The aim of the this small scale empirical research study was to shed a discursive light on the leadership that was experienced within two primary school settings in the North West of England and the constraints of context that shaped the discourses of leadership within those schools. Contextual factors have been defined as being on three levels: institutional, cultural and governmental. So using this framework as a sorting category for posing situated questions of the participants and Gee’s (1999; 2005; 2011) interconnected one to explore and question the data and the taken-for-granted assumptions, it has been possible to garner an understanding of how these contexts interacted in framing an individual’s understanding of the leadership they were experiencing and implications for their practice. The research questions which this study addressed were: What are the contextual factors that shape discourses of educational leadership? What does the discursive analysis reveal of how stakeholders talk about ways of becoming in the leadership they are experiencing within a socially situated practice? What are the implications of this analysis for the practice of leadership within school? The research was influenced by two particular approaches to discourse analysis, a ‘practice approach’ and a ‘critical approach’. As educational practices are communicative events, this study has adopted a critical discourse analysis in making visible the ways that individuals talk about leadership they are experiencing within their settings. Through a Foucauldian lens it was possible to question the basis for the assumptions and norms of educational leadership in school and examine the ways in which individuals within school were both constructed and shaped by that discourse. This study takes the view that the school as an organizational context for leaders is both complex and under explored as it is in a constant state of flux. Various complexities are acknowledged concerning the contextual nature of leadership; it is complex, context specific, socially constructed, negotiated and hierarchical. Analysis of 18 in-depth semi-structured interviews and 18 cognitive maps reveals a range of Discourses of contextual factors of leadership such as the Discourse of the pivotal role of the headteacher; Discourse of leadership activity; Discourse of identity-work; Discourse of power relations and Discourse of commodification of education all made visible by the individuals within the school to which they endeavour to belong.

In this study I explored the research questions, how do students understand membership in a community and the responsibilities of our various locations and what pedagogical rationales and practices move students from awareness of social injustice towards acting to transform the societal structures that reinforce injustice? This project engaged in a critical and classroom action research using ethnographic tools with a class of Grade 7 students from a Vancouver elementary school. The purpose was to create spaces in curriculum for student initiated social justice oriented actions while testing a pedagogy founded in student inquiry, criticality and praxis. This was an experiment in applying critical discourse to instructional design. While teaching about social justice issues, the teacher- researcher sought to employ the principles of social justice in the pedagogy as well as the methodology of this study. The methodology sought to be consistent with the principles of social justice through attempting to create a collaborative critical research cohort with students through using data collection to foster a dialogic relationship between teacher- researcher and students. The data collection was in the forms of teacher and student generated fieldnotes, a communal research log, photography, questionnaires, interviews and written reflections. The findings from this research were analyzed through the themes of teacher tensions, constructs of student and teachers, and resistance. The analysis of the data provided opportunities for identifying power dynamics within the concepts being critiqued, exploring the makings of the cognitive unconscious and entering into a dialogic relationship with students about official and hidden curricula. Conclusions drawn from this research included that the experiment of teaching and researching for social justice in a socially just manner requires not only a grounding in theory and an awareness of the normative discourse, but an investigation of and critical reflection on those social constructions of teacher and student that are deeply embedded in the collective cognitive unconscious of the classroom. Teacher tensions and student resistance are productive as they provoke awareness of these constructions and their effects on the classroom. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Current American education is comprised of and influenced by a myriad of complex legislative, technological, and cultural representations of consumption, however this historic-educational study specifically examines how the Reagan administration discursively initiated the consumerizing educational framework. While existing research studies the neoliberal implications on education, this study addresses the neoliberal reforms under President Reagan within the discursive paradigm of its consumerizing impact. By using Critical Discourse Analysis on a selection of Presidential proclamations, speeches, and national educational reports, this study examines and elucidates how the Reagan administration created the consumerizing framework for American education. The Reagan administration distinguished American education from its predecessors as prioritizing the consuming potential of students, while simultaneously situating education as a commodity. The Reagan administration discursively positioned education as a commodity by implementing the free market values of competition and choice. Through Reagan’s encouragement of corporate involvement and rewarding the tenacity of business initiatives in education, American education transitioned from a democratic ideal to a market-oriented institution. This was specifically accomplished through positioning Reagan’s predecessors as misguided and situating Reagan as a rescuer, while legitimating the reforms as adhering to the American spirit. Similarly, business was presented as embodying the essence of the American spirit and being a rejuvenating force. Choice and competition were recontextualized from their economic purpose and recommended as a new form of educational governance. By understanding the results through the lens of some Frankfurt School thinkers and expanding on Bowles and Gintis’ educational theory, this study argues that Reagan’s reforms embodied a physical consumerizing aspect and an interactional consumerizing facet as necessary for the economy of post-industrial America.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / One of the most pertinent issues currently confronting South Africans and perhaps people around the world is the question of how to bring about social justice for everybody regardless of ‘races’, ‘ethnicities’, cultures, religions and genders. With this in mind, this study evaluates through a critical discourse analysis model the preambles of selected public policy documents in conjunction with the issue of racial classification as prescribed in the Z83 job application form in a post-apartheid South Africa. It draws specifically on Halliday’s (1978, 1989, and 2004) discourse analysis framework to evaluate the field and tenor of public discourse (what happened historically and who was involved in public policy formulations) and finally, the mode of public policy discourse (the part that language plays in the making of a new South African society). Moreover, it uses the education sector as an indicator of transformation to highlight the successes and failures of post-apartheid historical redress. It uses education as an exemplar because it ‘plays’ or has the potential to play a pivotal role in transformation and nation building in a post-apartheid South Africa. The study appraises particularly the impact of the notion of plurality of races as a transformation strategy; that is, its successes and failures in determining educational achievements numerically as well as nation building from 1994 to 2014. It uses close linguistic/discourse analysis to unravel the meaning(s) of ‘united in our diversity’ as well as associated concepts in the preambles of selected public policy documents. The reason for this is to show that the notion of different races is implicated in the concept ‘diversity’ in the preamble of South Africa’s constitution act 108 of 1996 as well as ‘designated groups’ in the preambles of affirmative action and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies.

This study examines how Asian Americans articulate their marginalization and identity, as well as other issues related to race, through the use of blogs. Specifically, I look at discourse surrounding the Deadly Viper Character Assassins publication controversy on three different blogs. I draw upon critical discourse analysis (CDA) to compile patterns, themes, and anomalies from the online discussions. This paper highlights key findings, given the scarceness of Asian American voices in public culture, that prompt ongoing discussions about identity and the use of blogs as a platform to speak and conceptualize Asian American identity.

Healthy eating has become an important subject in society, particularly in the media. Food has always been a complex area but in recent years it has become even more distinct. Based on a critical discourse analysis, the purpose of this study is to examine and disclose what discourses that appear in articles regarding dietary counselling in three swedish health magazines, ToppHälsa, MåBra and Womens Health & Wellness. Analyzing three articles in each magazine we identified several discourses. The most prominent is the discourse about wellbeing. The majority of the articles reproduce this discourse by associating healthy eating with wellbeing. As the research field is limited, this study contributes with findings in a area that still needs further research.

abstract: This study tests the hypothesis and assumption of much critical scholarship that the discourse of mass media news transmits prejudicial ideologies to news consumers, influencing the way they think about social justice issues and non-dominant groups in American society, including immigrants, women, and African-Americans. Taking off from the motivations and premises of Critical Discourse Analysis concerning language, power, and ideology, this study aims to extend that paradigm in several ways by applying the analytic techniques of cognitive and critical linguistics to uncover implicit representations in biased discourse. This study also goes beyond previous work by examining the reader comments on media texts to understand how the media’s discourse was received and interpreted, with a focus on the covert transmission of ideological messages. The results reveal how ideologies of prejudice are communicated implicitly through media discourse and how readers’ own ideologies influence that process, as evidenced by their comments. As a study in Critical Discourse Analysis, this study uncovers abuses of power impacting social justice – in this case, the power of writing for the mass media to mold American minds, and therefore influence Americans’ behavior, including elections. Specific news articles from the American networks CNN and Fox were chosen on each of two topics for their relevance to current sociopolitical issues of prejudice and social justice: the US Supreme Court June 2018 decision to uphold the Trump administration “travel ban” and the January 2019 Gillette advertisement, considered controversial for its seemingly feminist criticism of male behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

By using critical discourse analysis this study aims to understand the asylum process in Sweden through the experiences of the denied asylum seekers as they are expressed in their narratives published online. The study also aims to explore how the applicants influence the asylum process and if the applicants perform any resistance. By adopting the power perspective and presenting the denied applicants‟ experiences of the asylum process through the perspective of discipline power, sovereign power and biopower, the study shows that applicants experience positioning which is imposed on them by Swedish Migration Agency. This research supports findings of the previous studies yet it presents the asylum seekers in a contrasting way, namely as acting subjects who resist and negotiate their position during the asylum process. The denied applicants do not just accept the assigned positions, namely the subject who can be denied, be deported and the unwanted subject, rather negotiate them in various ways including attempt to mobilization through the social medias and digital technologies. The study also shows how the family unit is used as a resource in this negotiation both by the applicants and the Migration Agency.

What is ‘legitimacy’? Is legitimation possible through non-linguistic modes? These are the key theoretical questions with which this study is concerned. It explores them in conjunction with an analysis of American political spot advertisements. These ads are situated at the nexus between legitimation and multimodality, and their relevance to contemporary politics on the world stage is reflected in the immense financial and skilled resources which have been — and continue to be — devoted to them. A historical perspective into legitimation, multimodality and the attendant concepts of rationality and irrationality is given, followed by a discussion challenging the assumed rational role accorded to language. So challenged, the discussion moves to looking at the pairing of multimodality and politics; first from a historical viewpoint, and then from a more contemporary one. The role of myth, in the form of the American Dream, is investigated, leading to discussion of political appropriation, branding, tangibility, affordances and the (im)possibility of restricting interpretation. Spot ads are analysed with a specific focus: first on modal salience, and secondly on how the semiotic richness of the concept of nature is exploited for purposes of legitimation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female protagonists in video games are portrayed. The material analysed consist of two game series of ten games each, which means a total empirical material of 20 games. The game series chosen for analysis are Metroid with its protagonist Samus Aran and Tomb Raider with Lara Croft as its protagonist. These game franchises were chosen because they have the bestselling video game heroines. The method used for this study has been a critical discourse analysis and the results show both a validated and contradicted result. The theories and the result from the analysis can confirm that female video game characters and especially protagonists are visually portrayed in an objectified sexualised manner. The contradiction is shown in the descriptions of the two female leads where they are both depicted as strong, confident and independent women in their fields of expertise.