discoursology

17 June 2010

Winter Method School – content and discourse analysis

Filed under: discourse theory,education — Tags: , , — discoursology @ 22:38

Winter Schule: Öffentlichkeitsforschung – Methoden für Inhalts- und Diskursanalyse
16.11.10-20.11.10
FU Berlin, Germany

The Method School’s aim is to highlight the state of the art in the field and discuss
which research questions can be tackled by which computer-aided content and discourse
analysis. Large-n content analyses have become popular, as content data is now
accessible in digital format. Some of the new approaches go beyond counting single terms
in documents, and seek to understand the structure and the context of the content
analysed. Several approaches have entered the stage at which it becomes possible to
combine quantitative and computer-aided qualitative coding. The Method School will,
therefore, offer an introduction into some of the most widely used software packages in
the field, but also introduce the basics of content and discourse analysis.

Besides introductions by experienced lecturers, the programme includes intensive group
work, practical sessions using traditional and new computer software and possibilities
for students to bring in their own research ideas and approaches. Some common social
activities in the beautiful city of Berlin will round off the programme.

The Winter Method School is particularly designed for early doctoral students (first two
years) with a research interest in the public sphere and no or limited prior knowledge
in the field of content and discourse analysis. In exceptional cases, graduate students
will be accepted if they can demonstrate a profound interest in these research methods
and have plans to use them in their PhD studies. All applicants should be fluent in
English.

Places available: 20

Institution: Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, Fachbereich Politik- und
Sozialwissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin
Beteiligte Personen: Prof. Dr. Thomas Risse, Freie Universität Berlin
Dr. Marianne van de Steeg, Freie Universität Berlin
Dr. Roel Popping, Groningen University
Dr. Veronika Koller, Lancaster University
Brit Helle Aarskog, Bergen University
Kontaktperson: Wiebke Wemheuer
Email: methodschool-jmce AT polsoz..fu-berlin.de
Fax: +49 (0)30 – 838-55049
Adresse: Ihnestraße 22
14195 Berlin
Germany

3 June 2010

Discursive agency and primary education

Filed under: discourse theory,education — Tags: , , , — discoursology @ 17:10

New project on primary schools combining discourse theory and critical educational studies at the University of Luxembourg: ProDIC-Discourse Structures and Dis-/Integration in Education: Promotion of Critical Discourse Competencies.

School as a social institution cannot be separated from its context; it is part of and influencing social reality (cf. New London School; Gee; Yurén). However, few schooling practices take into account this dimension of ‘agency’ of schools as institutions as well as of the implied individual actors, in the re-/co-/construction of social reality. The present project tries to cope with this lack by deconstructing institutionalised discursive constraints of agency in a Luxembourgish primary school, and by elaborating a critical concept of agency at the intersection of French discourse theory and critical educational research, that is adapted to the Luxembourgish socio-cultural context. It aims at finding ways to empower actors, in particular learners, to actively participate and take over responsibilities in the re-/co-/construction of the reality of school, classroom and learning activities, as well as of the individual life as social being and of society as a whole.

28 May 2010

Design Literacies

Filed under: education,media — Tags: , — discoursology @ 09:01

Interesting new book from Routledge: Mary P. Sheridan, Jennifer Rowsell (2010) Design Literacies: Learning and Innovation in the Digital Age.

Design Literacies: Learning and Innovation in the Digital Age explores new ways of meaning making by examining the practices, stories, and products of new and digital media producers with the goal of understanding the logic of marketplace production.

Based on interviews with thirty new media and digital technology producers, including designers of video games, community activists and marketers of digital technologies, Design Literacies looks at the shared patterns and common themes and offers a window into contemporary out-of-school practices, a language to describe these practices and a pedagogy that better meets students’ needs in this new media and digital age.

With a foreword by Gunther Kress and an afterword by James Gee, Design Literacies: Learning and Innovation in the Digital Age will be of interest to postgraduate and graduate students of applied linguistics and education.

26 May 2010

Revisioning Pragmatism

Filed under: education,politics — Tags: , — discoursology @ 20:02

Conference honoring the memory of William James at the University of Hamburg, June 24 – 26, 2010.

This conference takes place on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of William James’s death. While we want to honor James — arguably the most famous American philosopher — as a great scholar and the father of pragmatism, the conference aims at much more: It examines the impact of pragmatism on various disciplines in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and tries to engage in a discourse that breaks new ground and advances new perspectives in theoretical debates that still seem to be largely dominated by European traditions.

As with James’s work itself, whose interdisciplinary character has inspired work especially in philosophy, psychology and physiology, this conference is also characterized by interdisciplinarity and transnational dialogue. Scholars from the fields of philosophy, literary and cultural studies, social science, and religious studies will explore pragmatism’s importance, potential, and current relevance.

26 April 2010

Science textbooks, girls and performance

Filed under: education,media — Tags: , , , , — discoursology @ 12:40

World Science reports that “mostly-male book images may reduce girls’ science scores“. Or to frame it more positively, more images of girls in the textbooks increased girls’ performance.

Part of the rea­son boys tend to out­score girls in sci­ence clas­ses may be that most text­books show pre­dom­i­nantly male sci­en­tists’ im­ages, a small ex­plor­a­to­ry study has found.

The stu­dy, on 81 young high-school stu­dents, saw the “gen­der gap” ap­par­ently re­versed when youths were tested based on a text con­tain­ing only female sci­ent­ist im­ages, in­ves­ti­ga­tors said. The gap re­turned in its usu­al form when ma­le-only im­ages were used—and van­ished when the pho­tos showed equal num­bers of men and wom­en sci­en­tists, re­search­ers said. … (April 23, 2010)

The full stu­dy: Jes­si­ca J. Good, Julie A. Woodzicka and Lylan C. Wingfield (2010). “The Effects of Gender Stereotypic and Counter-Stereotypic Textbook Images on Science Performance”, Jour­nal of So­cial Psy­chol­o­gy150 (2): 132-147. (Abstract)

18 April 2010

Language and culture

Filed under: discourse theory,education — Tags: , — discoursology @ 22:01

Question: What percent of languages in the world are primitive in the sense of not having a system of sounds, words, and sentences that can adequately communicate the content of culture?
Answer here on the second “flashcard”.

More tutorials on human communication by Dennis O’Neil.

13 April 2010

Grammar in schools

Filed under: education — Tags: , , — discoursology @ 07:49

On the comeback of grammar in the new Australian curriculum for English. In the Sydney Morning Herald.

Grammar was cut in the ’70s because of a view it didn’t help students’ writing, said Dr Sally Humphrey from the University of Sydney’s linguistics department.

”It was like, ‘We’re just going to give you building blocks; we’re not going to show you how it works in text.”’ The grammar starring in the new curriculum ”isn’t a set of rules for ‘correct’ use”, she said, but ”a set of resources or a tool kit” to be used according to the situation – whether it’s texting, giving a presentation in class or writing a history essay. [...]

It’s about ”letting kids in on the ‘secret’ of how good writers and good text producers do their work through the resources of language, through the resources of grammar – ‘hey, this is how it’s done!’,” Dr Humphrey said. ”And that’s an equity issue … Kids who haven’t got access to middle-class homes and middle-class ways of using language that are valued in the schools, they do need [the workings of language] made explicit.”

The draft curriculum is open for comment until 23 May 2010.

12 April 2010

Schools, tests and human rights

Filed under: discourse theory,education — Tags: , , , — discoursology @ 08:28

A potentially very effective blend of discourses was seen earlier this week at the National Union of Teachers conference in England. Christine Blower, the NUT’s general secretary, condemed national tests for 10- and 11-year olds (“Sats”) by critically articulating their reduction of children to “little bundles of measurable outputs” with the UN convention on the rights of the child. Under the convention, children are entitled to an education which helps develop their “personalitites, talents and abilities to their fullest potential”.

Blower said: “The NUT says ‘yes’ to risk-taking and exciting approaches to learning and ‘no’ to children as little bundles of measurable outputs.” (Guardian, 7 April 2010)

1 March 2010

Scienceblogs

Filed under: education,journalism,media,politics — Tags: , — discoursology @ 07:40

Science is blogging. In English and in German. On science, ethics, politics, culture, education… News story on Telepolis.

28 October 2009

Ethnographic discourse analysis

Filed under: discourse theory,education,media — Tags: , , , , , — discoursology @ 09:31

On a random google for others also working on “ethnographic discourse analysis”, I came across some interesting links.

Martin Müller’s book, Making great power identities in Russia: An ethnographic discourse analysis of education at a Russian elite university (Zürich:LIT). A university seminar in Vienna (Gabriela B. Christmann).Thomas Scheffer’s Research Report: Statements, Cases, and Criminal Cases. The Ethnographic Discourse Analysis of Legal Discourse Formations in FQS. And a job offer: Assist. Prof of Ethnographic Discourse Analysis at Georgetown (from 1995!).

A detailed review of Steinkuehler, C. (2005). Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: A Critical Approach shows how Steinkuehler explores MMOGs is not only as a discursive practice but also participating in a discourse. She’s primarily interested in learning, and analyses specific interactions and literacy practices. Draws on Geertz and Gee (Big ‘D’ discourses). The reviewer is clear that this is an important book for her research, and writes:

I also get my understanding of game play as situated in a multiplicity of discourses from Steinkuehler and while I have become leery of completely downplaying the digital physicality of virtual worlds I can’t deny the linguistic or at the very least literary nature of the interactions that I observe online. While incomplete her explanation of communities in MMOGs as both communities of discourse and communities of practice is a useful tool for understanding communities in online settings and if her vision of MMOGs as discourses can be somewhat monolithic I’m not prepared to completely abandon it because of that one flaw.

Now I’m wondering what happens if we take a larger definition of ‘discourse’ — akin to Laclau and Mouffe’s work, or the Essex school as they are now being called, or even Gee’s Big ‘D’ disocurses. If we understand discourse as not only language, but also a range of other practices and even physicality, does the separation of ‘community of discourse’ and ‘community of practice’ break down?

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