This thesis explores caregiving ideology and social interaction in Tanzanian families with a focus on guidance and control of young children. The study is set within a context of social change in terms of urbanization as well as the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The aim of the study was to explore how the conditions for children’s participation are shaped within local deology and situated practice. A qualitative study was undertaken inspired by the traditions of language socialization, sociocultural theory and discursive psychology. Data was collected in one urban and one rural district in the coastal region in Tanzania. The thesis contains four articles. Article one and two are based on data from focus group discussions with parents and grandparents exploring caregiving responsibilities. The first study explores caregivers’ discourses regarding the responsibility of guidance and control of children related to social change. The analysis constructed two interpretative repertoires: guidance and control as a community matter and guidance and control as a family matter. These repertoires are related to an ideological caregiving dilemma regarding parental authority and individual rights. The second study investigates caregivers’ discourses regarding early childhood discipline strategies. The analysis suggested a model illustrating various levels of power asymmetries related to corporal punishment, conceptualized in terms of to beat with care, to treat like an egg, as if beating a snake and the non-care of non-beating. Article three and four are based on video recorded data and present analyses of moment-to-moment, multimodal sequences of interaction. The third study explores how siblings in Tanzania actively engage in their own socialization concerning caregiving responsibilities through the negotiation of guidance and control between younger siblings, older siblings and adults. The forth article presents findings from analyses of naturally occurring literacy events. The analysis shows how participation is negotiated in terms of  symmetries and asymmetries between younger and older siblings. Norms and values belonging to the social order of the formal school are enacted parallel to the social order of participatory learning with roots in everyday interaction in the home. The four studies illustrate conditions of participation in terms of symmetries and asymmetries in early childhood relationships. The findings are also discussed in terms of a caregiving dilemma regarding individual rights versus parental authority. This dilemma is identified both in lived and theoretical ideology as presented in caregivers’ discourses and the ideology of children’s rights. / Avhandlingen behandlar omsorgsideologi och social interaktion i  tanzaniska familjer med fokus på vägledning och kontroll av yngre barn. Studien är situerad i en kontext som präglas av social förändring med avseende på urbanisering och implementeringen av konventionen om barns rättigheter. Syftet med studien var att utforska hur förutsättningar för yngre barns deltagande skapas inom ramen för lokala ideologier och som lokala praktiker. Data samlades in i en urban och en rural miljö utmed den Tanzaniska östkusten. Avhandlingen innehåller fyra delstudier. I analysen av data användes kvalitativa metoder som har sin teoretiska grund i språksocialisation, socio-kulturell teori och diskursiv psykologi. De första två artiklarna baseras på fokusgruppdiskussioner med föräldrar samt mor- och farföräldrar. Den första artikeln utforskar diskurser med avseende på ansvaret för vägledning och kontroll av barn relaterade till den aktuella sociala förändringen. Analysen konstruerade två tolkningsrepertoarer: samhällsansvar för vägledning och kontroll och familjeansvar för vägledning och kontroll. Dessa repertoarer är relaterade till ett ideologiskt omsorgsdilemma som rör föräldrars auktoritet och barns individuella rättigheter. Den andra studien utforskar diskurser rörande disciplinering och kroppslig bestraffning av små barn. Analysen presenterar en modell som illustrerar hur olika disciplineringsstrategier representerar olika former av  maktasymmetrier i form av a) att slå med omsorg, b) att behandla som ett ägg, c) som att slå en orm och d) icke-omsorgen i att inte slå. Studie tre och fyra är baserade på videoinspelat material och presenterar analyser av multimodala sekvenser av interaktion. Den tredje studien utforskar hur syskon under måltidssituationer bidrar till sin egen socialisation genom förhandlingar mellan yngre syskon, äldre syskon och vuxna. Den fjärde studien presenterar fynd från analyser av spontana läs- och skrivhändelser i barns vardag. Analysen visar hur förutsättningar för deltagande förhandlas i termer av symmetrier och asymmetrier mellan yngre och äldre syskon. Normer och värden som tillhör den tanzaniska skolans sociala ordning kan återfinnas i förhandlingar parallellt med informellt lärande med rötter i vardaglig interaktion i hemmiljö. De fyra studierna illustrerar förutsättningarna för deltagande i relationer genom att analysera symmetrier och asymmetrier i familjerelationer under de tidiga barndomsåren i Tanzania. Fynden tolkas också som omsorgsdilemman som rör individens rätt i motsats till auktoritet och anpassning till traditionella värden. Detta dilemma kan spåras både i praktisk och teoretisk ideologi i föräldrars och mor- och farföräldrars diskurser inom den kontext som barnrättsideologin skapar.

<p>The study has several implications / for general theoretical traditions it highlights the point that ambivalent attitudes and incomplete language use are responsible for gradual language decline. Previous studies while acknowledging the role of community based, intuitive conditions on language maintenance and shift, did not show how the process occurred. For policy the study aims toward sensitizing policy makers and raise their awareness about the dire situation in which minority languages currently are in. This would ensure that politicians, bureaucrats, and other state authorities could implement policy decisions that guarantee protection of minority languages and enhance their vitality. One policy strategy that could ensure revitalization of minority languages would be to include them in the school curriculum as supplementary approach to the effort of the home and the community, as McCarty (2002, quoted in Recento, 2006) observes that schools / [&hellip / ] can be constructed as a place where children can be free to be indigenous in the indigenous language &ndash / in all of its multiple and everchanging meanings and forms.</p>

This dissertation examines classroom conversations involving refugee and immigrant youth in a second language (L2) introduction program, exploring how L2 Swedish emerges as a multiparty accomplishment by both the teacher and the students. Drawing on forty hours of video-recorded Swedish L2 classroom conversations, as well as on observations and informal interviews, it focuses on talk as a form of social action. Theoretically and methodologically, the dissertation primarily combines insights from language socialization and social constructionist frameworks and detailed transcriptions informed by conversation analysis. Study I documents how schooled Swedish as a second language (SSL) student identities emerged as performative effects of how the students in school activities were addressed as “ethnic” students, and how they managed to handle, adopt, and contest being positioned as the Other. Study II records classroom performances and the formation of a community of practice. The analyses cover how students’ verbal improvisations (repetitions, stylizations, and laughter) and alignments to local registers authenticate SSL identities. The findings show how stylizations were important resources for metalinguistic reflections on correctness, and for the establishment of a local language ideology. Study III documents the interactional nature of classroom repair work. Detailed analyses of correction sequences and trajectories show that both the teacher and the students produced ambiguous other-corrections, illuminating the intricate multiparty work in correction trajectories. In brief, this dissertation illuminates multiparty aspects of classroom L2 socialization. The analyses of classroom talk show how both teacher and student investments in language competencies and local ideologies of correct Swedish or style, as well as participation and identity work, are co-constructed through participants’ tailoring of talk. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 3: Accepted.</p>

This dissertation adds to the growing body of research on L2 academic discourse socialization in classroom contexts. Although the importance of students' writing in socializing them into their target discourse communities has been well documented, much less has been made of how students learn through online activities when the division between more and less knowledgeable individuals are blurred. Addressing this gap, this qualitative extended case study explored the experiences and perspectives of novice L2 graduate students in academic literacy practices that involved online writing activities. The focal participants included five first-year female graduate students from different cultural backgrounds enrolled in a graduate class during fall 2008 semester. Data sources included interviews with focal students and with the professor, class observations, field notes, questionnaires, handouts, and students' reflective essays. Anchored in language socialization theories (Duff, 1996, 2003; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) and the notion of community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), this study provides an ecological perspective on these five L2 students' socialization into academic literacy activities. The findings revealed how the students negotiated competence, relations, and identities to participate legitimately as competent members of their classroom communities. This study also contributes to an understanding of the changing role of novice learners in a given academic community by analyzing how they variably exercise their agency and develop their subject positioning in academic literacy activities that are imbricated in social, cultural, and discoursal contexts. Ultimately, this study enriches the notions of academic discourse socialization by demonstrating the dialogic and transformative nature of academic literacy practices mediated by online discourses in order to highlight ever more contextual information. / text

The current political dispensation in South Africa has, as was the case in the past, undoubtedly had a major influence on the language patterns of the country. The 1996 Constitution now provides official recognition of the main indigenous languages. Despite this entrenchment, there is evidence that English is seen as the vehicle to the future. This study focuses on the factors that may influence the learning and teaching of Afrikaans as a second additional language in black schools in the Potchefstroom district. In order to achieve this task, a triangulation approach was used. A literature study was done to provide prior information to understanding the current language situation. Interviews were conducted with the respondents as well as the teachers of Afrikaans and the classes were observed and recorded. Questionnaires followed which were completed by the learners as well as their teachers. The objectives of the empirical study were to determine which factors might influence the teaching and learning of Afrikaans as an additional language for both the learners and the teachers, as well as to determine what the implications of such findings for the teaching and learning of Afrikaans as an additional language are. The findings of this study confirm the influence of several factors (socio-political, socio cultural and individual) on Afrikaans. The results indicated that there is a positive attitude towards Afrikaans and that the learners are eager to learn Afrikaans. What is clear, is that it is imperative to take note of these factors to guide the learners towards self regulated study, especially Afrikaans as an additional language. The results also revealed that the education of the teachers need to be addressed to prevent irrevocable damage to Afrikaans and to the relationships between the diverse cultures in our country. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

<p>The study has several implications / for general theoretical traditions it highlights the point that ambivalent attitudes and incomplete language use are responsible for gradual language decline. Previous studies while acknowledging the role of community based, intuitive conditions on language maintenance and shift, did not show how the process occurred. For policy the study aims toward sensitizing policy makers and raise their awareness about the dire situation in which minority languages currently are in. This would ensure that politicians, bureaucrats, and other state authorities could implement policy decisions that guarantee protection of minority languages and enhance their vitality. One policy strategy that could ensure revitalization of minority languages would be to include them in the school curriculum as supplementary approach to the effort of the home and the community, as McCarty (2002, quoted in Recento, 2006) observes that schools / [&hellip / ] can be constructed as a place where children can be free to be indigenous in the indigenous language &ndash / in all of its multiple and everchanging meanings and forms.</p>

The demographics in the United States continue to show a dramatic increase of immigrant students who speak a language other than English at home (Smitherman; U.S. Census); however, schooling ideologies and practices continue to treat developing bilingualism as a detriment to students entering school rather than a resource (Canagarajah; Heath; Matsuda; Valdés et al; Richardson; Santa Ana; Street). In this case study, conducted in the “Nuevo New South” (Mohl; Rich and Miranda), I observed how bilingual music and play in school-like settings can promote bilingual literacy practices and bridge gaps between traditional schooling practices and communities ways of languaging. Engaging in structured music and play practices creates spaces that can generate moments of felicidad and meta-construction of heritage language users as bilinguals.

The current political dispensation in South Africa has, as was the case in the past, undoubtedly had a major influence on the language patterns of the country. The 1996 Constitution now provides official recognition of the main indigenous languages. Despite this entrenchment, there is evidence that English is seen as the vehicle to the future. This study focuses on the factors that may influence the learning and teaching of Afrikaans as a second additional language in black schools in the Potchefstroom district. In order to achieve this task, a triangulation approach was used. A literature study was done to provide prior information to understanding the current language situation. Interviews were conducted with the respondents as well as the teachers of Afrikaans and the classes were observed and recorded. Questionnaires followed which were completed by the learners as well as their teachers. The objectives of the empirical study were to determine which factors might influence the teaching and learning of Afrikaans as an additional language for both the learners and the teachers, as well as to determine what the implications of such findings for the teaching and learning of Afrikaans as an additional language are. The findings of this study confirm the influence of several factors (socio-political, socio cultural and individual) on Afrikaans. The results indicated that there is a positive attitude towards Afrikaans and that the learners are eager to learn Afrikaans. What is clear, is that it is imperative to take note of these factors to guide the learners towards self regulated study, especially Afrikaans as an additional language. The results also revealed that the education of the teachers need to be addressed to prevent irrevocable damage to Afrikaans and to the relationships between the diverse cultures in our country. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study has several implications; for general theoretical traditions it highlights the point that ambivalent attitudes and incomplete language use are responsible for gradual language decline. Previous studies while acknowledging the role of community based, intuitive conditions on language maintenance and shift, did not show how the process occurred. For policy the study aims toward sensitizing policy makers and raise their awareness about the dire situation in which minority languages currently are in. This would ensure that politicians, bureaucrats, and other state authorities could implement policy decisions that guarantee protection of minority languages and enhance their vitality. One policy strategy that could ensure revitalization of minority languages would be to include them in the school curriculum as supplementary approach to the effort of the home and the community, as McCarty (2002, quoted in Recento, 2006) observes that schools; […] “can be constructed as a place where children can be free to be indigenous in the indigenous language - in all of its multiple and everchanging meanings and forms” (p. 51). / South Africa

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