Preview this article: Our ideologies and theirs, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/prag.2.3.06col-1.gif

SOCRATES’ STRATEGIES - (M.) Marshall Reading Plato's Dialogues to Enhance Learning and Inquiry. Exploring Socrates’ Use of Protreptic for Student Engagement. Pp. x + 223, figs. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. Cased, £120, US$160. ISBN: 978-0-36763632-6. - Volume 72 Issue 2

Engaging Raymond Williams’ argument (1977: 112) that “[a] lived hegemony is always a process ... [that] can never be singular,” this paper examines contrary tendencies toward domination and autonomy in national debates about education, classroom-based reading practices, and students’ formation of literate identities. In particular, I explore the dynamics of inequality and reflexivity through an ethnographic-and-discursive analysis of a US urban middle school undergoing pedagogical reform. The school presents a balance, roughly 50/50, of students living in poverty and not living in poverty and from majority and non-majority ethnoracial backgrounds. Because of statewide pressures to “improve test scores,” the school has agreed to an ambitious English Language Arts curriculum initiative which encourages reflexive self-guidance among teachers and students. The paper presents analyses of public debates about literacy and of classroom interactional dynamics as well as case studies of ‘struggling readers,’ that is, young adolescent deemed unsuccessful at school literacy. The analysis of literacy debates focuses on the displacement of class and race “effects” in discussions of pedagogical reform. The classroom analyses focus on conditions of pedagogical inclusion and exclusion and the apparent role of class, race, and gender in such conditions. The case studies focus on the articulation of school and non-school literate identities and the role of class, race, and gender in those identities and their articulation.

This chapter focuses on the various ways that philosophical thinkers and practitioners rework the roles and natures of animals and beasts within conventional religious frameworks in order to suggest alternative cosmic orders. It draws a distinction between those intellectuals who make relatively direct and substantial challenges to Greek religious conventions (e.g. some Pythagoreans and Theophrastus) and those who disrupt religious conventions in an effort not to supplant them but to supplement and re-centre them with new ways of conceiving and being part of the cosmos (e.g. Socrates and Plato). Animals are inserted into or reworked within religious contexts in order to develop our moral capacities and sense of kinship; in some instances, these transformations go a long way towards developing an intrinsic significance of animals (i.e., apart from what they might mean for humans), while at the same time narrowing the gap between human and animal experience.

A frequent pedagogical discussion argues about whether traditional forms of teaching, such as lectures, are the most appropriate way to deliver good and sustainable learning to course participants. This article discusses the issue and introduces a case example, a Master’s level course in Diversity Management offered by Metropolia School of Applied Sciences. The course is structured so that it does indeed employ the lecture approach, but also embraces so-called post-modern approaches that facilitate co-learning and reflective practice, and which permit student voices to be heard. Evidence is offered that learning through this approach does have an impact in the workplace. Finally the author, as course teacher, reflects on their personal development and the pedagogical challenges of the approach. // Keskeinen aihe pedagogisissa keskusteluissa on, ovatko luennoinnin kaltaiset opettamisen perinteiset muodot paras tapa tuottaa hyvia oppimistuloksia. Artikkeli pohtii tata asiaa ja esittelee tapausesimerkin, Metropolia ammattikorkeakoulussa opetettavan maisteritason kurssin Monimuotoisuuden johtaminen. Kurssin rakenne perustuu luento-tyyppiseen opettamisen, mutta sisallyttaa myos niin kutsuttuja post-moderneja lahestymistapoja, jotka mahdollistavat yhdessa oppimisen ja reflektoinnin, ja antavat tilaa oppijoiden aanille. Tutkimus tarjoaa todisteita siita, etta taman tyyppisella opetuksella on merkitysta osallistujien tyopaikoilla. Lopuksi kirjoittaja – kurssin opettaja – pohtii opiskelijoiden kehitysta ja lahestymistavan pedagogisia haasteita.

No Child Left Behind is federal education legislation consisting of implementation programs intended to reconcile the goals of insuring equality while promoting competition in public education in the United States. Immigrant students whose primary languages are not English are included in the mandate of NCLB, categorized as English Language Learners (ELLs), a category of at-risk students. Drawing on case studies of immigrant students in upstate New York, as well as surveys of school district compliance with ESL/Bilingual education requirements, this analysis is an exploration of how NCLB and its implementation simultaneously obscure economic differences and polarize ethnolinguistic identities at school, state, and federal levels. Drawing from ethnographic as well as sociolinguistic data, the concept of state effects is used to examine the articulation and re-articulation of ethnoracial and linguistic diversity along axes of poverty and relative privilege. It is argued that NCLB as enacted across diverse scales constructs social subjects in relation to differences that are obscured or emphasized and produces isolated individual subjects as well as new collective identities.

The rich studies in this collection show that the investigation of voice requires analysis of “recognition” across layered spatial-temporal and sociolinguistic scales. I argue that the concepts of voice, recognition, and scale provide insight into contemporary educational inequality and that their study benefits, in turn, from paying attention to social inequality.

This paper is an exploration of the performance of Greek drama from the perspective of the performers, more specifically, of the chorus-in-training. The notion that khoreia constitutes an essential part of paideia and ethical instruction is an ancient one. And the notion persists, though in different forms, among scholars of the social and political context of these dramatic performances that to have participated in a chorus was in particular ways to have received training in essential perspectives and experiences of citizens: ‘the events and characters portrayed in tragedy are meant to be contemplated as lessons by young citizens.’ And yet what the members of a chorus were expected to learn, did learn, and, moreover, how they learned, have remained largely unexplored topics.I will suggest ways that we might begin to piece together a baseline of experiences and impressions that come through learning to sing, dance and compete in dramatic festivals. Most of the experiences that I will describe are partly functions of universal properties of the human mind; of course, culture and thoughts and other aspects of shared and individual experience are highly variable. Indeed, the contents of thought are unrestricted. But there are regular, even fixed, ways in which the mind and brain appear to work. I propose to describe an approach to the ways in which the words and movements and environment of dramatic competition are universally present to and apprehended by the senses and minds and bodies of a chorus-in-training. I am not suggesting that there are not other aspects of experience that are important to the performance and appreciation of drama. Rather, I hope to establish at the very least those aspects of training and performance that are necessary and perhaps even sufficient to bring a drama (and I take the chorus to be the most important part of drama) to the arena of competition. I will consider some of the lasting effects of dramatic training and performance on the life of the performer, i.e., how every performer may be changed by his experience.

Migration‐based language pluralism and globalized identity conflicts pose challenges for educational research and linguistic anthropology, in particular, how we think about education and social inequality. This article proposes new conceptual tools, drawn from linguistic anthropology as well as world systems theory, for analyzing the role of schooling in social reproduction and for investigating the dynamics of globalized social polarization. It grounds the argument in an ethnographic study of Latino migrant schoolchildren in upstate New York. [scale, migration, globalization, social reproduction, linguistic anthropology]

This paper proceeds from the idea that philosophical texts, given their ultimately transformative objectives, require of readers and auditors certain kinds of active engagement. As protreptic discourse, not only must these texts turn audiences away from conventional concerns and towards alternatives, but they must also be engaging in such a way as to help sustain the turn. In spite of ancient concerns about the limitations of writing and the dangers of engaging in certain kinds of spectacle, some of these texts suggest through the use of narrative devices that readers and spectators not merely theorize the dramatic maneuvers of philosophical dialogue but get involved with and experience, as only they themselves can, the struggles of philosophical conversion.This paper offers a narratological study of Platonic dialogues and Isokratean discourse in order to suggest a more open view of textuality in early fourth-century philosophical practices. Rather than compositions that were intended to be read or observed in performance for the sake of interpretation, some of the Platonic dialogues and other philosophical texts of the fourth century set themselves up primarily as prompts for participation and supplemental departures. These texts prescribe or portray personal responses from audiences as the narratives which they contain are being performed. While narrated dialogues may begin as recollections of dramatic and philosophically important exchanges, they can abruptly become occasions for unscripted engagements. Bystanders are turned into respondents. Audiences are drawn into becoming performing participants. I shall demonstrate how some of Plato's narrated dialogues (Phaedo, Euthydemus) model and privilege this sort of intrusion into reported events. Isokratean discourse models how a community collaborates to revise and supplement a text over time (Panathenaicus). This discourse can also go so far as to prescribe rather than merely model participation and supplementation (letters to young tyrants). In these examples, philosophical retellings become prompts for personal activity in the present. This dynamic, which is internal to these texts, suggests a different way of viewing the pragmatics of these texts in circulation and performance. Philosophical texts, like the interrupted and revised narratives they contain, may be better viewed as open scripts which invite special kinds of departure and improvisatory supplementation.

Regulatory agencies control emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) because they react with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight to yield tropospheric or ground-level ozone. However, reaction rates vary widely depending upon the type of VOC. Most VOC regulations developed in the United States consist of mass-based limits, except that VOCs found to be minimally reactive are exempted from regulations. However, the granting of VOC exemptions may lead to greater emissions of the VOCs so exempted. In this paper, we establish and describe a comprehensive approach that assesses several impacts of these greater emissions for VOCs proposed for exemption due to their negligible contribution to tropospheric ozone formation. These impacts include changes to tropospheric ozone, secondary organic aerosol, stratospheric ozone depletion, climate, other media (water and soil), indoor exposure, health, and the economy. This approach was applied to several VOCs: tertiary-butyl acetate (t-BAc), methyl formate, and nine fluorinated organic compounds, and the results are presented here. It is concluded that this comprehensive approach should be considered by regulatory agencies when exempting a VOC. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

This article engages with John Gumperz's research legacy by examining his statements regarding indexicality at different stages in his career: the "Introduction" to Directions in Sociolinguistics (1972); a framing essay in Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (1996); and a recent series of interviews and essays in Language and Social Interaction (2002). Situating his evolving understanding of indexicality vis-a-vis other work in linguistic anthropology (Agha 2005; Silverstein 2003a; Urciuoli 1996), I discuss how indexical concepts such as "ordering," when paired with concepts of spatio-temporal scale (Blommaert 2007), provide insightful ways of theorizing and analyzing the dynamics of globalization and language contact. The argument is developed via case studies of migration and multilingualism, based on fieldwork in Belgium (Blommaert et al. 2005a, 2005b) and the United States (Collins and La Santa 2007; Collins and Slembrouck 2009).

This article reviews literature on social reproduction in education, discusses the decline of the paradigm, and argues for its continuing relevance. It examines reproductive and transformative aspects of cross-linguistic literacy practices involving young people from three diasporic communities in the United States, presenting multi-leveled analyses that investigate what is reproduced or transformed by situated literacy practices and how institution-level processes shape such practices. It argues that such scale-sensitive analysis provides insight into new reproductive processes, involving conflicts over language in education, that are themselves rooted in new forms of class conflict rooted in global system dynamics of social polarization.