Teachers in complementary schools are often assumed to be using outmoded teaching strategies and an authoritarian approach to discipline. However, it is rare for mainstream teachers to have visited these community-run after-school or weekend classes, which remain on the margins of educational provision. This paper argues that complementary…

This paper highlights the significance of teacher identity to debates about the disconnect between digital literacies within and beyond school by exploring pre-service teachers' perspectives on digital literacy practices in their personal and professional lives. It uses aspects of Giddens' work on self-identity to frame an analysis that suggests…

In his poem entitled "Privacy", Alberto, an inmate in the state prison of Oaxaca, Mexico, vividly evokes the conflictive dynamics of space and time within his living quarters. This is his way of dealing with the sadness, trauma, and mundanity of his incarceration. Alberto's poem has emerged from our ongoing ethnographic project based on a creative…

In this end piece, the authors argue that while this special issue shifts debates on the digital divide to address students' capacity to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for productive social purposes, access to ICT remains a major challenge in countries like Uganda, in which less than 1% of the population has access to the…

Literacy has always been a contested site in primary phase teaching. Internationally, there is a trend towards increased direct government intervention in areas of pedagogy, as well as curriculum. Recently in the UK, national initiatives, designed to raise standards of literacy among the 11-14 age group, have required English teachers to adapt…

When instructing reading and composition, teachers should have students write down dictated vocabulary, short phrases, simple sentences, etc., occasionally modifying these, in order to deepen their understanding of how "kana" (i.e., phonetic characters) and vocabulary are used. This can be broken down into the following four activities: (1)…

This paper aims to contribute a sociocultural theoretical perspective for the creative identity work involved in the ongoing process of learning and using literacies. Drawing on anthropological theories of identity formation, I argue that people employ cultural resources, such as cultural artefacts, to develop new identities and literacies. I…

This paper examines the idea that in mathematics education it is important to wean pupils off the use of informal everyday language and to privilege the use of formal technical vocabulary. I will first make some observations on the use of formal and informal language in the Dimensions transcript. The main focus of the next part of the discussion…

I draw attention to the distinction between reductionist views of "language" and the rich and complex ways in which we might approach language as social practice and suggest the latter view is evident in the set of papers collected here. Socially oriented linguists, including those in New Literacy Studies (NLS), look beyond reductionism, to…

The development of reason has long been an important aim for education. This is possibly reflected in the emphasis on the importance of explicit verbal reasoning in definitions of "Exploratory Talk", a concept that has had some influence on classroom teaching. In this paper I argue from transcript evidence that, while Exploratory Talk is a…

There is now a considerable body of research into issues of gender representation in children's literature. This is no doubt partly due to the perceived importance of such representation for children's social and psychological development. In this paper I analyse gender representation in one stage of a reading scheme which is currently popular in…

This essay reviews Vygotsky's work on defectology. First, Vygotsky's cultural heritage as a Jew during the transformation from Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union is considered as a factor in his views on defectology and inclusion. The review then outlines his perspective on the "defect," including his definition of "defect," his view of the…

In this article, the author reflects on the transitions she has navigated since 2005 and offers insight into elements of research relationships. As she guides and accompanies a new generation of qualitative researchers planning and experiencing their fieldwork, the need for writing that addresses the complexities of "the intersubjectivity of the…

On December 18, 1996, a controversial resolution was passed by the Board of Education of Oakland, California that recognized the legitimacy and significance of Ebonics in the cultural lives and in the education of African American children. The resolution, which was eventually amended, particularly around the implications that Ebonics was a…

This paper is concerned with the intersection of discourse, pedagogy and gender identification in primary school classrooms. More specifically, it uses illustrative findings from a larger study to examine boys' and girls' discourses in learning and friendship groups in the classrooms of two demographically similar but pedagogically different…