Language and Education Library – serie

The theory of critique, or 'critical theory', as developed by Habermas and applied to education by Young, is far from being merely negative. It is quite explicitly an optimistic educational theory, in which the hope for rational progress, peace, global understanding and ecological sanity, is celebrated. Now that dogmatic Marxism has been swept into the rubbish bin of history, it may be possible to engage in a less paranoid appraisal of the claims of critical theory — the most revisionist legacy of Marxism. A close look shows it to be eminently practical, democratically-minded and responsible. In this book, Young summarises critical learning theory, shows its relationship to educational research, particularly research on classroom communication, and demonstrates its value for classroom teachers in a variety of 'real-life' classrooms. Far from being a utopian approach, it comes to grips with the everyday problems of teachers in real, imperfect, underfunded schools. Motivation, interest, getting through the work, achieving real understanding and teacher-planner relationships are fully discussed, using classroom transcripts.

The idea behind this book is that in complex societies like our own there are different worlds of literacy that exist side by side. People belong to different cultural groups: we lead different lives, we read and write different things in different ways and for different purposes. The idea that literacy is embedded in social context, that there are different literacies, is now accepted. This book presents a range of case studies describing some of these worlds of literacy and is carefully organised by theme, so as to bring out both the differences and connections between them. It will be a source book for students on courses of literacy studies. The case studies span the whole age range, but the book focuses particularly on the variety of uses of literacy in adult life, both inside and outside of formal education. The authors argue that in order to understand literacy and help people learn to read and write, we must look beyond school to the everyday uses of written communication. The contributors come from diverse backgrounds: they include students and teachers in adult basic education, higher education and schools: others are community publishers and researchers, several of whom are internationally known. They share a commitment to plain, accessible language. The book is extensively illustrated and 'sign-posted' to enable readers to move easily between case studies and themes. This makes it a book to dip into which can also be enjoyed by anyone concerned with the role of written communication in education and society as a whole. The themes that are dealt with include different voices, literacy and identity, the role of literacy in making choices and change, collaborative writing and creating new forms of written expression; gender and literacy, bilingual literacy, spoken and written language, children and adult learners, public and private uses of literacy, and bureaucratic literacy.

Recent years have seen the development of language policies in many countries, usually for the purpose of defining status, support and recognition of languages and language diversity. This book analyses policy development in six countries where, because of its association with colonial expansion, English has become the dominant language and hence the language of power, government and civil commerce, often replacing other local languages. Recent demographic and political changes have forced a recognition of the need for re-defining the role and status of language(s) relative to English and to one another and for according linguistic rights to speakers of the non-official language(s). The case studies presented here show the diversity of responses to language issues when taken up officially or by default, and record the struggle of minority-language speakers to attain rights and recognition in education and social services. There is clear evidence of the status impact of decisions on language at all levels and a startling revelation of the intractability of language issues to solutions. The book will be of interest to academics, politicians, educators and students of linguistics, cultural and comparative studies.

This book presents a unique collection of research studies on French Immersion conducted from the authors' base as a research team in British Columbia, Canada. It serves as an important resource for educators and policymakers interested in the impact of immersion on educational policy, student outcomes, second language curriculum, and teacher education. Section I documents the authors' experiences in developing a systematic approach to evaluation and assessment of French immersion programs. Section II includes studies on important curricular and instructional considerations for immersion education, and Section III addresses teacher education and professional development, including in-depth case studies of immersion teacher education programs and immersion teachers' perspectives on their role and needs for support and improvement. A final chapter contains concluding comments and future directions for immersion programs. Immersion has grown significantly not only in Canada but also worldwide. This collection of research studies will be informative to those involved in intensive second language education internationally.

This text looks at how computers are being used in primary classrooms and how they could be used better. Its three sections focus upon: how do we investigate learning through talk around computers? What affects the quality of group work around computers? What can teachers do to improve this?