Putting grammar in its place: interactions and identity in a Master of TESOL course

This chapter reports on the development of language awareness and second language identities of a cohort of Chinese TESOL teachers that arose as a result of incidental classroom interactions during a TESOL Masters course in Australia. The experiences of such interactions appeared to help the Chinese teachers make stronger connections between form and meaning, and, while they also reflected deeply on the pedagogies of grammar, they gained a wider view of language teaching and learning that included pragmatic and sociolinguistic awareness. The impact of cultural and educational exchanges and the resulting formations of second language identities is an emerging focus of research (Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott and Brown, 2013). In the field of TESOL, such movements and exchanges are creating opportunities to develop a richer discourse, by drawing on diverse traditions of professionalism in different communities and contexts, and calls are increasingly being made for a plural professional knowledge and more inclusive relationships (Canagarajah, 2005; Holliday, 2005; Widdowson, 2004). The People’s Republic of China has been one of the major contributors to student and teacher mobility in recent years; English language is now a priority subject in China, and all students entering university must take the English college test whether they intend to major in English or not, and therefore there has been much interest in upskilling cohorts of Chinese teachers of English to meet this demand. An increasingly typical initiative is to award scholarships to gain professional qualifications in English-speaking countries. A cohort of English teachers from Jiangsu province, China, is the focus of the present study. During their Masters in TESOL course in Queensland, Australia, they experienced interactions with native speakers inside and outside of the classroom. As their course lecturer for several TESOL units, I was interested in the nature of the incidental language awareness arising from course activities with their native-speaking peers. I was also interested in whether they felt that these experiences had implications for their sense of identity in a second language. The following sections therefore discuss the key themes: interaction in higher education contexts, language awareness, and second language identities.

Developing and using an S3R model to analyze reasoning in web-based cross-national exchanges on sustainability

Within the increasing body of research that examines students' reasoning on socioscientific issues, we consider in particular student reasoning concerning acute, open-ended questions that bring out the complexities and uncertainties embedded in ill-structured problems. In this paper, we propose a socioscientific sustainability reasoning (S3R) model to analyze students' reasoning exchanges on environmental socially acute questions (ESAQs). The paper describes the development of an epistemological analysis of how sustainability perspectives can be integrated into socioscientific reasoning, which emphasizes the need for S3R to be both grounded in context and collective. We argue the complexity of ESAQs requires a consideration of multiple dimensions that form the basis of our S3R analysis model: problematization, interactions, knowledge, uncertainties, values, and governance. For each dimension, in the model we have identified indicators of four levels of complexity. We investigated the usefulness of the model in identifying improvements in reasoning that flow from cross-national web-based exchanges between groups of French and Australian students, concerning a local and a global ESAQ. The S3R model successfully captured the nature of reasoning about socioscientific sustainability issues, with the collective negotiation of multiple forms of knowledge as a key characteristic in improving reasoning levels. The paper provides examples of collaborative argumentation in collective texts (wikis) to illustrate the various levels of reasoning in each dimension, and diagrammatic representation of the evolution of collective reflections. We observe that a staged process of construction and confrontation, involving groups representing to some extent different cultural and contextual stances, is powerful in eliciting reasoned argument of enhanced quality. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Interactive television in schools : an Australian study of the tensions of educational technology and change

This paper outlines some key issues that arose from several projects that investigated the use of interactive television in schooling. In this paper we draw on these projects, to illustrate and discuss how a (then) new form of distance education -- satellite-based, narrowcast ITV -- was designated for use in primary (elementary) and secondary (high school) classroom settings, how it was implemented, and how it collapsed as an endeavour. Issues raised by students, teachers and administrators are related to each to illustrate how ITV slowly declined over several years, despite its usefulness for some and strong support from those involved.

Can multimedia meet tertiary educational needs better than the conventional lecture? A case study

Educational researchers have long derided the university lecture as an effective mode of delivery of educational materials, but currently there are many reports on the advantages offered by computer. In this study a multimedia solution was sought to replace existing face to face lectures because it appeared to offer a close 'media versus need' match. Consequently, a decision was made to develop a design template for an interactive computer based program that would be suitable for a range of subject content. In order to personalise the instruction, a large video insert was incorporated as the main screen's most prominent design feature. From here the learner could navigate to support material including interactive simulations. The program was piloted with a small group of students and, in particular, the student tracking data that the program automatically generates yield some interesting learning style information.

Towards a critical practice of educational administration [Turkish]

Beginning with a brief critique of the behavioral science approach to educational administration, this paper traces the roots of an alternative perspective through examination of the new sociology of education and critical social theory. Arguing then for the location of a critical practice of educational administration in a cultural analysis of the habitus of education, the author discusses the metaphorical, ritualistic, and linguistic features of that habitus with reference to empirical studies. Fianlly, it is argued that the practice of a critical and reflexive educational administration is necessarily located within a critique of domination and a commitment to struggle in the interest of a better world.

Fictions for representing and generating semiotic consciousness: the crime story and educational inquiry

This essay appraises the work of fiction in representing and generating semiotic consciousness in education by examining three intertextual continuities between crime fiction and stories of educational inquiry. First, many reports of educational research resemble detective stories in their quests to determine the (or a) “truth” about something that is problematic or puzzling and this essay describes some of the ways in which the characteristic investigatory methods of fictional detectives resemble forms of educational inquiry. Second, the characteristic ways in which detective stories generate interpretations are compared with the textual strategies deployed in producing meanings and narratives in educational inquiry. Third, recent transformations of both detective fiction and educational inquiry are shown to be comparable — and intertextually linked — manifestations of cultural and semiotic shifts associated with postmodernity. I conclude by suggesting that authors of “anti-detective” crime fiction might provide more appropriate models of educational inquiry than do fictional detectives.

Is it only 'what works' that 'counts' in new knowledge economies? Evidence-based practice, educational research and teacher education in Australia

Recent texts on globalisation and education policy refer to the rapid flow of education policy texts producing or responding to common trends across nation states with the emergence of new knowledge economies. These educational policies are shaping what counts as research and the dynamics between research, policy, and practice in schools, creating new types of relationships between universities, the public, the professions, government, and industry. The trend to evidence-based policy and practice in Australian schools is used to identify key issues within wider debates about the ‘usefulness’ of educational research and the role of universities and university-based research in education in new knowledge economies.

The impact of educational research: alternative methodologies and conclusions

Recent controversy regarding the nature, organization and impact of educational research in the UK (Hargreaves, 1996; 1997; 1999; Hammersley, 1997; Tooley, 1998; Hillage et al., 2000; Ball, 2001) seems to devote little attention to research on the impact of educational research. This paper examines a recent Australian report (The Impact of Educational Research, DETYA, 2000) in terms of both its conclusions and its methodologies. It suggests that the impact of educational research on both policy and practice is often complex and indirect rather than linear and straightforward and that the methodologies employed in assessing such impact need to be similarly complex. Moreover, it would appear that this particular research supports Atkinson's (2000) contention that the ways in which educational research is typically produced and utilized is as part of a complex conversation about a diversity of purposes, effects and judgements rather than a more technically oriented implementation of 'what works'.