Performative face theory: A critical perspective on interpersonal identity work

Power operates not only through ideological and institutional control, but also through everyday interpersonal communication practices that sediment what is and ought to be. However, critical theorizing about power remains scarce within the sub-fields of interpersonal and family communication. To answer questions about operations of power in interpersonal identity work, performative face theory is set forth, which places Erving Goffman’s theorization of face in conversation with Judith Butler’s theory of performativity. Performative face theory suggests that discursive acts cited or repeated in negotiations of face constitute and sometimes subvert naturalized identity categories. Four theoretical principles are provided and an empirical example of childbearing identity is presented. Finally, implications of this novel critical interpersonal and family communication theory are discussed.     

A Cross‐age Study of Children’s Knowledge of Apparent Celestial Motion

The US National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy recommend that students understand the apparent patterns of motion of the Sun, Moon, and stars by the end of early elementary school, yet no research has specifically examined these concepts from an Earth‐based perspective with this age group. This study examines children’s understanding of the patterns of apparent celestial motion among first‐grade, third‐grade, and eighth‐grade students, and investigates the extent to which these concepts develop from elementary to middle school in students without targeted instruction. Twenty students at each grade level (total n = 60) were interviewed using a novel interview setting: a small dome representing the sky, which allowed students to demonstrate their ideas. Analysis reveals that elementary and middle school students hold a variety of non‐scientific ideas about all aspects of apparent celestial motion. While the eighth‐grade students’ understanding of the apparent motion of the Sun shows a greater level of accuracy compared with the third‐grade students, across the majority of topics of apparent celestial motion, the overall level of accuracy shows little change from third grade to eighth grade. Just as prior research has demonstrated the need for instruction to improve children’s understanding of the nature of celestial objects and their actual motions, these results support the need for research on instructional strategies that improve students’ understanding of celestial motion as seen from their own perspective.     

Integration without assimilation? Ethno‐nationalism in Israel and universal laïcité in France

The adoption of multiculturalism and multiethnic views of society seems to be a convergent tendency among Western democracies where population flows are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. However, the established citizenship models and migrant groups' experiences have different impacts on the multicultural discourse in each country. This ‘integration without assimilation’ thesis has been examined comparing two countries – Israel and France – that differ largely in their definition of nationhood. Despite large demographic changes in both countries, the evolution of conceptions of citizenship in France and in Israel reflects a reaffirmation of existing models – the particularist Israeli ethno‐nationalism and the universalist French republicanism and laïcité – and the continuity of their assimilationist and homogenizing tendencies towards a Jewish uniform identity in the former and towards a uniform secular (or catho‐laique) identity in the latter.     

Constructing Narratives of Continuity and Change: A transdisciplinary approach to researching lives

In outlining the framework offered at the UNESCO Regional Conference in support of Global Literacy (New Delhi, November 2007), it was pointed out that concepts of poverty, sustainable development and particularly of literacy and innovation have themselves been in continuous re‐construction. An analysis of the context and condition for literacy policies and initiatives in Bangladesh—a country with one of the highest rates of both poverty and illiteracy—was undertaken, as an exemplar for other countries of the Asian region, and for Third World countries around the globe. It is suggested that to meet the challenge ahead, social‐structural strategies must be joined with instructional strategies and second socializations of all involved; and both the planners and providers of adult literacy, and the intended beneficiaries of adult literacy dispensation must be mobilized. Commitments must last for a decade—and more if necessary.     

Idiosyncratic cases and hopes for general validity: what education research might learn from ecology / Casos idiosincrásicos y expectativas de validez general: lo que la investigación en educación puede aprender de la ecología

Abstract

We reflect on our ongoing struggles with rigour and validity in a project based on case study analyses: How can particular instances of learning, with all their idiosyncratic details and dynamics, contribute findings of lasting value to education? For this essay, we look to the field of ecology, which has faced similar challenges, for insights into the goals and methods of research.     

Effective Classroom Organisation in Primary Schools: Mathematics

One of the greatest problems in teaching mathematics arises from the diversity of pupils' attainments. For decades, this has been managed by primary class teachers in England by adopting an approach of within-class grouping or differentiation according to attainment-level. During the last two years, however, government initiatives have increased the focus on a whole-class approach to teaching mathematics. This has led to an increase in the number of schools adopting a policy of grouping between parallel classes, or 'setting' by attainment within classes in order to contain the range of attainment in each teaching group and to make whole-class teaching a realistic possibility. Earlier research studies have outlined the benefits of grouping by attainment for subsequent learning in mathematics, especially for higher-attaining pupils; the results this article uses challenge the findings of earlier studies. Newly available data from a large-scale primary mathematics project are examined which indicate that the attainments of pupils taught in mixed-ability classes are at least equal to those of pupils in schools set by attainment.