<p>Diskussionen om kunskap och lärande stannar aldrig, men för verksamma i skolan är det relevant att vara på det klara med hur kunskapsbegreppet kan förstås i skolan. Lärarens syn på kunskap och lärande bestämmer hur hon förhåller sig till sitt uppdrag och hur hon lägger upp undervisningen. Skoldiskursen kan undersökas på olika vis. I den här uppsatsen har fyra av Skolverkets publikationer analyserats. Syftet är att undersöka vilken kunskapssyn som förmedlas i texterna och vilken strävan som finns att upprätthålla eller förändra den rådande diskursen. I analysen har begreppen kunskap, lärande, skola, lärare och elev stått i centrum.</p><p>Slutsatserna av analysen är att det finns en strävan att omformulera det som i texterna beskrivs som den traditionella diskursen inom skolan. Det råder konsensus om att skolundervisningen vanligtvis utgått ifrån ett ensidigt kunskapsparadigm, men att den traditionen nu utmanas av ett nytt paradigm som definierar kunskap som någonting situerat och som skapas i interaktion mellan människor. I samtliga texter förmedlas ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på kunskap och lärande. Det som skiljer texterna åt är att de förhåller sig till de två kunskapsparadigmen på olika vis. I två av texterna argumenteras för det nya kunskapsparadigmet, medan det i de andra två finns en idé om att de två paradigmen kan föras samman.</p><p>Publikationerna fördjupar sig i begreppen kunskap och lärande. Däremot lämnar tre av de fyra texterna en djupare diskussion kring vad som ingår i lärarprofessionen om kunskap och lärande förstås som de definieras i texterna. En slutsats som också kan dras av analysen är att den didaktiska hurfrågan inte går att få svar på i publikationerna. Kanske är det decentraliseringens baksida, att Skolverkets publikationer inte behöver ta sig an de praktiska frågorna.</p><p> </p> / <p>The discussion about knowledge and learning never ends. For those who are working in school it is relevant to have a clear idea of how the term knowledge can be understood in an educational context. A teacher's idea of knowledge and learning decides what pedagogical methods she uses. The school discourse can be analysed in different ways. In this paper has a discourse analysis been done of four publications from Nation (Sweden) Agency of Education. The aim is to see what ideas of knowledge that is represented in the texts and what ambition there is to alter or maintain the current discourses. The analysis work has especially focused on the terms knowledge, learning, school, teacher and pupil.</p><p>Conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis are that there is a striving to reformulate a traditional school discourse. In the publications there is an agreement concerning that traditional teaching generally come from a one-sided knowledge paradigm that now is being challenging by a new paradigm. The new paradigm defines knowledge as something dependent of the context and that it is created in interaction between people. All four publications mediate a sociocultural perspective on knowledge and learning. The difference between the texts is the attitude they apply to the fact that there is two paradigms that have influences in the school discourse. Two of the texts argue for the new paradigm, while the other two mediate that the paradigms are complements.</p><p>The publications enter deeply into the terms knowledge and learning. However they leavethe discussion about what a professional teacher is in a school where the terms knowledge and learning is understood as it is defined in the texts. Only one of the texts gives some answers on the didactic question <em>how</em>. A conclusion that lies near in hand is that the decentralisation of school gives the Nation Agency of Education the possibility to avoid concrete questions that give useful information in teachers' professional life.</p>

Diskussionen om kunskap och lärande stannar aldrig, men för verksamma i skolan är det relevant att vara på det klara med hur kunskapsbegreppet kan förstås i skolan. Lärarens syn på kunskap och lärande bestämmer hur hon förhåller sig till sitt uppdrag och hur hon lägger upp undervisningen. Skoldiskursen kan undersökas på olika vis. I den här uppsatsen har fyra av Skolverkets publikationer analyserats. Syftet är att undersöka vilken kunskapssyn som förmedlas i texterna och vilken strävan som finns att upprätthålla eller förändra den rådande diskursen. I analysen har begreppen kunskap, lärande, skola, lärare och elev stått i centrum. Slutsatserna av analysen är att det finns en strävan att omformulera det som i texterna beskrivs som den traditionella diskursen inom skolan. Det råder konsensus om att skolundervisningen vanligtvis utgått ifrån ett ensidigt kunskapsparadigm, men att den traditionen nu utmanas av ett nytt paradigm som definierar kunskap som någonting situerat och som skapas i interaktion mellan människor. I samtliga texter förmedlas ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på kunskap och lärande. Det som skiljer texterna åt är att de förhåller sig till de två kunskapsparadigmen på olika vis. I två av texterna argumenteras för det nya kunskapsparadigmet, medan det i de andra två finns en idé om att de två paradigmen kan föras samman. Publikationerna fördjupar sig i begreppen kunskap och lärande. Däremot lämnar tre av de fyra texterna en djupare diskussion kring vad som ingår i lärarprofessionen om kunskap och lärande förstås som de definieras i texterna. En slutsats som också kan dras av analysen är att den didaktiska hurfrågan inte går att få svar på i publikationerna. Kanske är det decentraliseringens baksida, att Skolverkets publikationer inte behöver ta sig an de praktiska frågorna. / The discussion about knowledge and learning never ends. For those who are working in school it is relevant to have a clear idea of how the term knowledge can be understood in an educational context. A teacher's idea of knowledge and learning decides what pedagogical methods she uses. The school discourse can be analysed in different ways. In this paper has a discourse analysis been done of four publications from Nation (Sweden) Agency of Education. The aim is to see what ideas of knowledge that is represented in the texts and what ambition there is to alter or maintain the current discourses. The analysis work has especially focused on the terms knowledge, learning, school, teacher and pupil. Conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis are that there is a striving to reformulate a traditional school discourse. In the publications there is an agreement concerning that traditional teaching generally come from a one-sided knowledge paradigm that now is being challenging by a new paradigm. The new paradigm defines knowledge as something dependent of the context and that it is created in interaction between people. All four publications mediate a sociocultural perspective on knowledge and learning. The difference between the texts is the attitude they apply to the fact that there is two paradigms that have influences in the school discourse. Two of the texts argue for the new paradigm, while the other two mediate that the paradigms are complements. The publications enter deeply into the terms knowledge and learning. However they leavethe discussion about what a professional teacher is in a school where the terms knowledge and learning is understood as it is defined in the texts. Only one of the texts gives some answers on the didactic question how. A conclusion that lies near in hand is that the decentralisation of school gives the Nation Agency of Education the possibility to avoid concrete questions that give useful information in teachers' professional life.

Den här studien är en kritisk diskursanalys av ämnet kroppslig hälsa i skriftlig media. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur fenomenet kroppslig hälsa framställs i skriftlig media genom språket och dess användning. Analysmodellen vi använt oss av är formulerad av Norman Fairclough och det datamaterial vi använt oss av är av empirisk karaktär och insamlat från svensk skriven media i form av både rikstäckande press och lokalpress. I studien finns även ett avsnitt där vi presenterar tidigare forskning inom ämnet hälsa och diskursanalys. Forskningen presenteras genom fem teman: biopolitik, livsstil, individens ansvar, klass och könsskillnad utifrån ett hälsoperspektiv samt experthjälp. Den teori vi utgått ifrån för studien är främst den för den kritiska diskursanalysen, vi har även använt oss av Foucaults biopolitik vilken främst ges uttryck i diskussionsdelen.  Resultatet för studien presenteras i två delar utifrån Fairclouchs analysmodell; text samt diskursiv praktik. Resultatet redogör vi för med en rad olika teman vi formulerat utifrån den analys som gjorts. De teman som vi formulerat är: hotspråk, den stratifierade hälsan, anvisningar &amp; imperativ, superlativ, vetenskapligt språk och den reella exemplifieringen (del ett). De huvudsakliga diskurser vi funnit i materialet är: den ohälsosamma diskursen, den hälsosamma diskursen, den vetenskapliga diskursen samt den utbildande diskursen (del två).

This dissertation analyzes the discourse of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in his weekly television show Aló Presidente. It focuses on the discursive practices in this genre by Chávez as an essential element in the Bolivarian Revolution; an exercise of power in itself, and a means to establish a direct relationship with the Venezuelan public. The analysis shows that Aló Presidente employs unique discursive strategies to engage in a national dialogue, including: the use of repetition, lists, and fragmentation through the alternation of discursive genres, as well as deictic shift; the establishment of an ideology, the presentation of selected themes and stories; the construction of relationships with established social categories (middle-aged women, high-ranking military personnel, militant youth, etc.) through dialogue with interlocutors during the show; and a strict hierarchy in which Chávez appears as the ultimate leader, through deixis, turn-taking, and the use of targeted speech acts. This study uses the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing mainly from Fairclough (2003) and van Dijk (1998, 2010). It also draws from theories of: (a) discourse genre, as in Charaudeau (2004) and Smith (2003); (b) deixis, as in Agha (2007); (c) dialogue, defined by Weigand (2009) and Tannen (2007); (d) political discourse, discussed in Chilton (2004); and (e) media discourse, as in Bourdieu (1991). The corpus is drawn from broadcasts ending with the digit 8 randomly selected between 2005 and 2007 (shows 218, 248, 278, 288, 298). The conclusion is that the show serves as the main communication strategy of the Revolution, establishing a direct relationship with viewers, in which several conventional procedures of television discourse are flaunted. The discourse, which is anchored in the category of space, is well established as a new genre in political media discourse. It is directed to Chávez’s followers, divided into specific target groups, in a hierarchical fashion in which he occupies the power position. The strategies adopted allow for a high level of involvement with the audience. The discursive practices developed are a key element in the advancement of the Revolution and are in line with its beliefs and attitudes. / text

Transactive Discourse During Assessment Conversations on Science Learning by Homer A. Russell III It has been argued that development of science knowledge is the result of social interaction and adoption of shared understandings between teachers and students. A part of understanding that process is determining how student reasoning develops in groups. Transactive discussion is a form of negotiation between group members as they interpret the meaning of their logical statements about a topic. More importantly, it is a form of discourse that often leads to cognitive change as a result of the interaction between group participants as they wrestle with their different perspectives in order to achieve a common understanding. The research reported here was a correlational study designed to investigate the relationship between the various forms of transactive discussion and learning outcome performance seen in an investigation involving 24 students in a middle-SES high school located in southwest Atlanta, Georgia. Pretest and posttest measures of genetics reasoning, as well as curriculum content test data, were used in this study. Group discussion was captured on videotape and analyzed to determine whether transactional discussion was present and whether or not it had an effect on learning outcome measures. Results of this study showed that participant use of transactive discussion played a role in development of reasoning abilities in the area of genetics. It is suggested that teachers should monitor classroom discourse for the presence of transactive discussion as such discourse plays a role in fostering performance outcomes.

This thesis is the product of a discourse analytic investigation of the first decade of the British lesbian magazine, DIVA, which launched in 1994. Work on mainstream women's and men's magazines has established them as sites at which (largely heterosexual) femininities and masculinities are constructed and construed, but relatively little scholarship has addressed lesbian magazines in this fashion. DIVA is Britain's only nationally sold, mainstream lesbian magazine; with this in mind, the thesis provides an analytic account of the magazine's launch, production and brand, and considers the discursive construction of lesbian community and the boundary work that that entails. The initial analytic chapters detail editorial philosophies, routines, and financial circumstances; design, front covers, and editorial content. Though the magazine has only limited resources available, those restrictions are simultaneously liberating, allowing DIVA's editors to pursue their political commitments at the same time as operating in the commercial marketplace. In considering the discursive construction of 'us', the thesis highlights a focus on community, support, and heritage. It further considers the discursive management of the boundaries of that imagined community, focusing on the 'threat' posed by bisexual women and the arguments this causes among readers. Finally, DIVA's handling of (heterosexual) others is considered, concluding that they are constructed as irrational, yet powerful, aggressors. Overall, DIVA's was a brand invested in the notion of community and in its role not only in imagining that community but also bringing members together. Though readers were at times divided over who belonged, or should belong, they were united in their belief that there was something to belong to. In the face of a hostile greater 'other', which was constructed as a constant source of threat, this belonging was incredibly important.

This present study examines the structural impact of language contact on discourse information marking in narrative. It focuses on the surface patterns and underlying linguistic principles used to describe the foregrounding events in traditional and modem short stories, written in Indonesian (the official language of Indonesia) and Sundanese (the native language of West Java province). These two languages have been in an intensive contact since 1945.The data indicate that aspect sets apart background from foreground, whereas tense distinguishes ordinary from significant within the background and foreground levels. Cross-linguistically, the ordinary background information appears in existential, stative, and progressive constructions, marked by the underlying past-tense and imperfective aspect; the significant background and significant foreground types occur in a direct speech and/or direct quote, with the underlying Historical Present. Besides signaling a switch from the past-tense to the HP, the direct speech or direct quote also marks a shift in deixis, distal to proximal. The ordinary foreground information, containing events that advance the story, appears in the underlying past-tense and perfective aspect.The surface markings of the ordinary foreground events, however, are different. In the traditional and modern Indonesian data, these events are dominantly depicted in the active-voice structure. The traditional and modern Sundanese texts, on the other hand, show two different dominant surface marking patterns: the KA (particle) and the active-voice constructions respectively. This appears as a shift in the surface marking strategy attributed to the Indonesian structural influence. The KA- to active voice surface-marking strategy shift indicates the change from the KA + Topic – Comment pattern to the Subject – Predicate structure, suggesting the adoption of the SVX word-order pattern. This affects not only the pragmatic relations of the constituents in an utterance, but also the marking of given-new information distinction.The study demonstrates that the KA to active-voice marking shift in the modern Sundanese data is mitigated by the long-term language contact with Indonesian. Follow-up investigations with varied narrative themes and oral speech data are warranted. Since the shift also appears to indicate the authors' unbalanced bilingual skills, it raises an issue pertinent to the current teaching of Sundanese in the West-Javanese provincial curriculum. / Department of English

This dissertation is a qualitative discourse analysis study. The study seeks to understand roles of organizational discourse and management discourse in stimulating strategic organizational change, and facilitating organizational culture dynamics and identity development. Specifically, this study examines how The Haier Group Company has constructed, disseminated and entrenched its corporate public discourse (CPD) as a symbolic and rhetorical means for stimulating organizational change in the context of global challenges. Theoretical positions guiding this study are: globalization, the nexus of the global and local, glocalization, transculturation and hybridity, as well as organizational communication, organizational discourse study, organizational discourse analysis, and corporate public discourse. Methodologically, to better reveal the impact of globalization on organizational communication in a primarily non-Western context, this study adopts an interpretive-oriented approach, and adds a critical element from the language- ideology-power perspective. The data for this study is composed of a multiplicity of corporate public discourses (including print, online, audio-visual forms of texts, and artifacts) primarily produced by Haier between 1984 and 2004. In analyzing Haier's main CPD, this study examines how Haier has strategically constructed, disseminated, and entrenched the organization's culture, ideology, identity, and brand building. It also analyzes and demonstrates how Haier has, discursively and strategically, cultivated an organizational environment that fostered strategic organizational change. As the data set is diverse and large, the textual analysis and discussion depends on a combined use of organizational rhetorical analysis and storytelling analysis. To conclude, broadly, this study of Haier's corporate public discourse demonstrates China's current position within the historical phenomenon of globalization. More specifically, it shows that through constructing and communicating a specific organizational discourse about globalization and Haier's place in it, the Haier CEO and management is creating a reality that is challenging the dominant West- and U.S.-centric interpretations of globalization. This discourse challenges the notion that globalization is a new phenomenon, and that certain established and powerful global economic players will forever remain in positions of dominance. It frames globalization as a fluid phenomenon involving cultural fusion. This study is significant in at least two aspects. First, it demonstrates the impact of global mobility and interconnectivity upon a non-Western business corporation's communication strategies thereby adding to the scant numbers of empirical studies on this topic. Also, it differs from the extant studies on Haier, which are primarily case studies conducted by MBA scholars and practitioners of business and management, and provided an intercultural and organizational communication perspective. Second, this study demonstrates the utility of specific globalization concepts such as the global-local dialectic, glocalization, as well as some international/intercultural concepts such as transculturation and hybridity in studying organizational communication in a transnational context. One contribution of this study is its "insider" Chinese view of how Confucianism has shaped organizational communication practices in P. R. China. Another contribution is the "insider-outsider" perspective adopted in examining Haier's strategic communication about organizational change in an age of globalization. This `straddling' position is helpful in achieving an interpretive understanding of the impact of globalization upon organizational communication as it is situated in a mainly non-Western context.

Metonymic and metaphoric language are thoroughly present in everyday language, so much so that they hold in themselves strong explanatory capacity to uncover and even influence underlying individual or social/cultural ideological systems and beliefs about the world around us (Catalano & Waugh, 2013; 2014; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The mapping systems involved in both metonymy and metaphor provide access to conceptual and social heuristics that help us make inferential and referential shortcuts (Littlemore, 2015), and thus these figurative constructs are directly implicated as “natural inference schemas” that we engage in the construction of meaning through written discourse (Panther & Thornburg, 2003). Further, these heuristics are environmental, social, and cognitively appointed forces that shape how we understand things and how we work out abstract concepts and how we reason and shape the world around us. Because of this, metonymy and metaphor are crucial foci for any inquiry into how our individual or systemic perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and thought processes (Catalano & Waugh, 2014, p. 407) are revealed through the written discourses in our world. But, while conceptual metaphor has enjoyed a great deal of attention over the last several decades, research into what metonymy can reveal as a potent participant in social and cognitive meaning-making has been comparatively scarce—a notion that is especially disconcerting given strong recent evidence to suggest that metonymy conceptually “leads the way” to metaphor (Mittelberg & Waugh, 2009). Inspired by this, this dissertation project seeks reparation for metonymy’s relative neglect as an effective tool for critical discourse analysts. Through an exploration of metonymy’s critical relationship to online discourse, internationalization in higher education, and language policy and planning, the three studies that comprise this project seek to engage the “explanatory and practical aims” of critical discourse analysis and to support the tireless work of such analysis that attempts “to uncover, reveal or disclose what is implicit, hidden or otherwise not immediately obvious in relationships of discursively enacted dominance [and] their underlying ideologies” (van Dijk, 1995).

This multidisciplinary study, which includes Practical Theology and also insights from Psychology and Sociology, investigates experiences of abuse in social structures such as the church. My epistemological approach is social constructionist. Psychological theories employed are the social constructivist personal construct theory of George Kelly and Gergen's social constructionist theorization. Kelly's theory posits that people construct their own realities in social settings, such as family, culture and everyday social structures. This takes place on a cognitive level through the nervous system. By means of Gergen’s social constructionist theorization the role that social constructions (beliefs and practices) play in (often unintentional) abusive practices in social structures as well as the experiences of victims, is explained. Sociological theories included are Berger and Luckmann’s theory of the social construction of reality as well as Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory, which emphasizes agency (human action) and structure tensions in social structures. I argue that processes such as typification, reification and structuration, as explained by these theorists can result in abusive actions and behaviours (often unintentional) and experiences of abuse by people in groups. In addition, the lives and teachings of Jesus and Paul are examined from a social constructionist perspective. A qualitative investigation was conducted with participants who claim to have experienced abuse in groups. Their stories are used as case studies. A narrative thematic analysis reveals that dominant discourses, for example patriarchal worldviews and belief systems which go unexamined, are often imposed on others which results in experiences of abuse. The study is therefore embedded in a postmodern, social constructionist narrative framework constructed from all three disciplines. Traditions, belief systems and practices should be reflected upon, carefully examined and revisited, and not simply accepted as "reality". Reality is constructed in social interaction and relationship and should be open to review and change should the need arise, prompted by, for example, unacceptable phenomena, such as experiences of abuse in the church. The findings of this study are that the church and pastoral care ministry are often experienced as uncaring and abusive. Underlying dominant discourses should be exposed, since they contribute to practices that cause psychological, social and physical traumatisation and consequences for people. Pastoral care is often neglected because these actions and behaviours are regarded as "normal" and even "biblical". People are labelled and blamed. Male domination, objectification, humiliation, abuse of power and control, misuse of knowledge and truth claims are the consequence. The study revealed a strong correlation between participants’ experiences of abuse and the social constructionist constructs. Therefore social constructionist theory offers an adequate explanation for experiences and actions of abuse in the church. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Practical Theology / unrestricted