Discussion Of Theory Research Articles

A critical discourse analysis of NAEYC's developmentally appropriate practice texts: Shifting rhetoric and implications for advancing equity in family-school partnerships

ABSTRACT The most recent iteration of NAEYC’s key Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) texts (the 2020 Position Statement and the fourth edition of the DAP book) reflect a more robust stance on family educator-relationships and attention to issues of equity as reflected in linguistic shifts. This article analyses NAEYC’s rhetorical moves between the 2009 texts and the present versions, presenting a mixed-methods critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the changes in the texts drawing on critical theory, Doucet’s framework for anti-racist practice, discourse theory and critical linguistics. The findings reveal meaningful changes in the language and framing of family-educator relationships, highlighting a move towards more inclusive, reciprocal partnerships. And while the current editions of NAEYC’s key DAP texts show greater attention to cultural inclusivity and anti-bias approaches, we make a case to push for explicitly anti-racist reciprocal partnerships with families and communities within the DAP texts. We discuss the implications of these changes for policy and practice in early childhood education, as well as suggestions for future research in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This analysis contributes to the ongoing conversation about equity and social justice in educational partnerships and practices.

Abusive Metajournalistic Discourse Towards Journalists on Social Media

ABSTRACT In this study, we used a mixed method approach to investigate online abuse mostly targeting journalists, by focusing on the use of the term presstitute. We inductively analyzed the professional categories of the targeted people, whether be journalists, news organizations, politicians, etc., and the countries where these professionals live. Our findings show that Twitter was the most active platform for attacking journalists, and that the top targeted groups were Indian journalists followed by American and Filipino ones. Building on Metajournalistic Discourse theory, we introduce the concept of Abusive Metajournalistic Discourse (AMD) as a form of reactive discourse, and we argue that using the term presstitute is one manifestation of AMD. To corroborate our findings, we used the collected datasets to identify the journalists who are being trolled with different types of abusive content and interviewed 12 journalists through semi-structured interviews in order to elicit their views on the abusive content targeting them. Five themes emerged from these interviews including: (1) cloaked coordinated AMD; (2) hyper-nationalist, racist and sexist AMD; (3) state-sanctioned AMD and disinformation; (4) journalists’ resolve and resilience; and (5) sinister AMD outcomes, which help shed light on the impact of AMD on journalism practice.

Re-interpreting basic values underlying social security law in times of climate change and ecological crisis

Shaping solidarity, guaranteeing basic subsistence, maintaining income and employment activation can be seen as basic values underlying social security law in many European welfare states. This article argues that the meaning of these values or concepts is determined by legitimating discourses within which they are interpreted. While so far Rawls's theory of justice and related egalitarian liberal philosophies have had a great impact on these discourses, the ecological crisis has given rise to new discourses which are inspired by neo-republican theory and green republicanism. Instead of legitimising a capitalist economy based on economic growth, these discourses promote a post-productive society that seeks to realise human flourishing and meaningful lives. The aim of this article is to contribute to the emerging debate on social security reform by explaining how neo-republican theory and green republicanism can fill social security law's basic values or concepts with meaning that is more in line with current ecological concerns. In contrast to previous contributions that have sought to rethink labour and social security law (‘social law’) in a way that is more compatible with our ecological and climate crisis, this article builds on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory to develop its argument.

Drag story hour at public libraries: the reading child and the construction of fear and othering in Swedish cultural policy debate

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to produce new knowledge about the positions that public libraries both take and are given in the conflicts over politics and identity that play out in contemporary cultural and library policy debates. Using conflicts over drag story hour at public libraries as case, the study seeks to contribute to an emerging body of research that delves into the challenges that public libraries as promoters of democracy are confronting in the conflictual political landscape of today.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an analysis of debates reported in news articles concerning Drag story hour events held at Swedish public libraries. Utilizing the analytical lenses of discourse theory and plural agonistics, the analysis serves to make visible the lines of conflicts drawn in these debates – particularly focusing on the intersection of different meanings ascribed to the notion of the reading child, and how fear is constructed and used as an othering devise in these conflicts.FindingsDifferent imaginings of the reading child and the construction and imagination of fear and safety shapes the Drag story hour debates. The controversies can be understood as a challenge to the previous hegemony regarding the direction and goals of Swedish cultural and library policy and the pluralistic democratic society these policies are meant to promote.Originality/valueThe paper offers new insights into the consequences of the revival of radical right politics, populism and societal polarization, and the different responses from public libraries.

Does algorithmic content moderation promote democratic discourse? Radical democratic critique of toxic language AI

ABSTRACT Algorithmic content moderation is becoming a common practice employed by many social media platforms to regulate ‘toxic’ language and to promote democratic public conversations. This paper provides a normative critique of politically liberal assumption of civility embedded in algorithmic moderation, illustrated by Google’s Perspective API. From a radical democratic standpoint, this paper normatively and empirically distinguishes between incivility and intolerance because they have different implications for democratic discourse. The paper recognises the potential political, expressive, and symbolic values of incivility, especially for the socially marginalised. We, therefore, argue against regulation of incivility using AI. There are, however, good reasons to regulate hate speech but it is incumbent upon the users of AI moderation to show that this can be done reliably. The paper emphasises the importance of detecting diverse forms of hate speech that convey intolerant and exclusionary ideas without using explicitly hateful or extremely emotional wording. The paper then empirically evaluates the performance of the current algorithmic moderation to see whether it can discern incivility and intolerance and whether it can detect diverse forms of intolerance. Empirical findings reveal that the current algorithmic moderation does not promote democratic discourse, but rather deters it by silencing the uncivil but pro-democratic voices of the marginalised as well as by failing to detect intolerant messages whose meanings are embedded in nuances and rhetoric. New algorithmic moderation should focus on the reliable and transparent identification of hate speech and be in line with the feminist, anti-racist, and critical theories of democratic discourse.

To copy verbatim, paraphrase or summarize – listeners’ methods of discourse representation while recalling academic lectures

Abstract It is unanimously agreed that comprehension of academic lectures is cognitively demanding; however, few studies have focused on a listener’s real-time discourse representation of a lecture. Based on the qualitative analysis of the verbal protocols, the present study investigated sixteen Chinese university students’ verbal recall of an academic mini-lecture to explore how they made sense of the lecture and represented its discourse when they recalled it episode by episode, and to what extent they differed in discourse representation. The results show that listeners’ discourse representation involved a range of cognitive processes such as paraphrasing, summarizing, and verbatim copying. Paraphrasing and summarizing were the main methods of discourse representation used by the participants when they verbally recalled the lecture. Those who correctly paraphrased more idea units recalled more content of the lecture. They were able to select and retain more idea units in their short-term memory, build more associations between the selected idea units, integrate them with the existing discourse structures and ensure contextual coherence in the construction of the local discourse structures. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of how listeners comprehend academic lectures and confirm that improving students’ paraphrasing skills and hierarchical discourse construction in recall are conducive to better comprehension of academic lectures.

( I M ) M A T E R ( I A L I T Y ) and the Black-Box Theatre as an ‘Empty Space’ of Re-production

This paper examines a paradigmatic interior from the 20th century, the ‘black-box theatre’, associated with a fundamental rejection of the potential role played by the built-form within the art-form. Material space is denied in order to establish an apparent void-space. This perceived emptiness is reflected in a paucity of architectural and theatrical discourse surrounding the model. However an investigation of its physical and discursive absences suggests its apparent ‘lack’ veils a surplus of meaning. Such gaps and their associations with theatrical production reveal complicated links to the space of human reproduction and its attendant excesses which, in turn, leads to a distinctive link between the black-box and Plato’s notion of ‘chora’. This uncovering of material through the im-material, proposes a more embodied and performative approach to theatre space and to readings of the interior.

Образные единицы в коммуникативных практиках медиатизированного политического дискурса

The article is dedicated to the communicative features of mediatized political discourse, which remain insufficiently explored. Using the example of the use of figurative means of language in the genres of media-political communications, it is demonstrated that the mediatized form of communication possesses not only the basic functions of professional discourse but also additional functions: amplifying or softening content, saving linguistic means, emotional and attractive functions. Each of these functions plays a significant role in shaping audience perception and influencing public opinion on political issues. With the help of contextual and semantic analysis, as well as the corpus method, the following results were obtained: in the studied context, figurative units are important linguistic means used for the effective conveyance of specific political views and emotions. These units include figurative metaphors and comparisons, phraseology, proverb, precedent phenomena and colloquial expressions. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of communicative features and functions of figurative units in various genres of mediatized political discourse: political talk shows, political interviews, and internet texts of politicians. The research results can be applied in the practice of media communication, communicative linguistics, and discourse theory.

From Social Clubs to Champions for Sports Journalistic Identity and Integrity

Taking the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as a point of departure, this article analyses the changing role of national associations of sports journalists in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Introducing the concept of meta-journalistic discourse and well-established media system theories, it is argued that Nordic sports journalism’s negotiations of professional practices and standards are shaped by a particular media systemic context with distinct Nordic welfare state-oriented features. One such feature is a tradition of using collective, organized social groups, like democratically based voluntary associations, as instruments for social change. The empirical study explores this through a qualitative thematic analysis of the changing structures, identities, and practices of the national associations of sports journalists across the three countries. This illustrates how the organizations in particular during the last two decades have started very similar processes of transformation away from being mainly social clubs. The associations have used their collective frameworks and bargaining power to ensure independent journalists’ access to sports organizations and athletes, and they have engaged in negotiations of what sports journalism is and what constitutes sports journalism in a sports media landscape shaped by strong combined forces of digitization and politicization.

Art, science and inclusion: multisensory Sciart of immunology for blind, low-vision and diverse-needs audiences.

Art is a powerful tool for conveying scientific discovery. Despite the perceived gap between art and science, as highlighted by CP Snow and others, examples of art communicating science can be found in the ancient world, the Renaissance and contemporary data visualization, demonstrating an enduring and historic connection. However, much of science relies on visual elements, excluding those with blindness, low vision and diverse needs, resulting in their low representation in STEM discourse. This paper introduces a novel science and art collaboration in the form of an exhibition program exploring the concepts of Immunology and Biomedicine to blind and vision-impaired audiences, capitalizing on the lived experience of a legally blind artist. Employing multisensory design, art and co-creation methodologies, it transcends traditional vision-based science communication, showcasing the potential for multisensory art to bridge the gap at the intersection of science and inclusion.

The Feminist Refusal of I May Destroy You

Abstract Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You (HBO, BBC One, 2020) chronicles a first-generation Black woman's struggles in the aftermath of her sexual assault. Set in the United Kingdom, I May Destroy You was well-received by US critics and audiences alike, who rallied around the series as a positive, cohesive, and ultimately feminist example of how a woman productively deals with sexual trauma. These discourses of positive representation used to frame I May Destroy You, however, focus on reinforcing liberal feminist ideals of assimilation, legibility, and respectability in the service of an unexamined “womanhood.” In reality, I May Destroy You uses both plot—as Arabella and her friends attempt to make sense of her rape—and narrative form to deconstruct the identity of “woman,” the term that most television series on “women's issues” and with feminist modes of address have attempted to represent and stabilize since the medium's foundations in the mid-twentieth century. In resisting stable, positive identity categories in a story of sexual violence, Coel's I May Destroy You presents an aberration and an important intervention in a televisual landscape that often relies on access to distinct binaries of male/female, Black/white, and victim/perpetrator to make claims of “accurate” representation—both for sexual assault on television and for women's experience more broadly.

Informing research on generative artificial intelligence from a language and literacy perspective: A meta‐synthesis of studies in science education

AbstractResearch in languages and literacies in science education (LLSE) has developed substantial theoretical and pedagogical insights into how students learn science through language, discourse, and multimodal representations. At the same time, language is central to the functioning of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). On this common basis concerning the role of language, this paper explores how foundational ideas from LLSE studies can inform the use of GenAI in science education. A bibliometric analysis of 412 journal articles from Web of Science provided the initial step to identify major themes and relationships in the LLSE literature. The analysis revealed four clusters of research in LLSE: reading and writing scientific text, science discourse and interaction, multilingual science classroom, and multimodality and representations. Each cluster was further analyzed through close reading of selected articles to identify and connect key constructs to the potential use of GenAI. These constructs include the interactive‐constructive reading model, text genre, reading‐writing integration, dialogic interaction, critical questioning, argumentation, translanguaging, hybridity, thematic pattern, modal affordance, and transduction. From these ideas and connections, the paper recommends several pedagogical principles for science educators to guide the use of GenAI. It concludes that LLSE research offers valuable insights for researchers and teachers to investigate and design the use of GenAI in science education. In turn, the impending use of GenAI also calls for a rethinking of literacy that will shape future research in LLSE.

Analysing and evaluating the bilingual adaptation of English graded readers in China: A social semiotic multimodal discourse study

International English-graded readers have been increasingly adapted, rewritten, and localised to cater to the specific needs of learners in different regions. This cross-cultural adaptation of materials has not attracted much scholarly attention, although it is an essential dimension of research on materials for language learning and teaching. The present study explores the textual transformations that occur in the bilingual adaptation of Cambridge English Readers, a series of original fiction books for learners of English, by a Chinese publisher. The analysis is underpinned by social semiotic multimodal discourse theory. Based on the analysis, the study evaluates the pedagogic potential of the bilingual edition of Cambridge English Readers as materials for English language learning and teaching. In doing so, it demonstrates a novel approach to evaluating bilingual adaptations of graded readers. It also shows that the original and bilingually adapted editions reflect different cultures of learning.

The Pragmatic Aspect of Modality in the English Mass-Media Discourse

The article is devoted to the pragmatic aspect of modality representation in the English mass-media discourse. The categorial status of modality, typology of modal meanings and their interaction have been examined from the viewpoint of historical perspective. The research is aimed at revealing the pragmatic characteristics of subjective-interpersonal (author-recipient) modality, which reflects the author's intentions to describe the world (epistemic modality), change the world (deontic modality), evaluate the world (axiological modality). The four factors of internet communication - the addresser, the addressee, the text, the objective reality - are studied within the framework of communicative-pragmatic approach to modality. The discourse-analysis and pragma-stylistic analysis have been applied to depict language means representing modality in the English mass-media Internet discourse, in the article on political issues. It has been revealed that the author of the article may act differently in accordance with the roles he assumes - of an informer, of an expert-analyst, of a consultant-adviser; his task is to attract the readers and involve them in discussion in the comments section. The expression of authorship is principal here and the author's modality is always explicit. The comments following the text of an article are distinguished by a variety of the authors' communicative strategies and modal meanings.

European foreign language policies, national language testing and ambivalence towards the introduction of the logics of standardisation

Educational policies and priorities shaped at the supranational level by European and global agencies and players impact the processes of national policymaking in complex ways. In this study, recontextualisations of European foreign language education and language assessment policies in the Greek policy and pedagogical contexts are examined. Specifically, the politics of foreign language education and assessment are explored with a focus on English language teaching in public schools and the expected introduction of the Greek National Certificate of Language Proficiency (known as KPG) which is a state-led testing system formed by adopting the six-level scale of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages. Drawing on Bernstein’s theory of symbolic control and pedagogic discourse, it is shown that extensive recontextualisations of European (and global) discourses on English language teaching and assessment in the Greek context project competency and outcome-based curricula and learning as the desirable pedagogic model. Furthermore, attempts to introduce certification procedures in public schools derive from market-driven discourses that sanction a standardised system of student performance while the implications of standardisation for schools, teachers and students alike are downplayed.

Ethnomus Performative Analytical Tool: A Conceptual Thought in Performance Analysis of School Music in Ghanaian Cultural Context

One of the areas of school music that have drawn attention to researchers is how music performances can be analysed by way of assessment to obtain objectivity in awarding specific grades to students involved in the performance. This paper highlights Ethnomus assessment tool, a culturally contextualised analytical tool for analysing and assessing school musical performances objectively. Additionally, it sheds light on prevalent notions of discussing music using Western musical discourse theories. Simultaneously, it establishes specific analytical frameworks that are adapted to the cultural context for the evaluation of music performances in Ghanaian educational institutions. The paper was approached topically and deductively in order to unravel situations of subjectivity and narrowness of the Westernised analysis and projects a thought that comprehensively situates itself within an African context for music performance assessment. The core of the Ethnomus assessment is in how the cultural elements have been used in the performance as well as the thoughts of audience about the performance. Three people are involved in the assessment procedure: the teacher, the student (performer) and the audience. The paper establishes the Ethnomus assessment tool for school music performance, aiming to contribute to the ongoing discourse in this field and promote objectivity within the specific context of Ghanaian culture. The recommendation is made for educators and musical analysts to adopt a holistic approach, drawing upon the Ethnomus assessment presented in the paper as a foundation for their assessments and analyses. This approach is envisioned to enhance the depth and objectivity of evaluation of musical performances in schools within the Ghanaian cultural milieu.

Trauma as Cultural Capital: A Critical Feminist Theory of Trauma Discourse

Abstract This essay theorizes a problem for feminism posed by a particular form of trauma discourse. Feminists have played an important role in developing cultural and clinical conceptions of trauma, but one result of the destigmatization of trauma has been that trauma discourse is sometimes used as a form of cultural capital to reinforce existing hierarchies. In a novel application of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of distinction, we show how, when instrumentalized as cultural capital, trauma discourse can be used to reinforce patriarchy and other systems of oppression. We trace a critical feminist history of the struggle to understand and treat trauma. Using examples from contemporary US popular culture, we illustrate the appropriation of trauma discourse to entrench existing structures of gender, class, and racial oppression. First, the misuse of trauma discourse as cultural capital can encourage the instrumental use of trauma claims for cultural power, ultimately reinforcing patriarchy. Second, it might erode the legitimacy of trauma, a conceptual tool pioneered by feminists and still essential to their political claims. This discussion has important implications for not only mental health practitioners and trauma survivors but also feminist theorists, trauma studies scholars, and those interested in deconstructing structural injustice and relations of inequality.

Disabled influencers on Instagram: exploring digital celebrity and marginalised identities

ABSTRACT This article illuminates the nexus of social media, celebrity, and marginalised identities by examining the phenomenon of disabled influencers. Since the late 2010s, disability representations in media, culture, and public discourse have increasingly moved away from stigmatising stereotypes. Disabled influencers have emerged as new voices in this landscape but, so far, exploration of their work has been limited. To address this gap, this study explores how 15 diverse fashion influencers with visible impairments address disability in their personal brands, whether they frame themselves as advocates for disability rights, and investigates their relationships with both followers and commercial brands. Through a content analysis of one year worth of Instagram posts (N = 1,429) and profile information, we outline the strategies these influencers use to make disability central to their online personas, explore their multi-layered relationship with brands, identify their distinct but somewhat limited voice in disability advocacy, and highlight their engagement strategies with digital publics. Drawing on disability and celebrity scholarship, this work provides insights on how the use of participatory platforms like Instagram intersects with the changing demands and expectations of celebrity, generating both opportunities and constraints for traditionally marginalised groups.

The usage of a song discourse as a source for precedent names during English lessons (based on «We Didn't Start the Fire»)

The usage of a song discourse as a source for precedent names during English lessons (based on «We Didn't Start the Fire»)

Dissociable Neural Mechanisms for Human Inference Processing Predicted by Static and Contextual Language Models.

Language models (LMs) continue to reveal non-trivial relations to human language performance and the underlying neurophysiology. Recent research has characterized how word embeddings from an LM can be used to generate integrated discourse representations in order to perform inference on events. The current research investigates how such event knowledge may be coded in distinct manners in different classes of LMs and how this maps onto different forms of human inference processing. To do so, we investigate inference on events using two well-documented human experimental protocols from Metusalem et al. (2012) and McKoon and Ratcliff (1986), compared with two protocols for simpler semantic processing. Interestingly, this reveals a dissociation in the relation between local semantics versus event-inference depending on the LM. In a series of experiments, we observed that for the static LMs (word2vec/GloVe), there was a clear dissociation in the relation between semantics and inference for the two inference tasks. In contrast, for the contextual LMs (BERT/RoBERTa), we observed a correlation between semantic and inference processing for both inference tasks. The experimental results suggest that inference as measured by Metusalem and McKoon rely on dissociable processes. While the static models are able to perform Metusalem inference, only the contextual models succeed in McKoon inference. Interestingly, these dissociable processes may be linked to well-characterized automatic versus strategic inference processes in the psychological literature. This allows us to make predictions about dissociable neurophysiological markers that should be found during human inference processing with these tasks.