Browsing by Subject "Discourse Analysis"
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Item Critical Analysis of ?At-Risk? Policy Discourse: Implications for Administrators and Teachers(2010-10-12) Hemmer, LynnWhile No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provides a mechanism for holding states, local education agencies (LEA), and schools accountable to improve academic achievement for all students, policy itself has done little to include students from dropping out of school. Rather, dropout prevention/recovery schools/programs such as alternative schools of choice are recognized and relied upon as a means to reduce the number of students dropping out of school. These schools seek to re-engage the student who is at-risk to dropping out of school through nontraditional means and strategies. As more and more students become disenfranchised and drop out of school, these schools grow in importance. To ensure that all students have equity in education, regardless of educational setting, these schools warrant further attention and consideration. Therefore, two questions become evident: (a) How do educators in alternative schools interpret and implement policy such as NCLB? and (b) How do they define their role and responsibility? This case study examined the socio-legal discourse applied when seven administrators and 15 teachers administered policy as a response to an at-risk student population in five demographically diverse alternative education settings in California and Texas. A critical discourse analysis of text, interviews, and observations was used to reveal administrator and teacher assumptions and motivations of policy and risk. The data analysis revealed three dominant discourses of risk compliance and policy knowledge that were notable forces in the policy implementation of NCLB at these schools. Themes that emerged from the data included responsibility, dissociation, success, and equity. The findings from this study have demonstrated that a moment-by-moment process shapes the construction of role, responsibility, success, and equity as defined by the teachers and administrators. Furthermore, the discourse of risk and policy converged as ideological and political conceptions that perpetuate the notion that educating disadvantaged children as a process of demonstrating a particular level of knowledge and/or acquitting what it means to be considered at-risk. The implication for these educators is that the risk discourse that was engaged influenced their sense of responsibility, practice, and thus may counter policy intent.Item Human rights discourses on a global network: rhetorical acts and network actors from humanitarian NGOs, conflict sites, and the fiction market(2009-05) Khor, Lena Lay Suan; Arens, Katherine, 1953-; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-As the language and ideology of human rights globalizes, some scholars have revisited pressing questions about the universality and cultural relativity of human rights as theory, discourse, and practice in philosophy, law, and culture. While some view the globalization of human rights negatively as Western cultural imperialism, others see it positively as a means to empower the oppressed. These arguments often reach an impasse because they presume human rights as a fixed entity. This project reconsiders this assumption in the debate about the globalization of human rights by attending to the discursive (and thus changeable and changing) nature of this language and ideology, and the networked system through which it globalizes. By modeling a global discourse network, it examines how a globalizing discourse of human rights might be affected by and be affecting its subjects, especially their individual identity and agency. Thereafter, it tests this model on three actors speaking from different subject positions and through different textual genres – a humanitarian NGO and a speech; a genocide survivor and an autobiography; and a global author and a novel. These case studies suggest that groups and individuals speaking from traditionally less-than-powerful subject positions (like the NGO and crisis survivor) in a typical human rights framework can benefit from the discourse and its network. They gain global presence and influence through the network’s amplifying effects on identity, influence, and conventions, which offer its users the chance of appearing as agents. But there are also instances (as with the author and novel) where the universalist rhetoric of the discourse and the global reach of its network (their power) cannot overcome the force of other more divisive discourses and networks oriented around markers of difference like nationality, ethnicity, class, or religion. This project thus outlines some possibilities and limits of speaking globally through a purportedly universalist discourse in a network situation, and identifies consistent problems of representing human rights crisis and causes as globalized speech acts and from postnational speaking positions, in a still nation-centered world.Item Making Sense of Judicial Sensemaking: A Study of Rhetorical Discursive Interaction at the Supreme Court of the United States.(2011-08-08) Malphurs, Ryan AllenThis dissertation engages previous research in political science and psychology by arguing for the importance of oral arguments from a communication perspective, examining justices' rhetorical discursive interaction in oral arguments, introducing Sensemaking as a new model of judicial decision making, and discussing the legal and cultural impact of justices' rhetorical discursive interaction in Morse v. Frederick, Kennedy v. Louisiana, and District of Columbia v. Heller. In contrast to the aggregate behavioral models and longitudinal studies conducted by political scientists and psychologists, this study examines these specific cases in order to gauge each justice's individual interaction in oral argument and to determine how certain justices may have controlled the discursive flow of information within oral arguments, which in turn may have influenced the Court's decision making ability. The dissertation begins with an introduction, providing an overview of the development and study of legal rhetoric from the Greeks to present day. A review of prior literature in law, political science, and psychology displays how fields outside of communication view oral arguments and reveals where communication may provide valuable contributions to the study of Supreme Court oral arguments. Theoretical and methodological approaches adopted for the study of oral arguments are discussed. Analysis within the dissertation begins with an overview of the inherent complexity found within oral arguments and applies the previously discussed theoretical and methodological approaches to the case of Morse v. Frederick as a means of determining theoretical and methodological validity. Following analysis of Morse v. Frederick, a second case, Kennedy v. Louisiana is analyzed to determine if similar results will occur. Final consideration is given to a third case, District of Columbia v. Heller, to understand whether justices' behavior may deviate in more socially and politically sensitive cases. The dissertation concludes with suggestions for lawyers and judges based upon this study's findings and makes recommendations to scholars for further areas of research.Item Promoting Positive Ethnolinguistic Identity in the Heritage Language Classroom through Dialect Awareness(2012-10-19) Gardner Flores, Helen LisaThis study examines Dialect Awareness as an instructional practice when used to teach Spanish Heritage Language (HL) learners at a university located on the U.S.-Mexico border. The author employs bidialectalism as a theoretical perspective, recognizing the important role that U.S. Border Spanish plays in constructing ethnolinguistic identity. A mixed-methods research framework was used that included a pre-post survey instrument, focus group interviews, and classroom observations to examine HL student confidence toward learning a prestige language variety and attitudes toward speaking U.S. Border Spanish. Discourse analysis was employed to examine the discursive practices of the DA classroom. Quantitative survey results showed that students developed a number of significant attitudinal changes after taking a course infused with Dialect Awareness. Triangulated qualitative findings confirmed that student attitudes had changed after one semester. The author proposes an agenda for future application of Dialect Awareness in Spanish Heritage Language classrooms.