Majority and Immigrant Students’ Positionings towards Refugees as Represented in Media Texts
The recent immigrants’ and refugees’ movements towards western nation-states undermine symbolic national boundaries. Such movements are perceived as a threat to linguistic and cultural homogeneity, and reinforce the reproduction of national discourse. The present study focuses on how majority and immigrant students attending a Greek elementary school position themselves towards the Greek national discourse concerning refugees. Using analytical tools from Critical Discourse Analysis, we demonstrate that both majority and immigrant students reinforce Greek national discourse which takes the form of either racist or humanitarian discourse.
- Research Article
12
- 10.1075/prag.16016.arc
- Jul 5, 2022
- Pragmatics
Racism as a means for accomplishing homogeneity is at the center of this study which draws on Critical Discourse Analysis and focuses on descriptions of racist behaviors included in immigrant students’ school essays. We investigate how the dominant assimilative and homogenizing discourse operates in Greece and how immigrant students position themselves towards this dominant discourse. Our analysis focuses on the ways the immigrant students of our sample construct legitimizing and hybrid resistance identities. We demonstrate that legitimizing identities are found in the vast majority of the essays of our data due to the racist behaviors experienced by immigrant people. On the other hand, the explicit description of such behaviors appears only in few essays. We argue that in these few essays, via referring to racist behaviors of majority people against them, immigrant students manage to build hybrid resistance identities.
- Research Article
- 10.55709/tsbsbildirilerdergisi.2.146
- Aug 14, 2022
- TSBS Bildiriler Dergisi
The main subject of this study is a detailed literature review analysis of critical discourse researches made in the Turkish language. As a unique discipline, critical discourse analysis has played an important research tool role in social sciences. Critical discourse analysis, which emerged in the late 1980s, can be considered a relatively new research method in our country. This discipline has developed around the schools of three different academics. One of the leading figures in this field is Teun A. van Dijk (b. 1943). Van Dijk, the founder of the Socio-cognitive Approach, is one of the important names cited in the analysis of political and media discourses. Another name is Norman Fairclough (b.1941). Fairclough's 3-Dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis method also constitutes an important space in discourse studies. Another significant figure in the field of critical discourse analysis is Ruth Wodak (b. 1950). Wodak, the founder of the Discourse Historical approach, first developed this method to analyze the biased anti-Semitic language and imagery in Waldheim's electoral programs in the Austrian presidential election that was held in 1986. Since then, the methodology developed by Wodak has been useful for discourse analysis of cases with an important historical dimension. This study aims to explain the approaches of the discourse experts mentioned above and to compile critical discourse analysis and corpus analysis studies conducted in political and media texts in Turkish academia. As a result of this study, which was carried out within the scope of the qualitative research method, important insights into the basic features, possibilities, and limitations of critical discourse analysis research in Turkish academia have been obtained. Some of the insights obtained can be summarized as follows: It has been determined that the critical discourse analysis studies available in the Council of Higher Education online database include a total number of 54 master’s and doctoral theses published since 2003. Among these theses, the number of the theses prepared in Turkish is 23. As a result of the Google Scholar search, it has been found that the number of Turkish studies conducted since 2003 is more than 90. The most cited research among these studies is the article “Discourse Analysis” published in 2008. The main limitation of most of the critical discourse analysis studies made in the Turkish language is about the usage of the translations of the works authored by the above-mentioned experts who developed this discipline, and this usage limits the number of resources concerning the method because not every major work has been translated into Turkish. In the light of the findings, the ways to improve the discipline in Turkish academia shows the importance of this study.
- Research Article
- 10.1177/13670069261432528
- Mar 30, 2026
- International Journal of Bilingualism
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Students who immigrate to a new country are commonly expected to “catch up” to their mainstream peers in language and academics and to complete their education in the new language and culture. Yet little is known about recent immigrants’ academic trajectories, particularly in Germany, where research remains scarce despite the relatively high proportion of children who immigrate after the start of mandatory schooling (age 6 or later). This study focused on reading as a central skill for literacy and school achievement. Design/methodology/approach: The study invoked standardized tests of reading fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary among 76 (+13) recently immigrated students and 192 of their non-immigrated peers in eight lower secondary schools in spring 2022 and followed up on a small subgroup annually for 2 years to provide exploratory information on learning trajectories. Data and analysis: Analyses using mixed-effects models compared the reading performance of immigrated and non-immigrated students. In addition, individual factors such as vocabulary breadth were analyzed to determine their impact on reading development. Findings/conclusion: Immigrated students consistently scored below their non-immigrated peers across all reading measures, with average performance gaps ranging from 0.2 to 1.2 standard deviations. Longitudinal follow-ups indicated little evidence that these students were closing the gap over time, though individual differences, particularly vocabulary breadth, had some effects. Originality: This study contributes novel insights into the long-term academic development of immigrated students in Germany, an understudied population in this context. It highlights the challenges faced by these students in acquiring academic language skills and the limitations of data collection instruments. Significance/implications: The findings highlight the need to clarify realistic literacy expectations for immigrant students and to better understand how their literacy trajectories vary. Such insight can guide policies and instructional practices that provide developmentally appropriate, linguistically responsive support.
- Single Book
2
- 10.32320/978-961-270-336-3
- May 15, 2021
This book is divided into two parts, "Argumentation in Critical Discourse Analysis" and "Questions and Doubts about Visual Argumantation", each part containing two chapters. In the first chapter, "Topoi in Critical Discourse Analysis", I am concerned with how topoi are used (and misused) in the Discourse-Historical Approach. The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), pioneered by Ruth Wodak (see Wodak, de Cillia, Reisigl, Liebhart 1999; Wodak, van Dijk 2000; Wodak, Chilton 2005; Wodak, Meyer 2006; Wodak 2009), is one of the major branches of critical discourse analysis (CDA). In its own (programmatic) view, it embraces at least three interconnected aspects (Wodak 2006: 65): 1. 'Text or discourse immanent critique' aims at discovering internal or discourse-internal structures. 2. The 'socio-diagnostic critique' is concerned with the demystifying exposure of the possibly persuasive or 'manipulative' character of discursive practices. 3. Prognostic critique contributes to the transformation and improvement of communication. CDA, in Wodak's view, is not concerned with evaluating what is 'right' or 'wrong'. CDA ... should try to make choices at each point in the research itself, and should make these choices transparent.1 It should also justify theoretically why certain interpretations of discursive events seem more valid than others. One of the methodical ways for critical discourse analysts to minimize the risk of being biased is to follow the principle of triangulation. Thus, one of the most salient distinguishing features of the DHA is its endeavour to work with different approaches, multi-methodically and on the basis of a variety of empirical data as well as background information. (Wodak ibid.) One of the approaches DHA is using in its principle of triangulation is argumentation theory, more specifically the theory of topoi. In the first chapter, I am concerned with the following questions: how and in what way are topoi and, consequentially, argumentation theory, used in DHA as one of the most influential schools of CDA? Other approaches (e.g., Fairclough (1995, 2000, 2003) or van Leeuwen (2004, 2008; van Leeuwen, Kress 2006)) do not use topoi at all. Does such a use actually minimize the risk of being biased, and, consequentially, does such a use of topoi in fact implement the principle of triangulation? Judging from the works we analysed in the first chapter, there are no rules or criteria how to use topoi or how to detect topoi in the discourse/text; the only methodological precept seems to be, »anything goes«! If so, why does CDA need triangulation? And what happened to the principle stipulating that CDA »should try to make choices at each point in the research itself, and should make these choices transparent? « We have seen identical and similar bundles of topoi for different purposes or occasions; we have seen different bundles of topoi for identical and similar purposes or occasions; we have seen different bundles of topoi for different occasion; and we have seen pretty exotic bundles of topoi for pretty particular and singular purposes. Which leads us to a key question: can anything be or become a topos within DHA? And, consequentially, what actually, i.e., historically, is a topos? If a topos is supposed to connect an argument with a conclusion, as all the relevant DHA publications claim, one would expect that at least a minimal reconstruction would follow, namely, what is the argument in the quoted fragment? What is the conclusion in the quoted fragment? How is the detected topos connecting the two, and what is the argumentative analysis of the quoted fragment? Unfortunately, all these elements are missing; the definition and the quoted fragment are all that there is of the supposed argumentative analysis. And this is the basic pattern of functioning for most of the DHA works. At the beginning, there would be a list of topoi and a short description foreach of them: first, a conditional paraphrase of a particular topos would be given, followed by a short discourse fragment (usually from the media) illustrating this conditional paraphrase (in Discourse and Discrimination, pp. 75-80), but without any explicit reconstruction of possible arguments, conclusions, or topoi connecting the two in the chosen fragment. After this short "theoretical" introduction, different topoi would just be referred to by names throughout the book, as if everything has already been explained in these few introductory pages. It is quite surprising that none of the quoted DHA works even mention the origins of topoi, their extensive treatment in many works and the main authors of these works, namely Aristotle and Cicero. Even the definition, borrowed from Kienpointner (mostly on a copy-paste basis), does not stem from their work either: it is a hybrid product, with strong input from Stephen Toulmin's work The Uses of Argument, published in 1958. All this is even more surprising because today it is almost a commonplace that for Aristotle a topos is a place to look for arguments (which is true), a heading or department where a number of rhetoric arguments can be easily found (which is true as well), and that those arguments are ready for use – which is a rather big misunderstanding. According to Aristotle, topoi are supposed to be of two kinds: general or common topoi, appropriate for use everywhere and anywhere, regardless of situation, and specific topoi, in their applicability limited mostly to the three genres of oratory (judicial, deliberative, and epideictic). With the Romans, topoi became loci, and Cicero literally defines them as “the home of all proofs” (De or. 2.166.2), “pigeonholes in which arguments are stored” (Part. Or. 5.7-10), or simply “storehouses of arguments” (Part. Or. 109.5-6). Also, their number was reduced from 300 in Topics or 29 in Rhetoric to up to 19 (depending on how we count them). Although Cicero's list correlates pretty much, though not completely, with Aristotle's list from the Rhetoric B 23, there is a difference in use: Cicero's list is considered to be a list of concepts that may trigger an associative process rather than a collection of implicit rules and precepts reducible to rules, as the topoi in Aristotle's Topics are. In other words, Cicero's loci mostly function as subject matter indicators and loci communes. Which brings us a bit closer to how topoi might be used in DHA. In the works analysed in the first chapter, the authors never construct or reconstruct arguments from the discourse fragments they analyse – despite the fact that they are repeatedly defining topoi as warrants connecting arguments with conclusions; they just hint at them with short glosses. And since there is no reconstruction of arguments from concrete discourse fragments under analysis, hinting at certain topoi, referring to them or simply just mentioning them, can only serve the purpose of »putting the audience in a favourable frame of mind. « »Favourable frame of mind« in our case – the use of topoi in DHA – would mean directing a reader's attention to a »commonly known or discussed« topic, without explicitly phrasing or reconstructing possible arguments and conclusions. Thus, the reader can never really know what exactly the author had in mind and what exactly he/she wanted to say (in terms of (possible) arguments and (possible) conclusions). In Traité de l'argumentation – La nouvelle rhétorique, published in 1958 by Ch. Perelman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, topoi are characterised by their extreme generality, which makes them usable in every situation. It is the degeneration of rhetoric and the lack of interest for the study of places that has led to these unexpected consequences where »oratory developments«, as Perelman ironically calls them, against fortune, sensuality, laziness, etc., which school exercises were repeating ad nauseam, became qualified as commonplaces (loci, topoi), despite their extremely particular character. By commonplace- es, Perelman claims, we more and more understand what Giambattista Vico called »oratory places«, in order to distinguish them from the places treated in Aristotle's Topics. Nowadays, commonplaces are characterised by banality which does not exclude extreme specificity and particularity. These places are nothing more than Aristotelian commonplaces applied to particular subjects, concludes Perelman. And this is exactly what seems to be happening to the DHA approach to topoi as well. Even more, the works quoted in the first part of the articlegive the impression that DHA is not using the Aristotelian or Ciceronian topoi, but the so-called »literary topoi«, conceptualized by Ernst Robert Curtius in his Europaeische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter (1990: 62- 105, English translation). What is a literary topos? In a nutshell, oral histories passed down from pre-historic societies contain literary aspects, characters, or settings which appear again and again in stories from ancient civilisations, religious texts, art, and even more modern stories. These recurrent and repetitive motifs or leitmotifs would be then labelled literary topoi. The same year that Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca published their New Rhetoric, Stephen Toulmin published his Uses of Argument, probably the most detailed study of how topoi work. Actually, he does not use the terms topos or topoi, but the somewhat judicial term “warrant”. The reason for that seems obvious: he is trying to cover different “fields of argument”, and not all fields of argument, according to him, use topoi as their argumentative principles or bases of their argumentation. According to Toulmin (1958/1995: 94-107), if we have an utterance of the form, “If D then C” – where D stands for data or evidence, and C for claim or conclusion – such a warrant would act as a bridge and authorize the step from D to C. But warrant may have a limited applicability, so Toulmin introduces qualifiers Q, indicating the strength conferr
- Research Article
192
- 10.1177/0957926514536962
- Jul 1, 2014
- Discourse & Society
This article focuses on the discursive underpinnings of the legitimacy crisis that the Eurozone as a transnational institution is facing. By adopting a critical discourse analysis (CDA) perspective, the empirical analysis focuses on the media discussion in Finland. The analysis shows how discourses of financial capitalism, humanism, nationalism and Europeanism played a central role in legitimation, delegitimation and relegitimation. Furthermore, the analysis elaborates on the legitimation strategies that were often used in the media texts: position-based authorizations involving institutionalized authorities and ‘voices of the common man’, knowledge-based authorizations focusing on economic expertise, rationalizations concentrating on economic arguments, moral evaluations based on unfairness used especially for delegitimation, mythopoiesis involving alternative future scenarios and cosmology used to construct inevitability. By so doing, this study adds to our understanding of the discursive and ideological underpinnings of the social, political and financial crisis in Greece and other European countries and contributes to research on discursive legitimation more generally.
- Research Article
107
- 10.1353/csd.2014.0019
- Mar 1, 2014
- Journal of College Student Development
Immigration issues continue to generate attention and vigorous debate at national and international levels; some of these discussions involve immigrant students and issues pertaining to higher education (e.g., DREAM Act). Camarota (2007) noted that from 2000 to 2007, 10.3 million immigrants arrived—the highest 7-year period of immigration in United States history. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 24.3 million immigrants were reported in 1995; that number grew to 31.8 million in 2001, and is at 37.6 million for 2010 (Camarota, 2010). Based on these immigration trends, immigrant students (defined broadly to include recent immigrants born abroad as well as refugees) will continue to pursue post-secondary education. Many of these individuals will be ethnic minority immigrants who are first-generation college students (Erisman & Looney, 2007). According to figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 12% of the total undergraduate population is comprised of immigrant students (Kim, 2009); yet, research on this growing population remains scant and the literature on student development issues of immigrant groups is still emerging. Research suggests that immigrants’ college experiences are unique from other students and merit further inquiry (Szelényi & Chang, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between campus climate and sense of belonging for recent immigrant generations (i.e., foreign born) who attend large, public research institutions located in the United States.
- Research Article
7
- 10.13130/2035-7680/10748
- Oct 25, 2018
- Altre Modernità
In most traditional accounts of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) text and discourse are viewed as being the product of a one-directional flow of information from a handful of dominant (and powerful) text producers to an seemingly subordinate mass of readers who passively consume texts. To this end, CDA proclaims an interest in both production and reception factors as they are reflected in social practices (Fetzer & Johansson, 2008). Yet, in the CDA literature actual empirical data focusing on reception factors have often been lacking and/or have been limited to the researcher’s personal reading of a text. With the advent and spread of converged media platforms (Herring, 2013) and the new discourse practices this entails such factors need to be reconsidered and the more prominent role played by users in both reception and (co-)construction of texts embraced (Boyd, 2014). This work focuses on the importance of user-generated content in user comments written in response to online newspaper editorials and proposes that such commenting practices not only change media discourse and social practice but also, ultimately, may upend the traditional flow of media discourse, transforming it from a primarily top-down, one-to-many model to a more interactive and participatory model that fosters many-to-many participation schemes (KhosraviNik & Zia, 2014). In traditional print newspapers text consumers had few opportunities to respond directly to a topic they felt strongly about if not in the form of a “letter to the editor” which was not guaranteed publication. Furthermore, editorials, as the official mouthpiece of a news organisation, were seen as playing a predominant role in evaluating issues, forming public opinion and eliciting reader support and agreement (Henry & Tator, 2002; Moon, 1994; Van Dijk, 1991). Today, most online newspapers allow users to comment on both news reports and opinion articles, including editorials, in which they can react to as well as interact with media texts. Such social interaction gives the (CDA) researcher access to valuable user-generated content which can help to gauge, in part, the degree to which such media texts as editorials still have in forming and swaying public opinion. By focusing on reader comments in a limited set of editorials (dealing with the European migrant crisis), this study attempts to determine readers’ varying opinions about the issue and how this reflects and/or diverges from the view(s) presented by the editorial. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the empirical data (the editorials and reader comments) aim to demonstrate the various representations of society inherent in online newspaper discourse. In particular, the analysis focuses on the linguistic means adopted by text producers to align themselves with (proximization) or differentiate themselves from (distancing) from the views presented in the editorial. Thus, the work is interested in the ways in which powerful public discourses are received by the general public through the interactive feature of text commenting available on many media platforms. Text commenting, in turn, is seen as crucial to understanding how certain texts are received and transformed by different types of (social) media users in the online newspaper.
- Research Article
18
- 10.1080/00313831.2020.1788147
- Jul 13, 2020
- Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research
This article presents a study of how teenage immigrant students, newly arrived in Norway, constructed themselves discursively through a number of identity texts. Drawing on theories from New Literacy Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Social Semiotics, we analyzed a corpus of 97 multimodal identity texts. The study aimed to explore how the students contributed to their personal discursive construction in a society that was new to them. Our study showed that, while struggling with acquiring the dominant language, the immigrant students demonstrated linguistic and semiotic skills and talents. By analyzing the students’ use of linguistic and visual resources, we identified three main categories of identity construction in the students’ texts – spatial identity, relational identity, and functional identity. The analysis suggested that, in their identity work, the immigrant students simultaneously internalized and challenged dominant discourses of the globalized society.
- Research Article
37
- 10.1515/multi-2014-0055
- Jan 1, 2016
- Multilingua
Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis and, more specifically, on the relationship between the macro-level of dominant discourses and the micro-level of individual positionings, we examine the way linguistic identities are constructed by immigrant students of Albanian origin in Greece. We elaborate on two ‘competitive’ discourses: the national, homogenizing one and the post-national, deconstructing one, and the way they influence the construction of immigrant students’ linguistic identities. Our data come from lyceum immigrant students’ essays which are analyzed in order to trace their positionings towards the two ‘competitive’ discourses, and in particular, towards the linguistic dimension of these discourses. For a systematic investigation of immigrant students’ linguistic identities we employ the membership categorization device
- Single Book
35
- 10.4337/9781788974967
- Dec 6, 2019
Critical Policy Discourse Analysis bridges the literature on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and critical policy analysis to provide a practical guide on how to combine these major approaches to critical social science. The volume gives a clear introduction to concepts and analytical procedures for critical policy discourse analysis. Utilising ten international case studies, the authors explain and critically reflect upon the methods and theories that they have used to successfully integrate CDA with critical policy studies across a diverse range of policy issues. Case studies are used to explore issues in economics, health, education, crisis management, the environment, language and energy policy. Analysing these through discursive methodological approaches in the traditions of CDA, social semiotics and discourse theory, this book connects this discursive methodology systematically to the field of critical policy studies. This is an essential read for researchers wishing to practically combine methods of CDA with critical policy studies. It provides key insights for politics scholars looking to gain a more in-depth understanding of the impact and analysis of discourse.
- Research Article
1
- 10.1080/17405904.2024.2444651
- Jan 7, 2025
- Critical Discourse Studies
Immigrant and refugee presence in western nation-states challenges symbolic national boundaries and is perceived as a threat to the dominant majorities. In this context, hate speech is reinforced in the form not only of violent racist acts (hard hate speech) but mostly of mitigated rejection and covert discriminatory practices (soft hate speech). In both cases, hate speech draws on and simultaneously entrenches national discourse aiming to represent the nation as a linguaculturally homogeneous entity. Studies concentrating on hate speech usually investigate public discourse produced by adults. The present study explores the reproduction of (soft) hate speech among immigrant students within the Greek educational context. Adopting a critical discourse-analytic perspective, we employ analytical tools from the Discourse-Historical Approach allowing us to trace how specific discursive strategies contribute to the reproduction of soft hate speech, which seems to draw on national discourse in the form of either racist discourse or humanitarian discourse.
- Research Article
45
- 10.1080/00940771.2010.11461716
- Jan 1, 2010
- Middle School Journal
Middle school is a time of many changes for young adolescents. They are searching for individual identity, struggling with society's norms, and grappling with moral (Boston & Baxley, 2007, p. 561). They are changing and maturing physically, cognitively, socially, and psychologically as they develop their identities; establish, maintain, and end friendships and social networks; develop interpersonal skills; build self-esteem; and critically examine themselves and their physical features (Manning & Bucher, 2005). They may explore different behaviors, ideas, and beliefs (Marcia, 1980), and they may undergo crises of identity (Erikson, 1963; 1968). Young adolescents are also involved in a series of changes imposed by the structure of the educational system as they transition from elementary school and begin anticipating a transition to high school. While all young adolescents may feel developmental and transitional pressures, minority and immigrant students may feel these pressures more acutely than most majority students. For example, the transition periods leading from elementary school to middle school and then from middle school to high school may present special problems for minority students (Cauce, Hannan, & Sargeant, 1992). Akos and Galassi (2004) found that race may play a role in school transition outcomes (p. 102) and in feelings of connectedness. While students who are actively engaged in school may be somewhat protected from transitional problems (Eccles et al., 1992), many minority students have feelings of detachment from the education system. Another area of concern for minority students involves the development of identity and self-esteem. As young adolescents mature, they begin to develop a sense of cultural and social identity as well as a sense of personal identity and self-esteem (Allen, 2004). While politics, economics, relationships, and public perceptions affect identity, identity development is also an with race, ethnicity, [and] religion (Shah, 2006, p. 218). This interplay may be especially difficult for minority and immigrant students who must be able to merge their native or traditional cultures with a new or majority culture. Rather than forgetting one culture, they must assimilate both to achieve ethnic solidarity (Portes & Zhou, 1993). Immigrant children may face a sense of cultural bereavement or uprooting in which a loss of cultural identity has a direct impact on self-esteem (Eisenbruch, 1988). In addition, they may feel a sense of dissonant acculturation (Rumbout & Portes, 2001) as they outstrip their parents in learning the language and culture of a new country. When this happens, a young adolescent may feel alienated from his or her parents and from peers at school. The issues described above may be especially acute for young adolescents of Arab descent who may possess feelings of detachment. Although many Arab Americans have traditionally been successful in school (Nieto, 1992), academic success is not always a predictor of psychosocial adjustment. Students may have high grades that mask feelings of depression and low self-esteem (Bankston & Zhou, 2002). Schools are key socialization and acculturization agencies (Hones & Cha, 1999; Trueba, Jacobs, & Kirton, 1990), and a student's perception of acceptance in school is a major factor in his or her overall adjustment to a new culture (Nguyen & Henkin, 1980). Because of these factors, teachers must ensure that Arab-American students have positive school experiences, especially during the critical developmental period of young adolescence. In this article, we provide information to help middle school teachers understand the Arab immigrant and Arab-American young adolescents in their classrooms. After briefly describing Arab history and culture and discussing specific problems facing Arab American and Arab immigrant students, we suggest literature about Arabs and Arab Americans to use in the middle school curriculum and place in the school library media center. …
- Research Article
- 10.25134/erjee.v12i1.9125
- Feb 11, 2024
- English Review Journal of English Education
This research aims to investigate the relationship between critical reading abilities and critical discourse analysis (CDA) competencies among future 21st century educators, emphasizing the critical necessity for these educators to possess such skills in today's demanding educational landscape. A sample of 70 prospective teachers was analyzed to determine the interconnection between their abilities in critical reading abilities and CDA, with an exploration into how one skill may influence the other. Additionally, the study examines the role of cognitive style—specifically, field-independent and field-dependent thinking—as a moderating factor in this relationship. Findings indicate a significant positive impact of CDA capabilities on critical reading abilities, suggesting that proficiency in analyzing discourse critically enhances one's ability to read with a critical eye. Furthermore, the study reveals no significant difference in CDA and critical reading abilities between participants categorized as field-independent thinkers versus those identified as field-dependent thinkers. These outcomes highlight the need for further research to explore additional factors that may affect the development of critical reading and discourse analysis skills. The study concludes with a call for educational strategies that integrate both critical reading and CDA competencies, considering the varied cognitive styles of learners.
- Research Article
37
- 10.1177/0002716217724396
- Sep 1, 2017
- The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Ample research has identified links between school and the criminal justice system; our work builds on these studies by identifying the pathway to deportation that immigrant students face. Our qualitative study, conducted in seven U.S. cities, focused on recent immigrant students and their teachers in secondary education institutions. We evaluated the intersection of race and immigrant backgrounds to understand their compounded effects on racialization processes. We found that racial identity formation among recent immigrants is shaped by experiences of tracking and profiling within the school system as well as surveillance practices around school spaces. We argue that racialization—the process by which students come to be regarded (by themselves or the broader society) as a part of the U.S. racial paradigm—is a critical mechanism by which immigrant students enter a school to prison to deportation pipeline.
- Research Article
3
- 10.1080/17405904.2021.1968451
- Aug 26, 2021
- Critical Discourse Studies
The myriad ways in which spatiality, or socially produced space, impinges on media texts is the overarching concern of this study. Responding to Edward Soja’s call for an assertive foregrounding of a critical spatial perspective, this article is an ontological reassertion of space in relation to news media discourse and argues that the socially constructed spatiality of a journalistic text is just as revealingly significant as its historicality and sociality. Introduced here is Critical Spatial Discourse Analysis (CSDA), a methodological framework that employs the spatiocultural theory of Bill Richardson to enable a mapping of the various aspects of spatiality informing media texts. Edward Said’s imaginative geographies is also drawn upon to advance a geographical notation and mapping of the territorial imaginations underlying news media texts. The fundamental assumption of CSDA is that space is not only actively constituted in media texts but also constitutes and that it can, and indeed must be read and interpreted as any other text. A sample column from Turkey’s Sabah newspaper will be used to illustrate the application of CSDA to press coverage of democracy to see what might be revealed of those real-and-imagined spaces that are interposed and obscured in the text’s background.