Mythology is a consistent part of the high school English language arts school curriculum dating back well beyond the last forty years. High school English teachers‘ beliefs about mythology, student engagement, and educational policy demonstrate the rationale and dynamic of this longevity. This study explores the development and elements of myth, asserting the importance of approaching myth through critical cultural studies generally, and in high school English arts classrooms specifically. Drawing upon a variety of cultural sources (i.e. sacred narrative, children‘s television, cable news television, literature, movies, music, and the internet); theorists (from Levi-Strauss‘s structuralism through the post-structuralism of Barthes, Anzuldua, and Maya Derrin); and methodologies (content analysis of murals, news excerpts, teacher footage on video literary analysis, and autoethnography) this study presents a critical cultural studies exploration of myth and myth studies. After deconstructing and applying Levi-Strauss‘ notion of Bricolage to a wide variety of contexts, I conclude that myth is based in all sorts of individual and collective human movement. And this movement gives rise to myth which can be characterized as political, spiritual inter-textual, performative and hybrid. I further conclude that a critical cultural studies approach to myth attends to student engagement, anticipates 21st century learning frameworks, and offers possible consideration of interfaith education in schools.

abstract: This study is a discourse analysis and deconstruction of public documents published electronically in connection with the evaluation of the Advanced Placement Language and Composition Examination, found on the educational website: apcentral.collegeboard.com. The subject of this dissertation is how the characteristic of writing identified as Voice functions covertly in the calibration of raters' evaluation of student writing in two sets of electronic commentaries: the Scoring Commentaries and the Student Performance Q&A;'s published between the years 2000-2010. The study is intended to contribute to both socio-linguistic and sociological research in education on the influence of inherited forms of cultural capital in educational attainment, with particular emphasis upon performance on high-stakes examinations. Modeled after Pierre Bourdieu's inquiry into the latent bias revealed in the "euphemized" language of teacher commentary found in The State Nobility, lists of recurrent descriptors and binary oppositions in the texts are deconstructed. The result of the deconstruction is the manifestation of latent class bias in the commentaries. Conclusions: discourse analysis reveals that a particular Voice, expressive of a preferred social class identity, which is initiated to and particularly deft in such academic performances, is rewarded by the test evaluators. Similarly, findings reveal that a low-scoring essay is negatively critiqued for being particularly unaccustomed to the form(s) of knowledge and style of writing required by the test situation. In summation, a high score on the AP Language Examination, rather than a certification of writerly competence, is actually a testament to the performance of cultural capital. Following an analysis of the language of classification and assessment in the electronic documents, the author provides several "tactics" (after de Certeau) or recommendations for writing the AP Language and Composition Examination, conducive to the stylistic performances privileged by the rating system. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

abstract: This project draws on sociocognitive rhetoric to ask, How, in complex situations not of our making, do we determine what needs to be done and how to leverage available means for the health of our communities and institutions? The project pulls together rhetorical concepts of the stochastic arts (those that demand the most precise, careful planning in the least predictable places) and techne (problem-solving tools that transform limits and barriers into possibilities) to forward a stochastic techne that grounds contemplative social action at the intersection of invention and intervention and mastery and failure in real time, under constraints we can't control and outcomes we can't predict. Based on 18 months of fieldwork with the Sudanese refugee diaspora in Phoenix, I offer a method for engaging in postmodern phronesis with community partners in four ways: 1) Explanations and examples of public listening and situational mapping 2) Narratives that elucidate the stochastic techne, a heuristic for determining and testing wise rhetorical action 3) Principles for constructing mutually collaborative, mutually beneficial community-university/ community-school partnerships for jointly addressing real-world issues that matter in the places where we live 4) Descriptions and explanations that ground the hard rhetorical work of inventing new paths and destinations as some of the Sudanese women construct hybridized identities and models of social entrepreneurship that resist aid-to-Africa discourse based on American paternalism and humanitarianism and re-cast themselves as micro-financers of innovative work here and in Southern Sudan. Finally, the project pulls back from the Sudanese to consider implications for re-figuring secondary English education around phronesis. Here, I offer a framework for teachers to engage in the real work of problem-posing that aims - as Django Paris calls us - to get something done by confronting the issues that confront our communities. Grounded in classroom instruction, the chapter provides tools for scaffolding public listening, multi-voiced inquiries, and phronesis with and for local publics. I conclude by calling for English education to abandon all pretense of being a predictive science and to instead embrace productive knowledge-making and the rhetorical work of phronesis as the heart of secondary English studies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

This paper is a comparative syllabus study that looks into the differences and similarities between the Swedish syllabus for English education and the Japanese syllabus for English education. By using White’s theory of the Type A and the Type B syllabus, which states that syllabi can be divided into two major groups based on their inherent structure, the goal is to compare the two syllabi against one another. The Type A is more traditional whereas the Type B is more experimental. The method being used is a qualitative content analysis method which categorizes the content of the syllabi into different language skills and content. The comparison itself is hermeneutic at its core, and it interprets the data against the backdrop of White’s theory. The study shows that both syllabi are of the Type A nature, although the Swedish syllabus takes influences from the Type B syllabus in the form of less authoritarian teacher-role and increased student influence. As for content, the Japanese syllabus is more focused on grammar and pronunciation, as well as on fostering a positive attitude not only towards English but also towards other cultures and countries. The Swedish syllabus on the other hand is more topic-oriented and has very little that is directly referring to grammar. This difference in the two is likely due to the position of the English language in each country’s society as well as similarities between English and Swedish and the difference between English and Japanese, the latter which requires education to focus more on correct pronunciation and grammar. Some similarities that they share are that they are notionalfunctional in structure, i.e. that they focus on topics and functions of language. Some of the topics overlap for both countries, such as situations regarding students’ daily lives, but the Swedish syllabus has a more diverse arsenal of topics that the students are to be taught.

People have need for different aid supporting them when learning a foreign language and most of us benefit from the use of more than one aid. Teachers offer a variety of techniques when teaching English, to ensure that as many pupils as possible are able to assimilate English education. Digitalization and research have brought the use of visual aid in English education to increase over the years. The aim of this study is to explore lower primary school teachers’ experiences of using visual aid in the English classroom in order to discuss which possible effects visual aid can have for pupils’ language competence.  In primary school year 1-3. The study is a qualitative study in the form of semi structured interviews with seven primary school teachers in the south of Sweden. The interviews provided an insight into the participants' individual actions, opinions and experiences on visual aid in English education. The results from this research confirm a generous use of visual aid, such as pictures, images, body language, film and drama among the teachers in this study. All seven participants experience increased engagement in classroom activities and refer this specifically to the use of visual aid. The teachers use visual aid to enhance and clarify content, to ensure acquirement of English vocabulary and to create a varied and diverse education and they consider the use of visual aid in English education to increase pupils’ language learning. The main purpose is to ensure that as many pupils as possible acquire English communication skills. It appears that the teachers in this study regard the benefits to exceed the challenges. One benefit is a motivating and interesting education with a high level of pupil activity in which pupils’ ability to succeed in English education increases. A challenge is to offer necessary aid to beginners and motivate pupils with highly developed English skills to acquire further knowledge in the same education. In further research it would be interesting to explore pupils’ view on the use of and benefits and challenges from visual aid in English education.         Keywords: English education, Foreign language learning, Primary school, Young language learners, Visual aid, Pictures, Drama, Film.

The study aims to investigate how teachers’ intentions with written feedback and students’ perceptions of it correlate. In total, three teachers and nine students from different study programs in an upper secondary school in Sweden participated in this study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. It emerged in the analysis that the teachers’ intentions and students’ perceptions correlated to some extent. However, there was a clear difference with regard to how the teachers intended the students to use the written feedback and how the students actually used it. The teachers wanted the students to use it to improve the development of their learning, whereas the students saw it as an evaluation of their results and rarely used it. If the teachers want to make sure that the students work with the feedback, they need to make it a planned activity.

Digital teaching aids have become increasingly available in Swedish primary education. One subject which, however, is still dominated by analogue teaching aids is English. The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about how English teachers in grades 4–6 use digital teaching aids in teaching. This is done by investigating to what extent and when the digital teaching aids are used, as well as teachers' perceived pros and cons regarding the use of digital tools. This has been investigated through observations of three classes, and interviews with the three teachers who taught them, working in two municipal and one independent school. The results show that teachers use digital teaching aids less than half the time of the lesson, more precisely in the middle to the end part of lessons. These are mainly used when students work individually to solve tasks related to the lesson’s topic. Furthermore, teachers who have a positive attitude towards digital teaching aids are more likely to use them in the classroom. The advantages of using digital teaching aids in teaching were the possibilities of better facilitating individualization and using it as a tool for motivation while the common disadvantage was the lack of control over what students do on their computers. Lastly an unexpected finding was that the digital teaching aids that the teachers were using were not adapted to newly arrived immigrant students. Finally for teachers to be able to use a digital teaching aid as a mediating tool, more than specific knowledge about the digital teaching aid is required. Knowledge such as technical, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) should be embraced simultaneously and is required to be able to teach effectively with technology.

This study was an investigation of public elementary school students' affective changes through English Activities of international understanding lessons at Japanese public elementary school. The learners' expected affective changes were regarded as International Posture, Self-esteem, Collective Self-esteem, and Interest in Foreign Affairs based on theoretical perspectives and the goals specified by Ministry of Education. / CITE/Language Arts

In this interview study involving the analysis of narratives collected from Japanese American professionals teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) who have lived more than ten years in Japan, I focus on how the participants negotiated their often contested identities in the TESOL context in Japan. I use the notion of identity negotiation narrowly defined as "struggles which occur when certain identity options are imposed or devalued, and others are unavailable or misunderstood" (Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004, p. 20). Most Japanese Americans share similar phenotypes with the majority of Japanese nationals, creating many misconceptions about our linguistic competence in Japanese and English and ability to act appropriately within Japanese cultural norms. Educational settings are also an arena contributing to a simplistic Japanese/non-Japanese, native speaker/non-native speaker (NS/NNS) framework within which such encounters are defined. I intend to illuminate the underlying assumptions responsible for the misconceptions that continue to challenge their authenticity. This is in line with inquiry into the role of race in TESOL (Curtis & Romney, 2006; Kubota & Lin, 2006). The six participants were two men and four women, including myself. I conducted multiple interviews individually and in groups over a period of four years. I transcribed the narrative data into numbered lines and reworked selected parts into stanza form (Gee, 2005) or used block quotes to analyze the identity negotiation processes. For the autoethnography, I used intensive reflective writings done throughout the course of this project in addition to interview data in which I am the interviewer who also shares stories. Through multi-layered analyses (Sorsoli, 2007), I hope to illuminate what the individuals' narratives reflect about the contested nature of values held about language, ethnicity, race, and identity in the context of English teaching, learning, and use in Japan today. I suggest that the findings and conclusions from this study can be applied to other contexts in the world as well. It is therefore important for the TESOL professional to become an actively critical observer of how her work is affecting all the stakeholders, including her own self. / Applied Linguistics

This essay aims to investigate which countries and geographical regions are most prevalent in literary texts in coursebooks published before and after the curriculum change in 2011, as well as determining if there is a greater diversity of countries and regions represented in the coursebooks published after 2011. A content analysis was used as well as studies by various researchers to investigate the literary texts in the coursebooks. Ten coursebooks published before and after 2011 were analyzed by using the four categories text origin (i.e. country of original publication), author, setting and character to answer the research questions for this thesis. This study concludes that coursebooks published before 2011 do not meet the requirements for the current national curriculum, whereas coursebooks published after 2011 show a much broader diversity in countries represented and meet the current curriculum requirements. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka länder och geografiska regioner som dominerar i litterära texter i kursböcker tryckta innan och efter läroplansövergången i 2011, samt att se om det finns utveckling gällande antalet olika länder som representeras i dessa kursböcker innan och efter 2011. En innehållsanalys har använts såväl som rön från olika forskare för att undersöka ämnet. Tio kursböcker som är tryckta innan och efter 2011 har analyserats i de fyra kategorierna textursprung, författare, miljö och karaktärsursprung som har använts för att kunna besvara frågorna i denna uppsats. Denna studies slutsats är att kursböckerna som är tryckta innan 2011 inte möter målen och kraven i den nuvarande nationella läroplan, medan böckerna som är tryckta efter 2011 visar en mycket bredare mångfald i de länder som representeras och därmed möter gällande mål och krav från gymnasieskolans läroplan.