ERIC Number: EJ810223
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Jun
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0159-6306
EISSN: N/A
Drugs, Discourses and Education: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a High School Drug Education Text
Tupper, Kenneth W.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, v29 n2 p223-238 Jun 2008
This paper examines a high school drug education text using critical discourse analysis (CDA) to discern its underlying ideological commitments and political dispositions. I begin with an overview of CDA and why it is a suitable methodology for my work, and then provide a brief history of drug education in North America. Next, I consider some of the primary discursive features of a Canadian eighth-grade drug education teacher's manual called "Making Decisions". I continue with a focused interrogation of a student "fact sheet" on hallucinogens, and conclude with some educational implications of my research. Paying careful attention to features such as genre, syntax, interdiscursivity, and lexicalization, I question core assumptions made by both a drug education text and the broader medical, public health, legal and drug policy discourses from which it draws.
Descriptors: Drug Education, Syntax, Public Health, Discourse Analysis, Junior High School Students, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries, Grade 8, Decision Making, Teaching Guides, Drug Abuse, Social Influences, Educational History, Health Promotion, At Risk Persons
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Grade 8; Junior High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A