Social theory and current affairs: a framework for intellectual engagement

The paper aims to facilitate more adequate critical engagement with current affairs events by journalists, and with current affairs texts by audiences. It draws on social theory to provide the intellectual resources to enable this. The academic ambition is for the framework to be adopted and developed by social thinkers in producing exemplary critical readings of news and current affairs texts. To this end it is offered as a research paradigm. The paper situates its argument in relation to the wider literature in media and cultural studies, acknowledging the subtle skills required to appreciate the relative autonomy of texts. However, it draws attention to the lack of an adequate perspective with which to assess the frames, representations, and judgments within news and current affairs texts. To address this lacuna it proposes the conception of a social‐theoretical frame, based on a number of meta‐theoretical approaches, designed to provide audiences with a systematic means of addressing the status and adequacy of individual texts. Social theoretical frames can reveal the shortcomings of media framing of the contextual fields within which news and current affairs events take place. Two illustrative case studies are used to indicate the value and potential of the approach: the analysis of a short newspaper report of the return of protesters to Cairo's Tahrir Square in 2011, and a critique of four current affairs reports from various genres on the political turmoil in Thailand leading up to the clashes of May 2010.     

The post(hu)man always rings twice: theorising the difference of impairment in the lives of people with ‘mental health problems’

A vital debate in British disability studies concerns the question of how impairment can be theorised, taking place between those who claim a critical realist ontology and those who argue for a critical social ontology. Recently, this discussion on impairment issues seems to merge with the agenda of the newly emerging perspective of critical disability studies. In contrast to the recent claim of Vehmas and Watson in Disability & Society that critical disability theorists only engage in a relativistic deconstruction of impairment, as critical disability scholars we explore the recent work of Braidotti who addresses a difference between a deconstructive anti-humanist stance and an affirmative post-humanist turn. Inspired by our empirical research, we theorise the difference of impairment in the lives of people with ‘mental health problems’ that can imply, in theoretical and in practical real-life terms, both a limitation and a potential that matters.     

批评语言学视域下的英语新闻语篇文体分析

自诞生之初,现代语言学就在不断巩固着自己的学科地位。也正因为如此,它在方法论上一直受到行为主义和实证主义的影响。语言学者一定要对语言的社会功能以及语言学的作用有一个新的认识,开始对大众语篇进行必要的批评性分析。批评语言学是对语言与权力,意识形态之间相互关系的研究。新闻语篇常常在表达意识形态方面,有着一定的优势特征。文章选取美国玩具公司召回"中国制造"的新闻中《华盛顿邮报》与《纽约时报》的相关报道作为语料,不同于传统方法,选择以语境和语篇形式结构特征作为切入点进行批评性分析,进而分析语言,权力以及意识形态之间相互关系,提出有意义的研究视角。     

如何培养学生的阅读理解能力

英语阅读能力表现为阅读速度和理解能力两个方面。在阅读过程中 ,速度和理解构成一对难以调和的矛盾。本文旨在探讨如何通过广泛的阅读及正确的方法来培养学生养成良好的阅读习惯 ,提高阅读速度和理解能力     

对法兰克福学派大众文化批判理论的再认识

法兰克福学派对西方文化工业的理论批判为当代大众文化的研究奠定了重要的理论基础 ,并对大众文化的研究产生了日益深远的影响。但是 ,由于法兰克福学派大众文化批判理论存在的局限性 ,需要对其再认识 ,以推动当代大众文化理论的研究和发展。本文重点阐述了其理论的主要内容和对其理论的反思与批判 ,并指出其理论的现实意义及启示。     

古典诗歌的叙事批评论——以诗话为中心

诗话是中国传统诗歌理论的重要存在形态,以往的诗话研究,更注重与诗歌创作、鉴赏、形态等密切相关的"诗言志"、"诗缘情"理论,而忽视了与叙事相关的论述。在中国诗论中,存在着一条关于诗歌叙事的论述线索,且在相关的诗话理论中,对诗歌之"叙"事"有比较丰富的论述。梳理研究有关的论述,对于我们重新认识诗论的整体面貌有一定的启发意义。     

Angered: Black and non-Black girls of color at the intersections of violence and school discipline in the United States

While most research examining school discipline policies have focused on the experiences of boys of color, this article explores the relationship between violence and school discipline as they shape the lives of girls of color and their disciplinary records. Using in-depth interviews, this article re-narrates the experiences of Black and non-Black girls of color who have discipline records to explore their experiences. The author found that in addition to being subject to multiple, intersecting forms of violence outside of school, girls of color – particularly Black girls – are also subject to schools as sites of control that elicit their anger and resistance. This author contends that faculty should establish new ways of understanding Black and non-Black girls of color by accounting for the ways that intersectional violence shapes the girls’ lives and supports their ‘anger’, agency and resistance to violence.     

Model (undocumented) minorities and “illegal” immigrants: centering Asian Americans and US carcerality in undocumented student discourse

As the numbers of immigrant apprehensions, detentions, and deportations increase, and in context of anti-immigrant sentiment, education scholars must better contend with the way that carcerality affects undocumented student experiences. Carcerality refers to social and political systems that formally and informally promote discipline, punishment, and incarceration. Guided by Critical Race Theory, I examine interview data from 15 undocumented Asian Americans to show that the portrayal of undocumented student exceptionalism that typically characterizes the discourse on their experiences obscures the centrality of carcerality in shaping how young people with undocumented status navigate their lives. The narratives of undocumented Asian Americans represent a shift in undocumented discourse as these students de-emphasized their academic mobility, demonstrated a hyper-awareness of punitive immigration policies, and were traumatized by and practiced nondisclosure in response to deportation threats. However, while these students developed resistance strategies that they believed would both physically and psychologically protect their presence in the US, some reinforced white supremacist perceptions of the illegality of other undocumented immigrants. Undocumented Asian American experiences illuminate the nuanced relationship between the criminalization of undocumented immigrants, race, and education, and how a legacy of carcerality is vital to deciphering the contemporary educational experiences of undocumented students in the US.     

A complicated passport: racialized realities and lessons from visible minority women teachers

This article presents key findings derived from the experiences of visible minority woman as teachers in Canada, whose lived realities reveal myriad instances of compromise. The ethnic, cultural and racial diversity among teachers is an area that has garnered attention as it pertains to equitable work environments, teacher–student relations, and multicultural education. The challenges and responsibility of representing one’s racialized identity, ethnicity, culture, and religion while finding oneself marginalized within mainstream populace is critically examined through their narratives and reflexivity. In instances of blatant discrimination, bridging the public and private sphere, to moments of fulfillment, the resilience of these women is a defining factor of their success within adversity. Through their experiences there is opportunity to inform and advance the notions of diversity, representation, and distinctiveness of teachers in educational settings and the impact this has on an intercontinental symbol of society values in education.