This dissertation investigates malḥūn poetry and its roles in contemporary Moroccan society. It challenges modernist approaches to malḥūn that focus on structures and overlook functions, contingencies and interdependencies. I propose an approach informed by performance studies and Bakhtinian dialogism. This study relies on three types of primary sources: printed collections, oral performances, and interviews. Oral and written examples of malḥūn range across the past five hundred years. However, this study places priority on the various actors involved in malḥūn today: poets, singers, musicians, editors, scholars, politicians and fans. This dissertation demonstrates how the heteroglossia of malḥūn performances affects Moroccans as they negotiate identities and re-imagine Moroccan society. Performers' poetic devices and interpretations of the genre facilitate a process of representing and "voicing" social groups within contemporary Moroccan public discourse. I specifically address voices of stability that reinforce social structures of authority ("centripetal") and voices of diversification ("centrifugal") that re-envision diversity in Moroccan society. Artistic innovations, such as theatrical productions of a narrative malḥūn poem, make space for rethinking Moroccan identity. I argue that malḥūn poetry functions dialogically in contemporary public discourse to provide a space for Moroccans to negotiate social identities. This dissertation demonstrates how one cultural genre forms social identity, engaging contemporary theory and debates of issues ranging from performance and identity to heritage and social effects of art and literature. / text

Dialogic pedagogy involves students as critical inquirers, who can analyze their perspectives and attitudes. Dialogic creates liminal space (Buber, 1965) where conversation generates knowledge and personal relations. I intend to explore these ‘dialogic spaces’ where a group of 20 students and their teacher engage in dialogue around literary texts in an advanced English composition and literature major class of female students of one university in United Arab Emirates (UAE). My study takes further, growing interest in the value of dialogical process in second language learning. It describes the ways in which learners engaged in dialogical process begin to challenge perspectives and power relations. Because of the positive response that followed the sessions (conducted for the pilot study), I wanted to explore the process in relation to gender and culture. My dissertation research takes further the questions raised in the assignment study. I want to consider the conditions that will allow perspectives to remain in dialogue. My research explores how dialogic literacy practices function in relation to particular cultural and ideological discourses (Fairclough, 1992; Gee, 1996; Luke, 1991). The data include: class observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews (of students and the teacher) and writing assignments. The study employs an exploratory research design to discover and understand perspectives of the people involved (Merriam, 1998). I therefore emphasize that the analyses of the data are offered as partial and unfinished interpretations based on a specific theoretical framework. Although the research findings cannot be generalized across all female students in the UAE, they provide some insight into the learning experiences and preferences of Emirati women. Knowledge is finding light in darkness and staying warm in the cold. This is the knowledge our students must acquire. Not facts and theories, but a deep knowing (O’Reilley, 1998). Thus it seems appropriate to me to call this study, ‘the lighting of a fire’ (W.B.Yeats).

Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / There is widespread agreement that language skill underpins reading comprehension (e.g. Cutting & Scarborough, 2006; Dickinson, McCabe, Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg, & Poe, 2003; Snow, 1991), and empirical work over the last 20 years has shown positive effects of dialogic instruction on student literacy outcomes. This suggests the importance of the engagement with others in the learning process as a scaffold for academic literacy skills (Wells, 1999). Research in this area has shown a number of important features of dialogic instruction to be positively correlated with literacy skills, but it is still not well understood how teachers guide and support students in developing language abilities for reading comprehension. Drawing on dialogic theories of language and the simple view of reading model (Hoover & Gough, 1990), and using a convergent mixed method analysis, the study explores how features of dialogic instruction relate to students' reading comprehension outcomes, and identifies themes within the patterns and variations of these features during instruction. Multilevel modeling (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) and case study analysis (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 2006; Yin, 2009) are used to identify significant talk moves for reading comprehension and to qualify the content and function of these moves in their instructional contexts. Quantitative analyses showed five significant talk moves predicted reading comprehension achievement, including the rate of uptake questions, teacher explanations, and low-quality evaluations. High rates of student explanations and high-quality questions were predictive of lower reading outcomes. Case study analyses show a preponderance of teacher talk, a lack of quantity and quality to student talk, and an efferent stance (Rosenblatt, 1994) toward reading. These findings indicate a lack of dialogic practices across the grades and classrooms. However, there were opportunities for dialogic practices that support students' linguistic comprehension. Overall, this analysis showed mixed results for the importance of dialogic instructional moves, and indicates the importance of teacher talk to facilitate linguistic comprehension, as well as the promise of talk moves that incorporate student attention and participation around texts. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

A major challenge to contemporary education is to meet the Government’s directive, depicted in OFSTED guidelines and the Department for Education’s Teacher Standards that all our learners make progress, are autonomous and are able to engage in independent learning. However they offer no guidance as to how this can be achieved. The research has built on earlier theories to close the gap between Government measurements of the quality of teaching and twenty-first century educational theories, with particular focus on learning talk. The primary intention of this research was to determine the impact that dynamically dialogic learning conversations, that is learning talk, have on deepening learning, and how they may be used to enable teachers to meet OFSTED’s requirement for all students to make progress. The data for this case study was collected through a process of lesson observations, interviews and focus-group discussions over a period of one year. Sixteen lessons were video-recorded for a variety of topics and the recordings were analysed in depth against established theories of learning and the complex patterns and relationships between the different types of student and teacher learning talk observed in the classroom. The outcome of the analysis is a set of observable characteristics of learning talk which form an Observation Database. The findings support the premise that learning talk in the classroom leads to deeper learning. The Observation Database contains of a set of tools for observing, evaluating and enabling learning talk in the classroom and therefore offers teachers the opportunity to demonstrate OFSTED criteria. The process of developing the Observation Database and the tools developed have been shared both locally and nationally to heighten awareness of learning talk in the classroom and its link to deeper learning.

Dialogic reading is an evidence-based practice for preschool children who are typically developing or at-risk (WWC, 2007). However, there is limited research to evaluate if dialogic reading has similar positive effects on the language and preliteracy skills of preschool children with disabilities (WWC, 2010). This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of dialogic reading, with the incorporation of pause time, on the language and preliteracy skills of 42 preschool children with disabilities within 5 inclusive and 7 self-contained preschool classrooms. Following random assignment of students at the level of the classrooms, participants were equally distributed into an intervention (n=21) and a comparison group (n=21). The intervention consisted of dialogic reading, with the incorporation of pause time, based on the Read Together, Talk Together (RTTT; Pearson Early Learning, 2006) program kit. The targeted outcomes were receptive language skills, expressive language skills, and preliteracy skills. Children received either dialogic reading or typical storybook reading for 10 to 15 minutes per day, three days per week, for six weeks (i.e., 18 sessions in total) in small groups. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4th Edition (PPVT-4; Dunn & Dunn, 2007), Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4th Edition (EOWPVT-4; Martin & Brownell, 2011), Get Ready to Read!-Revised (GRTR-R; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2010), and the ‘Which One Doesn’t Belong’ and Picture Naming subtests of the Individual Growth and Development Indicators of Early Literacy (IGDIs-EL; McConnell, Bradfield, Wackerle-Hollman, & Rodriquez, 2012) were used as pre and posttest assessments. A researcher developed near transfer test of receptive and expressive vocabulary words was also administered pre and post intervention to determine if words specifically targeted during the intervention were learned. These standardized and researcher developed measures were analyzed with one-way ANCOVAs, using pretest scores and age as covariates to determine within and between group differences. The Johnson-Neyman procedure was utilized as necessary when violations of heterogeneity of slopes occurred. Following the intervention period, children in the intervention group scored significantly higher on the receptive and expressive near transfer vocabulary assessments. This occurred both for words that were specifically targeted during dialogic reading, as well as additional vocabulary words in the storybook.

Despite all of the attention given to it by researchers, scientists, educators, psychologists, sociologists, etc., bullying continues to permeate K-12 schools around the world. Statistics on K-12 bullying in the U.S. confirm that not only did bullying double in the ten years between 2001 and 2011 but these numbers are not getting smaller. This thesis provides a sampling of studies and programs that have been done or are being done to understand, reduce, prevent, and eliminate school bullying. The emphasis of the sampling is on the use of top-down, hierarchical value structures, designed to encourage youth to comply with the values of a dominant adult group; these underlying values are in direct contrast to the underlying values of egalitarianism and self-determination that are inherent in the goals of the current study, where sixth grade students learned about dialogue and how to communicate with each other in nurturing non-hierarchical environments.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Previous empirical studies of social media use by nonprofit organizations suggest that its dialogic potential has not yet been fully realized. Yet drawing from content analysis and surveys, these studies shed little light on the underlying motives and values that drive nonprofit social media practices, neither do they address to what extent these practices are effective on social media followers. To fill in the gaps of this existing research, I conducted two qualitative studies to explore the experiences of multiple stakeholders implicated in nonprofit social media use. First, I interviewed social media point persons (SMPPs)—nonprofit employees who self-identified as being primarily responsible for their organization’s social media planning and implementation—and found that SMPPs’ mindsets and social media tactics reflect dialogic principles, specifically those of mutuality, empathy, propinquity, risk and commitment. Second, I conducted focus groups with individuals who followed some of the SMPPs’ organizations on Facebook, and found that their followers want nonprofit organizations to take the lead building a community shaped by connection, dialogue and involvement. By comparing perspectives of SMPPs and their followers, I found that dialogic activities on social media can catalyze a culture of dialogue within a community, encouraging sharing, mutual support and connections. To facilitate the process, nonprofit professionals have taken on the role of a moderator that promotes dialogue centered around the community. Taken together, my research expands our current understanding about nonprofit organizations’ roles in public relations, and raises questions for future research about how nonprofit professionals balance the dialogic culture they work to cultivate on social media with other organizational priorities within an organizational or even sector-wide context.

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A presente tese tem por objetivo investigar junto a professores da educação profissional o desenvolvimento de criticidade a partir de práticas pedagógicas que utilizam as ferramentas fórum e editor de texto coletivo. O estudo se desenvolveu sobre uma base composta de quatro eixos: humanismo, crítica, educação profissional e recursos tecnológicos. O foco do primeiro eixo está na educação humanista. O segundo eixo dá destaque às diferentes compreensões de crítica que perpassam a história. O cenário da educação profissional é o foco do terceiro eixo. No quarto eixo são tratados os recursos tecnológicos, com ênfase nas ferramentas fórum e editor de texto coletivo. A pesquisa é desenvolvida em uma abordagem qualitativa a partir da estratégia de pesquisa estudo de caso. Com o fim de coletar dados, foram realizados três cursos de extensão na modalidade semipresencial. As fontes de pesquisa utilizadas foram: entrevista e observações das ações e dos registros dos sujeitos participantes da pesquisa nas ferramentas fórum, editor de texto coletivo e editor de texto Word. O estudo mostra que o entendimento de crítica é uma construção que envolve a inserção de três aspectos: sentido político, função de julgamento, e análise, questionamento e reflexão. Estes aspectos, em diferentes graus e formas, já estavam presentes na compreensão dos sujeitos acerca de crítica. Contudo, as evidências indicam que as práticas pedagógicas dialógicas podem ter contribuído para a inserção de novos elementos. Com relação a um alinhamento com as concepções hegemônicas e contra-hegemônicas, os dados apontam três diferentes possibilidades: professores que apresentam traços de uma e outra concepção; professores com discurso mais alinhado à concepção hegemônica; e professores com discurso mais alinhado à concepção contra-hegemônica. A pesquisa indica ainda que o modelo de competências e o viés utilitarista da educação profissional estão naturalizados, ou seja, são aceitos e não questionados, contribuindo para que a concepção hegemônica mostre sua força e presença na educação. Os dados confirmam o caráter dialógico das ferramentas fórum e editor de texto coletivo, e indicam que, devido as suas diferentes características, podem ser utilizadas com diferentes propósitos e em diferentes momentos das práticas pedagógicas. O estudo conclui que se desenvolve criticidade na medida em que elementos/aspectos que compõem um entendimento de crítica se inserem na compreensão e nas ações dos sujeitos até o ponto em que crítica seja transformadora da realidade. Assim, o fato de não haver evidências de uma fase inicial de criticização pode sugerir que a criticidade pode ser desenvolvida em diferentes contextos, inclusive os educacionais, mas não somente. Para esta pesquisa, havendo a intenção docente, práticas pedagógicas dialógicas que utilizem o fórum e editor de texto coletivo podem contribuir para que aspectos de crítica se insiram na compreensão e na ação crítica dos alunos. A ausência destas práticas em contexto de educação profissional pode, por outro lado, contribuir para a perpetuação de uma hegemonia que mantém seus interesses por meio de um professor, uma escola e um aluno não críticos. / The present Ph.D. dissertation aims to investigate, alongside teachers of professional education, the development of criticality from teaching practices that employ tools such as forum and collective text editor. This research is conducted upon four branches: humanism, criticism, professional education, and technological resources. The focus of the first branch lies on the humanistic education. The second branch sheds lights on the different interpretations concerning criticism throughout history. The context of professional education is the point of the third branch. In the fourth branch, technological resources are addressed, with emphasis on tools such as forum and collective text editor. This inquiry is carried out from a qualitative approach based on the research strategy known as case study. Three extension courses in blended mode have been offered with the purpose of data collection. The research sources that have been utilized were interviews and observations of the actions and records related to the subjects participating in the study in the following tools: forum, collective text editor and Word text editor. The exploration shows that the understanding of criticism is a construction involving three aspects: political sense, judgment function, and analysis, questioning and reflection. When it comes to the awareness of criticism, theses aspects had already been conceived by the subjects to certain degrees and forms. Nevertheless, evidence indicates that dialogic teaching practices may have contributed to the insertion of new elements. Regarding an alignment with hegemonic and counter-hegemonic conceptions, the data reveal three different possibilities: teachers who have traits of one and other conception; teachers whose discourse is more aligned to the hegemonic conception; and teachers whose discourse is more aligned to the counter-hegemonic conception. This study demonstrates that the competency model and the utilitarian perspective of professional teaching are naturalized. In other words, they are accepted and not questioned, optimizing the force and presence of the hegemonic conception towards education. The data also confirm the dialogic character of the previously mentioned tools, forum and collective text editor, and signal that they may be utilized for different purposes and on diverse moments of the teaching practices due to their various features. This research remarks that criticality is developed as the elements/aspects composing an understanding of criticism are included in the comprehension and actions of the subjects until criticism transforms reality. Thus, the fact that there is no evidence of an introductory phase of criticalization may suggest that criticality can be developed in different contexts, including the educational framework, but not only this one. In terms of the present study, given pedagogical purposes, dialogic teaching practices that employ forum and collective text editor may enable criticism aspects to be inserted in the comprehension and critical action of students. The absence of such practices in a professional education context might, on the other hand, strengthen the perpetuation of a hegemony that keeps its interests by means of noncritical teachers, schools and students.