Esta tese tem por foco interações discursivas entre professores e alunos, e desses com os objetos especificamente, nos e por meios dos gêneros digitais chat e fórum em situações de ensino e de aprendizagem online. Para isso, foram selecionadas e analisadas duas sequências de chats e de fóruns, sendo três chats e três fóruns do curso Games em Educação no Second Life e três chats e três fóruns do curso Pesquisa Acadêmica na Web, cursos livres ministrados inteiramente a distância, no primeiro semestre de 2010, pelas plataformas Second Life e TelEduc, principalmente. Para a análise desses doze enunciados, recorremos à Semiótica Francesa ou Discursiva, tanto em bases greimasianas como conforme seus desdobramentos mais recentes, que se abrem a novas problemáticas que permeiam o conjunto da teoria: a Sociossemiótica e a Semiótica Tensiva, principalmente. Aliados a essa abordagem, empregamos os postulados de Bakhtin (2010) sobre os gêneros textuais e discursivos e o estudo do estilo do gênero, iniciado por Discini (2004). Nosso objetivo é compreender os mecanismos de produção de sentido nessas práticas, na medida em que elas se vinculam a ajustamentos sensíveis e contagiam a estrutura dos gêneros como totalidade. Das análises feitas, depreendem-se recorrências que apontam para o estilo do gênero chat e para o estilo do gênero fórum, que permitem, em consequência, a identificação de características mais gerais que remetem ao estilo do gênero digital da esfera educativa. Deste estudo emergem então questões ainda pouco exploradas, como: o estilo dos gêneros digitais e categorias para sua depreensão; modos de ensino e de aprendizagem acolhidos pela prática educativa digital; formas de vida pedagógico-digital e procedimentos de ajustamento desenvolvidos pelos sujeitos, entre outras, condizentes com nossos objetivos. Algumas conclusões deste estudo apontam para condições mais livres de participação nas interações online relativas aos gêneros digitais, especialmente em função da flexibilidade espacial, da permutabilidade de papéis conversacionais e, em alguns casos, das posições discursivas que remetem a papéis sociais definidos (professor/aluno). Com o enfraquecimento da presença reguladora da instituição escolar nessas interações, o professor ganha espaço para, a cada encontro, (re)configurar sua prática, de acordo com modos próprios de compor e de tematizar, que orientam estilos mais ajustados aos modos de aprendizagem dos alunos. A situação dos gêneros digitais em um lugar instável de limiar entre a fala e a escrita, entre a formalidade do pedagógico e a informalidade do lúdico, por exemplo já deixa entrever o perfil do sujeito que busca ressignificar sua prática pedagógica pela mistura, que é favorecida pelo modo de ser no ambiente digital, constituindo, assim, espaço que, embora ainda ancorado na cultura escolar, espraia-se nas possibilidades de novos modos de habitar o mundo, tal como oferecidos pelas tecnologias contemporâneas. / This thesis is focused on discursive interactions between teachers and students, and of them with some objects specifically chat and forum digital genres in a situation of on-line teaching and learning. For this, we selected two sequences of chats and forums: three chats and three forums of the course \"Games em Education no Second Life\" and three chats and three forums of the course \"Pesquisa Acadêmica na Web\", free courses taught entirely on-line, in the first half of 2010, mainly on the Second Life and TelEduc platforms. For the analysis of twelve statements, we used the French or Discursive Semiotics in greimasians bases and in newer developments that open new issues that pervade the whole theory, mostly Sociossemiotics and Tensive Semiotics. Allied to this approach, we employed Bakhtin\'s postulates (2010) about textual and discursive genres and the study of genre\'s style, initiated by Discini (2004). Our goal is to understand the mechanisms of meaning production in these practices, as they are linked to sensitive adjustments and \"contaminate\" the structure of genres as a whole. From the analysis, we inferred recurrences that point to the style of the genre chat and the style of the genre forum, which still allow, therefore, the identification of more general characteristics that refer to the style of digital genre of the educational sphere. From this study emerged issues which are still unexplored, such as the style of digital genres and categories to their apprehension; modes of teaching and learning that specify digital educational practice; pedagogical-digital life forms; adjustment procedures developed by subjects, among others consistent with our goals. Some findings of this study point to freer conditions of participation in on-line interactions regarding digital genres, especially the spatial flexibility, the interchangeability of conversational roles and, in some cases, the discursive position that refer to social defined roles (teacher/student). With the weakening of the regulatory presence of the school in these interactions, the teacher gains space for every meeting, set up their practice in accordance with their own ways of composing and theme choices and guiding styles that are more suited to students\' learning modes. The position of digital genres in an unstable place on the threshold between speech and writing, between formality of teaching and informality of fun approach, for example already hints at the profile of the subject that seeks to reframe their pedagogical practice by mixing, which is favored by way of being in the digital environment, thus constituting a space that, while still anchored in the school culture, spreads on the possibilities of new ways of inhabiting the world, as offered by contemporary technologies.

Maintaining the essential features of local democracy, representation and contestation, my theory allows for the representation of the interest of subpopulations in the global community by actors such as nongovernmental organization and intergovernmental organizations. I will begin by outlining what features are necessary for a theory’s consideration as democratic in nature. Then, relying upon democracy in a broad sense, it will be my aim to demonstrate that the right to democracy is universal human right. The following stage will provide the backing, by way of the moral progress of human rights, that the right to democracy is expressible by “importantly affected” subgroups in the global arena. The final stage of my conceptual defense will focus on the validation of representatives who have no institutional connection with the populations they represent. With such established, the paper will proceed into a practical defense, discussing how claims made by actors can be accepted or rejected by represented subpopulations. It will then become necessary to demonstrate that the paternalistic claims made by representatives are incorporable into a democratic theory without forgoing the essence of democracy. To show this is feasible, methods of appealing paternalistic claims by way of international human rights courts will be explained. Finally, possibilities to mediate general feasibility issues will be explored.

ABSTRACT Narrative conflict coaching is a counseling technique which focuses on separating clients from their problems and encouraging them to see their lives and futures from new perspectives. It has been used in a variety of arenas and is consistent with other practices within the field of narrative conflict resolution, such as narrative mediation. In this project I utilized qualitative research methods to analyze the immediate effectiveness of conflict coaching questioning techniques within the setting of a counseling conversation. The analysis focuses on the detail of the process of narrative conflict coaching more than on the final outcomes. The data was collected through two different conflict coaching conversations, one of which was about a conflict in a work context and one in a family context. The conversational data collected was compared with a set of detailed guidelines for narrative conflict coaching specified by Dr. John Winslade and the question that was asked was whether the conflict coaching process corresponded with these guidelines. The data confirmed that this was the case and also showed some indicators of the effectiveness of narrative conflict coaching techniques through documenting the participants’ responses to each of the steps in the process. Analysis of discursive positioning from statements early in each of the conversations and also from late in each conversation indicated positioning shifts in the direction of creating an alternative narrative into which the participants might live. Both participants were shown to reach a place of difference in perspective in relation to the conflict story. It is therefore argued that the guidelines for a conflict coaching process are adaptable in at least two different areas of life. It cannot yet be generalized to all areas of conflict but looks promising for multiple personal conflict situations.

What role did identification play in the motives, processes, and products of select post-colonial authors who "wrote back" to William Shakespeare and colonialism? How did post-colonial counter-discursive metatheatre function to make select post-colonial adaptations creative and critical texts? In answer to these questions, this dissertation proposes that counter-discursive metatheatre resituates post-colonial plays as criticism of Shakespeare's plays. As particular post-colonial authors identify with marginalized Shakespearean characters and aim to amplify their conflicts from the perspective of a dominated culture, they interpret themes of race, gender, and colonialism in Othello (1604), Antony and Cleopatra (1608), and The Tempest (1611) as explicit problems. This dissertation combines post-colonial theory and other literary theory, particularly by Kenneth Burke, to propose a rhetoric of motives for post-colonial authors who "write back" to Shakespeare through the use of counter-discursive metatheatre. This dissertation, therefore, describes and analyzes how and why the plays of Murray Carlin, Aimé Césaire, and Derek Walcott function both creatively and critically, adapting Shakespeare's plays, and foregrounding post-colonial criticism of his plays. Chapter One analyzes Murray Carlin's motivations for adapting Othello and using the framing narrative of Not Now, Sweet Desdemona (1967) to explicitly critique the conflicts of race, gender, and colonialism in Othello. Chapter Two treats why and how Aimé Césaire adapts The Tempest in 1969, illustrating his explicit critique of Prospero and Caliban as the colonizer and the colonized, exposing Prospero's insistence on controlling the sexuality of his subjects, and, therefore, arguing that race, gender, and colonialism operate concomitantly in the play. Chapter Three analyzes A Branch of the Blue Nile (1983) as both a critique and an adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra, demonstrating how Walcott's framing narrative critiques the notion of a universal "Cleopatra," even one of an "infinite variety," and also evaluates Antony as a character who is marginalized by his Roman culture. The conclusion of this dissertation avers that in "writing back" to Shakespeare, these authors foreground and reframe post-colonial criticism, successfully dismantling the colonial structures that have kept their interpretations, and the subjects of their interpretations, marginalized.

Social knowledge about food was investigated from a social contingency perspective (Guerin, 1994, 1998, 2004), a functional linguistic approach that considers language use having functions both to establish 'facts' in order to control listeners, and to maintain social relationships with words. In Study 1, whether people shared knowledge about food or not was examined. One hundred and fourteen New Zealand and 23 Japanese participants were asked to answer free format questionnaires asking the reasons they and others eat or do not eat particular food items. Those answers were categorised into 8 categories and 30 sub-categories of the knowledge about foods by qualitative content analysis. The results of a cluster analysis of those categories showed that participants used the categories homogeneously although there were some differences between New Zealand and Japanese participants, and that the participants selectively used different types of knowledge according to food items especially when explaining why people do or do not eat some foods. In Study 2, rhetorical features about foods were investigated: (1) numerical quantification rhetoric; (2) narrative use rhetoric; and (3) enumeration rhetoric. Factual statements from a corpus of 118 New Zealand TV commercials and 249 Japanese TV commercials were coded by the categories generated in Study 1. The results showed that the categories of factual statements were selectively used on TV commercials depending on the food types, and related closely to the results of Study 1. The rhetorical strategies appeared in commercials according to the categories of factual statements. When more than one factual statement was presented in a commercial, the relations of the factual statements were usually of a conjunctive form such as quotfact A however fact Bquot or quotfact A moreover fact Bquot, or else the factual statements were presented independently rather than the one statement logically warranting the other. These results suggest that those rhetoric uses and the arrangements of the factual statements were selectively used according to the effectiveness against counter arguments using shared knowledge. Study 3 and Study 4 analysed the functions of shared knowledge about food for maintaining social relationships through investigating the cases in which knowledge about foods presented as the form of 'collaborative talk', which occurs when one speaker completes the preceding saying by another speaker. In Study 3, the collaborative talk as sentence completions of knowledge about food was qualitatively analysed from conversations of 30 to 45 minutes produced by four groups consisting of four or five Japanese participants who were friends. From a social contingency view, the analysis focused on the following conversational properties: (1) who the listener was; (2) the degree of sharing of the information between the speakers; (3) the degree of sharing of the information between the 2nd speaker and the listener; and (4) the disagreement between the 2nd speaker and the listener. The results of Study 3 suggested some possible functions of sentence completions of knowledge about food: (1) the function when the first speaker is the listener may be enhancement of the relationship between the first and the second speakers through showing the second speaker's attention and understanding to the first speaker's utterance, because those sentence completions were often followed by the affirmation or negation by the first speaker; (2) when a third person is the listener, and the first and the second speaker refuted the third person using sentence completion, the function seems to be just establishing 'facts'; and (3) in the cases of 'assisted explaining' (Lerner Takagi, 1999) , the function may be not only establishing 'facts' but also enhancement the relationship between the listener and the speakers, because the constructed 'facts' may work as a kind of conversational 'gift'. In Study 4, five Japanese groups consisting of four participants who were friends were asked to talk about four topics about foods that all participants either agreed or disagreed ('All agree' condition) and four food topics for which there was disagreement about it between participants ('Some agree' condition). When the listeners could not be identified, and the second speakers did not used the utterance-final element such as 'yo ne' that is regarded as having a function of showing agreement between the speakers, the participants used sentence completions more frequently in 'All agree' conditions. The results suggested that the function of this type of sentence completion is not merely establishing 'facts' but also enhancing the relationship between the speakers through showing agreement about the relevant things to the topic. In conclusion, the results of the present studies suggest some possible social contingencies involved both when people get knowledge about food and when they use it.

The aim of this project is to develop a robust methodological translation of the insights of 'culturalist' theoretical positions in communications studies as an alternative through which to approach contemporary media research. The focus is on engagements with alcohol advertising. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, as internationally, there is a significant body of publicly-funded research examining how alcohol advertising affects audiences. However, this thesis contends that important questions need to be asked about the adequacy of these (dominantly positivist) investigations. A review of local research identifies that in theoretical and methodological terms the majority of these studies are riddled with tensions and contradictions. In addition, when located within the context of wider developments in contemporary communication studies, an important epistemological gap is highlighted as requiring attention and debate. Comparison of this local review with international studies highlights similar concerns, particularly around 'effects' driven research, the adequacy of dominant positivist models, and the need to examine epistemological alternatives that can encompass meta, meso, and micro forms of enquiry. A discursive-theoretical approach is then argued as an epistemological alternative that is highly congruent with contemporary communication studies, which, if more robustly translated through methodology and method, could provide a very solid 'culturalist' alternative framework for media research. Taking a contrastive, multi-voiced, context-based approach, the present research focuses on connections, divergences, or disjunctions between different participants' interpretations of, and responses to, themes, ideas and positions they perceive as existing in the ad-texts, and themes and ideas on offer about alcohol in the wider social context. Using a methodology I describe as 'Discursive Sonar', this research highlights the socially located, interpretative complexity of advertising engagements. By unpacking that complexity, this project identifies how, and why, media engagements vary for different participants (including that of the reflexively engaged participant researcher). By locating the interactions between participants and ad-texts within the context of wider struggles over meanings around alcohol in Aotearoa/New Zealand the research shows ways in which both ad-texts and participants reflect, employ, and debate those wider struggles. I contrasted and compared individual participant interactions with the content and themes they identify in response to the ad-texts, with what producers intended those texts to communicate, and also with the views of the other participants. Through these analyses key textual 'mechanisms' become apparent as determining why and how engagements can be closely shared or variable between people and groups. Focusing on diversity and variance in engagements highlights cultural shifts around how alcohol is understood in Aotearoa/New Zealand, as well as significant alterations in views between the generations involved in the project. Focusing on commonalities across engagements identifies how 'interpretative communities' can be produced through textual responses, which are in turn engendered in response to commonly held constructs such as gender and age. This project succeeds in two ways. As well succeeding in significantly developing existing 'operationalisation' of discursive theory, it also constructs a viable discursive framework through which to approach media research. It is suggested that further development of this alternative might move us beyond the barriers of abstraction and effects in media research to examine the ways in which media and other dominant discursive forms interact, and are interacted with, to shape choices in our social worlds.

<p>This is an empirical study of how the mathematical talk of adult learners constructs/reconstructs different mathematical discourses. The study is to be regarded as an attempt to develop a discursive approach within the field of mathematics education and to complicate the status of mathematics in education and in society in general. My theoretical underpinnings consist of three possible mathematical discourses – coercive, regulative and emancipative mathematics. From a discursive psychology perspective, I let these discourses function as analytical interpretive repertoires in relation to the adult learners’ rhetorical use of mathematics and their claiming of mathematical subject-positions, named the coerced, the self-regulating and the responsible mathematician. The conclusions are concentrated around a discussion about the rhetorical turn of adult mathematics in which I focus on mathematics and its relation to the becoming of the self-regulating subject. I continue by arguing that a focus on how the participants deal with mathematics, rather than how they learn mathematics, can generate new perspectives on the teaching praxis of mathematics education.</p>

This dissertation was a discourse analysis study, drawing upon discursive psychology, poststructural understandings of discourse, conversation analysis, and a social relational model of disability. The purpose of this study was to explore how autism was performed as an interactional event among children with autism labels, the therapists who work with them, and their parents, in the context of a pediatric therapy setting. I interrogated how the participants’ everyday discursive practices were shaped and, at times, constrained by the social and political institutions that often work to define autism and the related, official plans of treatment. A total of 12 families agreed to participate, resulting in the participation of 12 children with autism labels, three to 11 years of age, six fathers, and 11 mothers. The participants included three speech therapists, two occupational therapists, one physical therapist, one teacher/social group facilitator, and one medical secretary/sibling support group facilitator. Data sources included conversational data from the therapy sessions of the participating children and their therapists, 14 parent interviews, eight therapist interviews, documents used within the therapy sessions, demographic surveys/information from the participating therapists and parents, and two interviews with a state advocate and clinical directors focused on qualifying for services. Findings from the interview data highlighted the varied meanings and performances of autism, while pointing to the related political and social conditions that make the naming and treating of autism (im)possible. Findings drawn from the therapy session data pointed to how the participants’ discursive practices worked to reframe “behaviors of concern,” and to transgress normative communication patterns. The following conclusions were drawn from the findings: (a) autism, as a construct, remains open to multiple meanings, while being inextricably linked to institutionalized practices; (b) in therapy talk, therapists and children with autism labels often co-construct alternative accounts of problematic behaviors; and (c) therapy talk can function to reframe non-normative communication and behavioral patterns, expanding what is constructed as “acceptable.” The findings point to the complexities of defining and performing autism labels, and highlight the ways in which therapy talk can function to reframe behaviors and communication patterns presumed to be pathological.

Teacher effectiveness has been a rallying cry for education reform over the last decade. The push for policies that aim to increase teacher effectiveness, fire ineffective teachers and recruit or retain effective teachers unite educational stakeholders; yet, specific, operational definitions of effectiveness remain elusive and divisive. It is easy to say that teacher effectiveness is the single most important factor in student achievement, but difficult to say what it means to be effective. In this study I take up a Critical Discursive Psychology (Wetherell, 1998) approach to the text of the current Framework for Teacher Evaluation and Professional Growth in Tennessee and the talk of the Teacher Evaluation Advisory Committee (TEAC)– a 15-member committee appointed to craft a new evaluation policy with Race To The Top funds under the First To the Top Act. My findings suggest that there are polarized interpretative repertoires available for talking and making sense of effectiveness in teaching. These ways of talking about teaching create conflicts and dilemmas within conversations that are managed in patterned ways. Within the talk of the TEAC, patterns in the way dilemmas are managed within conversations include evading and dividing decisions points in ways that support a self-extending system of education reform. My findings suggest that teacher effectiveness is constantly being constructed within conversations, rather than being a single idea that can be singularly and authoritatively defined and handed down. As such I argue that teacher effectiveness policies must purposefully engage individuals at all levels of policy and practice in ongoing conversations about effectiveness in teaching and the evaluation of teaching in order to mediate the unintended consequences of tools for evaluation, and to develop a shared vision of excellence for collaborative progress.

<p>This study investigates the content and nature of the HIV and AIDS &ldquo / discourses&rdquo / of teachers, which I have identified as a knowledge gap in the existing HIV and AIDS education literature that, presumably, is informing practice. The argument is that, without an understanding of teachers&rsquo / HIV and AIDS discourses, we will continue to speculate about why HIV education often does not have the effect we expect of it &ndash / reduced HIV infection, reduced risk behaviour, reduced teenage pregnancies &ndash / and why it has been regarded as a failure by many. The public media often expose rampant teenage sexual behaviour, such as abortions, pregnancies, and an addiction for electronically generated pornographic materials, causing consternation and sending shockwaves through schools and society. These reports attest to the kind of risky sexual behaviour which makes children vulnerable to HIV infection. In spite of more than twenty years of HIV and AIDS education, teachers and society at large remain uncertain and uncomfortable about teenage sexual behaviour, HIV infection and the inability of adults to protect young people from sexual exploitation.</p>