we must attend to the scientific, social, and ethical discourses that frame our understanding of wolves themselves, as well as their relationships with people and the natural world. These discourses are a configuration of ideas, language, actions, and institutions that enable or constrain our individual and collective agency with respect to wolves.

Scientific discourse is frequently privileged when it comes to wolves, on the assumption that the primary knowledge requirements are matters of ecology, cognitive ethology, and allied disciplines. Social discourse …

Political Violence In South Africa: A Case Study Of "Necklacing" In Colesberg, Sipho Mbuqe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines certain psychological dimensions and implications of political violence in general by means of a specific violent incident that took place in Colesberg, South Africa in 1985. Ms. Nokwakha Dilato was murdered by a group of people who poured gasoline over her body, placed a car tire, filled with gasoline, around her neck and shoulders, and set her alight - a practice known as "necklacing", and which became widespread during that time as a way of killing suspected or confirmed collaborators with the Apartheid regime. Three sources of data about this event were analyzed for this dissertation. First, …

Cyberspace And The Defense Of The Revolution: Cuban Bloggers, Civic Participation, And State Discourse, Renee Naomi Timberlake

Master's Theses

In this thesis I address how Cuban bloggers are contesting state sanctioned modes of civic participation and censorship. I begin to address this question with a discussion of the creation and perpetuation of a state sponsored hegemonic discourse, followed by the alternative, counterhegemonic discourses which appear in the blogs of Cuban writers Yoani Sanchez and Claudia Cadelo. The two authors are tapping into the internet, overcoming state imposed, island-wide bans on their websites, and voicing their dissent against and frustration with a government that professes a discourse of solidarity and socialism while enacting a reality of inequality and market-based economics.

Water And Stone: Contemporary Chinese Art And The Spirit Resonance Of The World, Mary Bittner Wiseman

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

My claim that the new art in China operates at the level of matter and gesture, below that of discourse, is twofold. First, much of the art that is being made exemplifies principles articulated by Hsieh Ho (fifth century) and Shih Tao (seventeenth century) and refracted through the changes wrought by Mao in 1949 and Deng in 1979. Through their art, experimental Chinese artists ask what can art be in a world turned upside down, and what can it be to be artist in such a world and, in particular, to be a Chinese artist.

Second, in the course of …

Historical Cosmologies: Epistemology And Axiology In Australian Secondary School History Discourse, James Martin, Karl A. Maton, Erika S. Matruglio

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper considers the discourse of modern history in Australian secondary schools from the perspectives of systemic functional linguistics and social realist sociology of education. In particular it develops work on genre and field in history discourse in relation to knowledge structure, and the role of technical concepts realised as '-isms'. These are interpreted in relation to recent social realist work on the axiological charging of terms, especially in humanities and social science discourse, so that how you feel turns out to be as important as what you know as far as an historian's gaze on the past is concerned. …

Othering Obama : How Whiteness Is Used To Undermine Authority, David S. Owen

Faculty Scholarship

In this paper, I argue that the sociocultural structuring property of whiteness has been utilized to marginalize President Obama and effectively undermine his presidential authority. Whiteness functions in a largely invisible and ostensibly deracialized way to normalize the interests, needs, and values of whites, while at the same time marginalizing and devaluing the voice of people of color. Analyzing the health care debate through this theoretical lens generates insights into how the debate reproduced the system of racial oppression, and how whiteness functions in political discourse.

Partnership Between Myth And Reality : Structural Asymmetries In Parent-Teacher Relationships, Marisa Bel Holtz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite a historically unprecedented increase in advocacy for parental involvement in education in recent decades, parents continue to express dissatisfaction with their communication with teachers, while teachers continue to identify their interactions with parents as a source of tension and stress. While the practitioner literature recommends parent-teacher collaboration as an attainable goal, the theoretical literature suggests that, given the structural asymmetries of parent-teacher relationships, open communication may be impossible. Via unstructured interviews with parents and teachers of suburban secondary students, this study explored the structural limitations on authentic parent-teacher communication. A two-layered analytic approach combined thematic analysis and narrative discourse …

A Discourse Analysis Of Transsexuality Through Three Fields: Expert Knowledges In Legal. Medical And News Texts, Nazgol Afsahi

Digitized Theses

Employing a Foucauldian discourse analysis, this thesis examines knowledge produced about transsexuality and sex reassignment surgery (SRS) through the fields of medical, legal and news texts. I explore key shifts in Western feminist, queer and trans approaches to sex/gender and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual o f Mental Disorders’ pathologization of gender-variance in the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis. I also undertake a case study of trans marriages prior to Bill C-38, and the Ontario Vital Statistics Act’s reliance on medical proof in change of sex designation requests. Finally, I analyze seventy-seven texts from The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, …

‘Killer Vacations’ And ‘Murder Music’: The Discourses Of Gay Identity, Consumerism, And Race In The Gay-Dancehall Confrontation, James Rogers

Digitized Theses

Using Foucaultian discourse analysis, this thesis examines the discursive practices of Anglo- American gay activists who respond to the homophobie lyrics and violence of Jamaican dancehall music and culture. Since the early 1990s, gay activists in North America and the United Kingdom have mobilized in opposition to the graphic anti-gay violence in Jamaican popular culture. While much has been written about the metaphor, performativity, and symbolic violence in dancehall music, there is a paucity of scholarship that analyzes the discourse of gay activists who, in taking aim at dancehall homophobia, arguably produce the framework in which dancehall is meaningfully discussed. …

The Discipline Of Identity: Examining The Challenges Of Developing Interdisciplinary Identities Within The Science Disciplines, Nicholas Richard Burk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conducting scientific research that integrates multiple disciplines is an increasingly important, and yet challenging endeavor. This study employs the construct of identity to characterize and examine the obstacles to successful interdisciplinary work. It is argued that identity provides a useful lens into the process of scientific investigation, because as a construct, it has been shown to influence the way one sees oneself, others, and the practice of “good science.” It is therefore assumed that scientists’ identities may be an under-examined, mitigating factor in whether they develop an interest and aptitude for interdisciplinary collaboration. This study qualitatively examines 20 postgraduate students …