Drawing upon notions of symbolic representation and transcultural repositioning, this study uses visual and critical discourse analyses to examine a multimodal photo essay created by seventh- and eighth-grade immigrant youth in an English as a New Language (ENL) class. Collectively titled "I am from 'aquí' and 'allá'"…

Prompted by calls for research on technology-focused professional development, this ethnographic case study investigates how teachers' participation in learning communities may influence technology integration within the secondary English curriculum. In this article, I draw on educational psychology, cognitive anthropology, and…

This study reports two stages of research into the discourses of poetry education in the United States from the early 20th to the early 21st centuries. The first is an original study that traces the history of discourses about teaching poetry, and the second is a coda or concluding analysis that raises questions about how history functions as a…

The purpose of this study was to examine how a White teacher (Gina) responded to African American Language (AAL) in ways that situated students as valuable members of a high school English classroom. This 5-month qualitative study in a 10th grade classroom drew from positioning theory and discourse analysis to make sense of classroom interactions…

In this article, the researchers use positioning theory and de Certeau's theoretical insights into cultural production in everyday life to examine how first-year literacy coaches negotiate issues of power, positioning, and identity during their professional development. Data were collected during a yearlong qualitative study of literacy coaches…

Focusing on matters of power and difference, this article examines rhetorical theories of genre and James Gee's theory of Discourse. Although both theories offer productive ways of understanding literate practice, it is argued, they are limited in crucial respects. Genre theory offers few ways of understanding how and why some social actors have…

This article provides micro analysis of one representative incident from a larger qualitative study to examine how third-grade bilingual students and their teacher negotiated academic disciplinary and popular culture discourses in a social studies unit on Jamestown and Pocahontas. Informed by discourse and linguistic analyses, this study explores…

This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL),as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing…

Studying critical literacies includes examining how research practices influence what is learned about classroom activity and the world. This article highlights the processes and practices used in studying 1 classroom conversation. The data, drawn from an elementary school classroom of a Critical Literacy in Action teacher-researcher group member,…

This qualitative study used theories of language and learning to explore the identities of one preservice teacher in a reading specialization program. Data sources included archived online course responses, interviews, journals, and an electronic portfolio. Analysis indicates that the participant used multiple discourses as an immigrant,…

Explores how two students participated in classroom talk about written text. Finds students participated in talk in complicated, devolving ways over a school year--one participated in class talk about text with an assumption of expertise, only to lose credibility when his teacher expected richer insights; the other participated with such talk with…

Explores a writing-project teacher's premises about writing and illustrates how those underlying principles drove her instruction, influenced children's work, and created a particular theory of writing in her classroom culture. Finds that writing conferences are important instructional conversations for teaching writing; learning to write involves…

Advances an approach to analysis of discursive intercontextuality through theories of space-time production. Argues management of multiple contexts within school-related discourse is an important means of discursively producing identity, agency, and power relations. Draws data from an ethnographic and discourse-based study of an extended school…

Examines the "living dialogues," or the complex interplay between discourses, among three children, their families, and teachers to recontextualize the often polarized debates about literacy instruction. Argues the creation of more inclusive school literacy practices requires a consideration of how discourses function within and across homes,…

Analyzes the discussion of four "struggling" fifth-grade girls and the researcher as they transacted with Mildred Taylor's "The Friendship." Shows how participants' responses to the text and adult and peer guidance created a response development zone. Notes the girls used reading, writing, and discussion to address comprehension difficulties and…