dissertation using discourse analysis

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on August 23, 2019 by Amy Luo . Revised on June 22, 2023.

Critical discourse analysis (or discourse analysis) is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real life situations.

When you conduct discourse analysis, you might focus on:

• The purposes and effects of different types of language
• Cultural rules and conventions in communication
• How values, beliefs and assumptions are communicated
• How language use relates to its social, political and historical context

Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology and cultural studies.  

Table of contents

What is discourse analysis used for, how is discourse analysis different from other methods, how to conduct discourse analysis, other interesting articles.

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language, as well as non-verbal aspects of communication such as tone and gestures.

Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:

• Books, newspapers and periodicals
• Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
• Business and government documents
• Websites, forums, social media posts and comments
• Interviews and conversations

By analyzing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups and how they communicate.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis emphasizes the contextual meaning of language.

It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve specific effects (e.g. to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict).

Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words or phrases, discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or collections of texts. The selected sources can be analyzed on multiple levels.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative and interpretive method of analyzing texts (in contrast to more systematic methods like content analysis ). You make interpretations based on both the details of the material itself and on contextual knowledge.

There are many different approaches and techniques you can use to conduct discourse analysis, but the steps below outline the basic structure you need to follow. Following these steps can help you avoid pitfalls of confirmation bias that can cloud your analysis.

Step 1: Define the research question and select the content of analysis

To do discourse analysis, you begin with a clearly defined research question . Once you have developed your question, select a range of material that is appropriate to answer it.

Discourse analysis is a method that can be applied both to large volumes of material and to smaller samples, depending on the aims and timescale of your research.

Step 2: Gather information and theory on the context

Next, you must establish the social and historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who the author is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to.

As well as understanding the real-life context of the discourse, you can also conduct a literature review on the topic and construct a theoretical framework to guide your analysis.

Step 3: Analyze the content for themes and patterns

This step involves closely examining various elements of the material – such as words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure – and relating them to attributes, themes, and patterns relevant to your research question.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions

Once you have assigned particular attributes to elements of the material, reflect on your results to examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider your analysis in relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw conclusions that answer your research question.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Measures of central tendency
• Chi square tests
• Confidence interval
• Quartiles & Quantiles
• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Thematic analysis
• Cohort study
• Peer review
• Ethnography

Research bias

• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Conformity bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Availability heuristic
• Attrition bias
• Social desirability bias

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Luo, A. (2023, June 22). Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 17, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/discourse-analysis/

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked

What is qualitative research | methods & examples, what is a case study | definition, examples & methods, how to do thematic analysis | step-by-step guide & examples, unlimited academic ai-proofreading.

✔ Document error-free in 5minutes ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Methodology
• Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on 5 May 2022 by Amy Luo . Revised on 5 December 2022.

Discourse analysis is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real-life situations.

When you do discourse analysis, you might focus on:

• The purposes and effects of different types of language
• Cultural rules and conventions in communication
• How values, beliefs, and assumptions are communicated
• How language use relates to its social, political, and historical context

Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. It is also called critical discourse analysis.

Table of contents

What is discourse analysis used for, how is discourse analysis different from other methods, how to conduct discourse analysis.

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language, as well as non-verbal aspects of communication, such as tone and gestures.

Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:

• Books, newspapers, and periodicals
• Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
• Business and government documents
• Websites, forums, social media posts, and comments
• Interviews and conversations

By analysing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups and how they communicate.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis emphasises the contextual meaning of language.

It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve specific effects (e.g., to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict).

Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words, or phrases, discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or collections of texts. The selected sources can be analysed on multiple levels.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative and interpretive method of analysing texts (in contrast to more systematic methods like content analysis ). You make interpretations based on both the details of the material itself and on contextual knowledge.

There are many different approaches and techniques you can use to conduct discourse analysis, but the steps below outline the basic structure you need to follow.

Step 1: Define the research question and select the content of analysis

To do discourse analysis, you begin with a clearly defined research question . Once you have developed your question, select a range of material that is appropriate to answer it.

Discourse analysis is a method that can be applied both to large volumes of material and to smaller samples, depending on the aims and timescale of your research.

Step 2: Gather information and theory on the context

Next, you must establish the social and historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who the author is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to.

As well as understanding the real-life context of the discourse, you can also conduct a literature review on the topic and construct a theoretical framework to guide your analysis.

Step 3: Analyse the content for themes and patterns

This step involves closely examining various elements of the material – such as words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure – and relating them to attributes, themes, and patterns relevant to your research question.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions

Once you have assigned particular attributes to elements of the material, reflect on your results to examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider your analysis in relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw conclusions that answer your research question.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Luo, A. (2022, December 05). Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 15 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/discourse-analysis-explained/

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked

Case study | definition, examples & methods, how to do thematic analysis | guide & examples, content analysis | a step-by-step guide with examples.

What (Exactly) Is Discourse Analysis? A Plain-Language Explanation & Definition (With Examples)

By: Jenna Crosley (PhD). Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2021

Discourse analysis is one of the most popular qualitative analysis techniques we encounter at Grad Coach. If you’ve landed on this post, you’re probably interested in discourse analysis, but you’re not sure whether it’s the right fit for your project, or you don’t know where to start. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Overview: Discourse Analysis Basics

In this post, we’ll explain in plain, straightforward language :

• What discourse analysis is
• When to use discourse analysis
• The main approaches to discourse analysis
• How to conduct discourse analysis

What is discourse analysis?

Let’s start with the word “discourse”.

In its simplest form, discourse is verbal or written communication between people that goes beyond a single sentence . Importantly, discourse is more than just language. The term “language” can include all forms of linguistic and symbolic units (even things such as road signs), and language studies can focus on the individual meanings of words. Discourse goes beyond this and looks at the overall meanings conveyed by language in context .  “Context” here refers to the social, cultural, political, and historical background of the discourse, and it is important to take this into account to understand underlying meanings expressed through language.

A popular way of viewing discourse is as language used in specific social contexts, and as such language serves as a means of prompting some form of social change or meeting some form of goal.

Now that we’ve defined discourse, let’s look at discourse analysis .

Discourse analysis uses the language presented in a corpus or body of data to draw meaning . This body of data could include a set of interviews or focus group discussion transcripts. While some forms of discourse analysis center in on the specifics of language (such as sounds or grammar), other forms focus on how this language is used to achieve its aims. We’ll dig deeper into these two above-mentioned approaches later.

As Wodak and Krzyżanowski (2008) put it: “discourse analysis provides a general framework to problem-oriented social research”. Basically, discourse analysis is used to conduct research on the use of language in context in a wide variety of social problems (i.e., issues in society that affect individuals negatively).

For example, discourse analysis could be used to assess how language is used to express differing viewpoints on financial inequality and would look at how the topic should or shouldn’t be addressed or resolved, and whether this so-called inequality is perceived as such by participants.

What makes discourse analysis unique is that it posits that social reality is socially constructed , or that our experience of the world is understood from a subjective standpoint. Discourse analysis goes beyond the literal meaning of words and languages

For example, people in countries that make use of a lot of censorship will likely have their knowledge, and thus views, limited by this, and will thus have a different subjective reality to those within countries with more lax laws on censorship.

When should you use discourse analysis?

There are many ways to analyze qualitative data (such as content analysis , narrative analysis , and thematic analysis ), so why should you choose discourse analysis? Well, as with all analysis methods, the nature of your research aims, objectives and research questions (i.e. the purpose of your research) will heavily influence the right choice of analysis method.

The purpose of discourse analysis is to investigate the functions of language (i.e., what language is used for) and how meaning is constructed in different contexts, which, to recap, include the social, cultural, political, and historical backgrounds of the discourse.

For example, if you were to study a politician’s speeches, you would need to situate these speeches in their context, which would involve looking at the politician’s background and views, the reasons for presenting the speech, the history or context of the audience, and the country’s social and political history (just to name a few – there are always multiple contextual factors).

Discourse analysis can also tell you a lot about power and power imbalances , including how this is developed and maintained, how this plays out in real life (for example, inequalities because of this power), and how language can be used to maintain it. For example, you could look at the way that someone with more power (for example, a CEO) speaks to someone with less power (for example, a lower-level employee).

Therefore, you may consider discourse analysis if you are researching:

• Some form of power or inequality (for example, how affluent individuals interact with those who are less wealthy
• How people communicate in a specific context (such as in a social situation with colleagues versus a board meeting)
• Ideology and how ideas (such as values and beliefs) are shared using language (like in political speeches)
• How communication is used to achieve social goals (such as maintaining a friendship or navigating conflict)

As you can see, discourse analysis can be a powerful tool for assessing social issues , as well as power and power imbalances . So, if your research aims and objectives are oriented around these types of issues, discourse analysis could be a good fit for you.

Discourse Analysis: The main approaches

There are two main approaches to discourse analysis. These are the language-in-use (also referred to as socially situated text and talk ) approaches and the socio-political approaches (most commonly Critical Discourse Analysis ). Let’s take a look at each of these.

Approach #1: Language-in-use

Language-in-use approaches focus on the finer details of language used within discourse, such as sentence structures (grammar) and phonology (sounds). This approach is very descriptive and is seldom seen outside of studies focusing on literature and/or linguistics.

Because of its formalist roots, language-in-use pays attention to different rules of communication, such as grammaticality (i.e., when something “sounds okay” to a native speaker of a language). Analyzing discourse through a language-in-use framework involves identifying key technicalities of language used in discourse and investigating how the features are used within a particular social context.

For example, English makes use of affixes (for example, “un” in “unbelievable”) and suffixes (“able” in “unbelievable”) but doesn’t typically make use of infixes (units that can be placed within other words to alter their meaning). However, an English speaker may say something along the lines of, “that’s un-flipping-believable”. From a language-in-use perspective, the infix “flipping” could be investigated by assessing how rare the phenomenon is in English, and then answering questions such as, “What role does the infix play?” or “What is the goal of using such an infix?”

Need a helping hand?

Approach #2: Socio-political

Socio-political approaches to discourse analysis look beyond the technicalities of language and instead focus on the influence that language has in social context , and vice versa. One of the main socio-political approaches is Critical Discourse Analysis , which focuses on power structures (for example, the power dynamic between a teacher and a student) and how discourse is influenced by society and culture. Critical Discourse Analysis is born out of Michel Foucault’s early work on power, which focuses on power structures through the analysis of normalized power .

Normalized power is ingrained and relatively allusive. It’s what makes us exist within society (and within the underlying norms of society, as accepted in a specific social context) and do the things that we need to do. Contrasted to this, a more obvious form of power is repressive power , which is power that is actively asserted.

Sounds a bit fluffy? Let’s look at an example.

Consider a situation where a teacher threatens a student with detention if they don’t stop speaking in class. This would be an example of repressive power (i.e. it was actively asserted).

Normalized power, on the other hand, is what makes us not want to talk in class . It’s the subtle clues we’re given from our environment that tell us how to behave, and this form of power is so normal to us that we don’t even realize that our beliefs, desires, and decisions are being shaped by it.

In the view of Critical Discourse Analysis, language is power and, if we want to understand power dynamics and structures in society, we must look to language for answers. In other words, analyzing the use of language can help us understand the social context, especially the power dynamics.

While the above-mentioned approaches are the two most popular approaches to discourse analysis, other forms of analysis exist. For example, ethnography-based discourse analysis and multimodal analysis. Ethnography-based discourse analysis aims to gain an insider understanding of culture , customs, and habits through participant observation (i.e. directly observing participants, rather than focusing on pre-existing texts).

On the other hand, multimodal analysis focuses on a variety of texts that are both verbal and nonverbal (such as a combination of political speeches and written press releases). So, if you’re considering using discourse analysis, familiarize yourself with the various approaches available so that you can make a well-informed decision.

How to “do” discourse analysis

As every study is different, it’s challenging to outline exactly what steps need to be taken to complete your research. However, the following steps can be used as a guideline if you choose to adopt discourse analysis for your research.

Step 1: Decide on your discourse analysis approach

The first step of the process is to decide on which approach you will take in terms. For example, the language in use approach or a socio-political approach such as critical discourse analysis. To do this, you need to consider your research aims, objectives and research questions . Of course, this means that you need to have these components clearly defined. If you’re still a bit uncertain about these, check out our video post covering topic development here.

While discourse analysis can be exploratory (as in, used to find out about a topic that hasn’t really been touched on yet), it is still vital to have a set of clearly defined research questions to guide your analysis. Without these, you may find that you lack direction when you get to your analysis. Since discourse analysis places such a focus on context, it is also vital that your research questions are linked to studying language within context.

Based on your research aims, objectives and research questions, you need to assess which discourse analysis would best suit your needs. Importantly, you  need to adopt an approach that aligns with your study’s purpose . So, think carefully about what you are investigating and what you want to achieve, and then consider the various options available within discourse analysis.

It’s vital to determine your discourse analysis approach from the get-go , so that you don’t waste time randomly analyzing your data without any specific plan.

Step 2: Design your collection method and gather your data

Once you’ve got determined your overarching approach, you can start looking at how to collect your data. Data in discourse analysis is drawn from different forms of “talk” and “text” , which means that it can consist of interviews , ethnographies, discussions, case studies, blog posts.  

The type of data you collect will largely depend on your research questions (and broader research aims and objectives). So, when you’re gathering your data, make sure that you keep in mind the “what”, “who” and “why” of your study, so that you don’t end up with a corpus full of irrelevant data. Discourse analysis can be very time-consuming, so you want to ensure that you’re not wasting time on information that doesn’t directly pertain to your research questions.

When considering potential collection methods, you should also consider the practicalities . What type of data can you access in reality? How many participants do you have access to and how much time do you have available to collect data and make sense of it? These are important factors, as you’ll run into problems if your chosen methods are impractical in light of your constraints.

Once you’ve determined your data collection method, you can get to work with the collection.

Step 3: Investigate the context

A key part of discourse analysis is context and understanding meaning in context. For this reason, it is vital that you thoroughly and systematically investigate the context of your discourse. Make sure that you can answer (at least the majority) of the following questions:

• What is the discourse?
• Why does the discourse exist? What is the purpose and what are the aims of the discourse?
• When did the discourse take place?
• Where did it happen?
• Who participated in the discourse? Who created it and who consumed it?
• What does the discourse say about society in general?
• How is meaning being conveyed in the context of the discourse?

Make sure that you include all aspects of the discourse context in your analysis to eliminate any confounding factors. For example, are there any social, political, or historical reasons as to why the discourse would exist as it does? What other factors could contribute to the existence of the discourse? Discourse can be influenced by many factors, so it is vital that you take as many of them into account as possible.

Once you’ve investigated the context of your data, you’ll have a much better idea of what you’re working with, and you’ll be far more familiar with your content. It’s then time to begin your analysis.

Step 4: Analyze your data

When performing a discourse analysis, you’ll need to look for themes and patterns .  To do this, you’ll start by looking at codes , which are specific topics within your data. You can find more information about the qualitative data coding process here.

Next, you’ll take these codes and identify themes. Themes are patterns of language (such as specific words or sentences) that pop up repeatedly in your data, and that can tell you something about the discourse. For example, if you’re wanting to know about women’s perspectives of living in a certain area, potential themes may be “safety” or “convenience”.

In discourse analysis, it is important to reach what is called data saturation . This refers to when you’ve investigated your topic and analyzed your data to the point where no new information can be found. To achieve this, you need to work your way through your data set multiple times, developing greater depth and insight each time. This can be quite time consuming and even a bit boring at times, but it’s essential.

Once you’ve reached the point of saturation, you should have an almost-complete analysis and you’re ready to move onto the next step – final review.

Step 5: Review your work

Hey, you’re nearly there. Good job! Now it’s time to review your work.

This final step requires you to return to your research questions and compile your answers to them, based on the analysis. Make sure that you can answer your research questions thoroughly, and also substantiate your responses with evidence from your data.

Usually, discourse analysis studies make use of appendices, which are referenced within your thesis or dissertation. This makes it easier for reviewers or markers to jump between your analysis (and findings) and your corpus (your evidence) so that it’s easier for them to assess your work.

When answering your research questions, make you should also revisit your research aims and objectives , and assess your answers against these. This process will help you zoom out a little and give you a bigger picture view. With your newfound insights from the analysis, you may find, for example, that it makes sense to expand the research question set a little to achieve a more comprehensive view of the topic.

Let’s recap…

In this article, we’ve covered quite a bit of ground. The key takeaways are:

• Discourse analysis is a qualitative analysis method used to draw meaning from language in context.
• You should consider using discourse analysis when you wish to analyze the functions and underlying meanings of language in context.
• The two overarching approaches to discourse analysis are language-in-use and socio-political approaches .
• The main steps involved in undertaking discourse analysis are deciding on your analysis approach (based on your research questions), choosing a data collection method, collecting your data, investigating the context of your data, analyzing your data, and reviewing your work.

If you have any questions about discourse analysis, feel free to leave a comment below. If you’d like 1-on-1 help with your analysis, book an initial consultation with a friendly Grad Coach to see how we can help.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

You Might Also Like:

30 Comments

This was really helpful to me

I would like to know the importance of discourse analysis analysis to academic writing

In academic writing coherence and cohesion are very important. DA will assist us to decide cohesiveness of the continuum of discourse that are used in it. We can judge it well.

Thank you so much for this piece, can you please direct how I can use Discourse Analysis to investigate politics of ethnicity in a particular society

Fantastically helpful! Could you write on how discourse analysis can be done using computer aided technique? Many thanks

I would like to know if I can use discourse analysis to research on electoral integrity deviation and when election are considered free & fair

I also to know the importance of discourse analysis and it’s purpose and characteristics

Thanks, we are doing discourse analysis as a subject this year and this helped a lot!

Please can you help explain and answer this question? With illustrations,Hymes’ Acronym SPEAKING, as a feature of Discourse Analysis.

What are the three objectives of discourse analysis especially on the topic how people communicate between doctor and patient

Very useful Thank you for your work and information

thank you so much , I wanna know more about discourse analysis tools , such as , latent analysis , active powers analysis, proof paths analysis, image analysis, rhetorical analysis, propositions analysis, and so on, I wish I can get references about it , thanks in advance

Its beyond my expectations. It made me clear everything which I was struggling since last 4 months. 👏 👏 👏 👏

Thank you so much … It is clear and helpful

Thanks for sharing this material. My question is related to the online newspaper articles on COVID -19 pandemic the way this new normal is constructed as a social reality. How discourse analysis is an appropriate approach to examine theese articles?

This very helpful and interesting information

This was incredible! And massively helpful.

I’m seeking further assistance if you don’t mind.

Found it worth consuming!

What are the four types of discourse analysis?

very helpful. And I’d like to know more about Ethnography-based discourse analysis as I’m studying arts and humanities, I’d like to know how can I use it in my study.

Amazing info. Very happy to read this helpful piece of documentation. Thank you.

is discourse analysis can take data from medias like TV, Radio…?

I need to know what is general discourse analysis

Direct to the point, simple and deep explanation. this is helpful indeed.

Thank you so much was really helpful

really impressive

Thank you very much, for the clear explanations and examples.

It is really awesome. Anybody within just in 5 minutes understand this critical topic so easily. Thank you so much.

Thank you for enriching my knowledge on Discourse Analysis . Very helpful thanks again

This was extremely helpful. I feel less anxious now. Thank you so much.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Discourse analysis: Step-by-step guide with examples

What is a discourse analysis, the application of discourse analysis in the academic thesis, discourse analysis with maxqda.

• Step 1: Importing data
• Step 2: Coding data
• Step 3: Creating Codebook
• Step 4: Visualize data

Literature about MAXQDA

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

MAXQDA supports various methodological approaches, including discourse analysis. This guide will introduce you to the tools of MAXQDA, which are ideal for performing discourse analysis with MAXQDA quickly and easily. MAXQDA is a qualitative data analysis software that helps you import, code, and identify patterns in your discourse.

Discourse analysis is a multidisciplinary method used in the humanities and social sciences to develop a deeper understanding of the interactions between language, society, and culture. It focuses on the study of linguistic expressions, structures, and practices in order to capture social meanings and power dynamics. Both verbal and nonverbal communication are considered. The overarching goal of discourse analysis is to explore how discourses influence the construction of knowledge, identities, and social relations. It enables the study of the role of language and communication in shaping and influencing social reality. Overall, discourse analysis makes a valuable contribution to the study of social phenomena and processes by providing an in-depth understanding of how language and communication are used to create meanings, shape social relationships, and establish social power dynamics. Discourse analysis contributes to critical reflection and knowledge acquisition in various academic disciplines.

A primary motivation for using discourse analysis is the ability to uncover dominant discourses, ideological assumptions, and power structures in texts, media content, or political speeches. Discourse analysis allows researchers to better understand and critically reflect on the role of language and discourse in society. Another important area of application of discourse analysis in dissertations is the study of the relationship between discourses and identity constructions. For example, gender roles, ethnic identities, or sexual orientations can be studied. Discourse analysis can help to understand how identities are negotiated, constructed, and reproduced in specific social contexts. Another area of application in dissertations is the study of discourses in the media. The analysis of media discourses makes it possible to identify, critically expose and reflect on patterns and trends in reporting. This can contribute to a better understanding of the media’s role in constructing and disseminating discourses. In summary, discourse analysis offers a valuable methodological perspective for the study of complex social phenomena in the context of academic work.

Researchers typically follow these steps in discourse analysis: defining the research question, selecting relevant textual data, coding and categorizing the data, analyzing patterns and meanings within the discourse, interpreting the results, and documenting their findings in written form. The specific steps may vary depending on the research question and methodology.

As mentioned earlier, there are clear advantages to using software like MAXQDA to conduct discourse analysis. With MAXQDA, you can segment data, code it, and develop analytical ideas all at the same time. This makes the process more efficient and allows you to refine your theoretical approaches in real time. If you do not have a MAXQDA License yet, download the free 14-day trial to get started:

Download free trial

Step 1 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Importing data

Importing data into MAXQDA is a crucial step in beginning the analysis of qualitative data. MAXQDA provides several options for importing data into the program, allowing you to effectively organize your research materials. You can import different types of data, such as text documents, transcripts, media content, or existing MAXQDA Projects. MAXQDA gives you the flexibility to import both individual files and entire folders of data, which is especially helpful when working with large data sets. The import process is designed to be simple and user-friendly, making it easier for you to work with your data.Another advantage of MAXQDA is that it supports a wide variety of file formats. You can import files in various formats, including TXT, DOC, PDF, MP3, MP4 and many more. This versatility allows you to work with different types of data and incorporate different media into your analysis.Importing your data into MAXQDA makes it structured and accessible for further analysis. Within MAXQDA, you can organize, code, and link your data with other analytical tools. This makes it easier to navigate and access relevant information during the analysis process.Overall, importing data into MAXQDA is an efficient way to manage your qualitative research materials and prepare them for analysis. It serves as a critical first step in launching your project in MAXQDA and taking full advantage of the program’s extensive analytical capabilities.

Importing data into MAXQA plays a crucial role in conducting discourse analysis. With MAXQDA, you can segment your data into documents and annotate them with relevant metadata such as title, author, and date. This allows you to organize your texts during the analysis phase. You can sort, filter, and group your data based on various criteria to access specific texts. In addition, MAXQDA provides the ability to annotate the imported text with notes, comments, or memos. This feature is invaluable for capturing important information, thoughts, or interpretations that arise during analysis. You can document your observations and insights directly in MAXQDA, thus fostering a comprehensive understanding of the discourse being analyzed.In MAXQDA, you can assign meaningful titles to your data and include relevant metadata such as author and date in the document names. This ensures a clear organization of your texts during the analysis phase. You can sort, filter, and group your data according to various criteria to access specific texts. In addition, MAXQDA allows you to annotate the imported texts with comments and notes using memos. This feature is very useful for capturing key information, thoughts, or interpretations that emerge during the analysis. You can document your observations and insights directly in MAXQDA and develop a thorough understanding of the discourse being analyzed. Importing data into MAXQDA is fundamental to conducting a systematic and comprehensive discourse analysis.The structured organization of data in MAXQDA facilitates the effective application of various analysis methods and techniques. You can create codes to identify and analyze important themes, terms, or patterns within the discourse. Importing data into MAXQDA provides a central platform where you can manage, analyze, and interpret your data. This greatly streamlines the entire process of discourse analysis, allowing you to make informed statements about social meanings, power dynamics, and identity constructions within the discourse you are analyzing.

Step 2 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Coding data

Coding data in MAXQDA plays a critical role in the analysis process. Coding involves identifying and marking specific themes, categories, or concepts within the data. This allows researchers to systematically organize and extract relevant information from the data. In MAXQDA, different types of data can be coded, such as text passages, images, videos, or audio files. Codes can be used to associate these data segments with specific content or meanings. Researchers can use codes to identify and mark certain phenomena or themes in the data, allowing for targeted access later. Coding in MAXQDA allows researchers to identify complex relationships and patterns within the data.By linking and combining codes and organizing them hierarchically, researchers can establish relationships between different elements. These connections provide new insights and help understand the relationships within the data. The coded data can be further used in MAXQDA for additional analysis. For example, complex queries or filters can be applied to examine specific aspects of the discourse in detail. By analyzing the coded data, researchers can identify patterns, trends, and significant relationships that lead to valuable insights.MAXQDA provides an intuitive and easy-to-use platform to efficiently perform the coding and analysis process. The program offers several tools and features that allow researchers to customize the coding process and tailor the analysis to their specific needs. Overall, coding data in MAXQDA is a critical step in analyzing and understanding qualitative data.

Coding data in MAXQDA allows researchers to identify and analyze specific discursive elements such as themes, arguments, or language strategies in the texts under study. To code data in MAXQDA, researchers can select relevant text passages and assign them codes that represent specific meanings or categories. These codes can be organized hierarchically to illustrate relationships between different discursive elements. In addition to coding, MAXQDA offers features such as text annotation, the ability to create memos, and options for visual data presentation at later stages. These features facilitate the organization and interpretation of coded data, enabling researchers to gain deep insights into the discourse under study and to visualize their findings. MAXQDA provides a comprehensive and efficient platform for coding and analyzing data in discourse analysis.

Step 3 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Creating Codebook

A Codebook in MAXQDA defines codes for units of meaning within data. It enables structured and consistent coding, improves traceability and reproducibility, increases the efficiency of data analysis, facilitates comparisons and cross-references between codes and data, and provides flexibility and adaptability. In summary, a codebook promotes structured, consistent, and efficient data analysis, improving traceability and identification of relationships and patterns.

A Codebook is also very useful for discourse analysis in MAXQDA. Here are some reasons why:

• Structured coding of discourse features: A Codebook establishes uniform rules and definitions for coding data. This ensures that coding is structured and consistent across researchers and stages of analysis. This increases the reliability of results and facilitates the comparison and integration of data.
• Improved traceability and reproducibility: By clearly defining the codes and their use in the Codebook, the traceability of the coding process is improved. Other researchers can understand and trace the coding, increasing the reproducibility of the analysis. In addition, a Codebook facilitates effective collaboration and sharing of data and analysis among researchers.
• Identification and comparison of discourse patterns: A Codebook allows for the systematic identification and comparison of discourse patterns. This makes it possible to identify connections, patterns, and differences in the data, thus facilitating the interpretation of the results.
• Efficient data analysis: A Codebook provides a structured view of the codes used and their meanings. This allows researchers to work more efficiently by applying the codes quickly and specifically to relevant data. Using a codebook saves time and makes it easier to organize and navigate the coded data.
• Flexibility and adaptability: A Codebook in MAXQDA is flexible and customizable. Researchers can add, modify, or remove codes to meet the needs of their specific research questions. This allows for dynamic and iterative data analysis, where the Codebook can be continually updated and expanded.

In summary, a well-designed codebook in MAXQDA promotes structured, consistent, and efficient data analysis.

Step 4 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Visualize data

MAXQDA offers a wide range of visualization tools to help you present your research data in an engaging and meaningful way. These include not only different types of charts, such as bar or pie charts for visualizing numerical data, but also other innovative visualization tools that help you identify and analyze complex relationships.

Code Matrix Browser

With the Code Matrix Browser , in MAXQDA, you can visually display and analyze the occurrence of codes in your data. This feature is invaluable for identifying similarities, differences, and patterns in discourse. Here are some of the ways the Code Matrix Browser can help you:

• Visualization of codings: The Code Matrix Browser displays a matrix where codes are arranged along the rows and documents along the columns. This visual representation allows you to quickly see which codes were used in which documents. This allows you to identify similarities and differences in the coding, which makes it easier to make connections.
• Pattern recognition: By analyzing codings in the Code Relations Browser, you can identify patterns in discourse. For example, you can observe which codes are particularly prevalent in certain documents. These patterns may indicate important themes, arguments, or language strategies, helping you to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the discourse.
• Comparison: With the Code Matrix Browser, you can compare how often certain codes were assigned in each document and display the corresponding information in the matrix. This allows you to analyze relationships between different elements in the discourse and to make connections between different topics or arguments.

Code Relations Browser

The Code Relations Browser , in MAXQDA allows you to visually display and analyze the connections and dependencies between the codes in your discourse. This feature is extremely valuable for understanding the interactions and hierarchy between codes. Here are some of the ways the Code Relations Browser can help you:

• Visualize code relationships: The Code Relations Browser visually displays the relationships between codes. You can see which codes are linked and how they are related to each other. These relationships can be hierarchical, associative, or several other types. This visual representation helps you better understand the structure and organization of codes within the discourse.
• Analyze interactions: The Code Relations Browser lets you analyze the interactions between codes. You can observe which codes occur frequently or how they influence each other. This can help you identify specific themes, arguments, or concepts in the discourse and examine their interrelationships. Analyzing these interactions can provide a deeper understanding of the discourse and the connections between codes.

The Code Map in MAXQDA visualizes selected codes as a map, showing the similarity of codes based on overlaps in the data material. Each code is represented by a circle, and the distance between the circles indicates their similarity. Larger circles represent more instances of coding with the code. Colors can highlight group membership, and connecting lines indicate overlap between codes, with thicker lines indicating more significant overlap.Visualizing the similarities between codes in the data provides an overview of different discursive elements. Grouping codes into clusters allows for the identification of specific discourse themes or dimensions. The connecting lines also show how codes interact and which codes frequently appear together. This allows for a detailed examination of the relationships between discursive elements, facilitating the interpretation and analysis of the discourse.

Document Map

The Document Map visualizes selected documents like a map. The positioning of the circles on the map is based on the similarity of the code assignments between the documents. Documents with similar code mappings are placed closer together, while those with different code mappings are placed further apart. Variable values from the documents can be used to determine similarity. Optionally, similar documents can be color-coded. Larger circles represent documents with more of the analyzed codes. The Document Map is a useful tool for visually grouping cases and can be used for typing or further investigation of the identified groups. The Document Map can be used in several ways in discourse analysis:

• Discourse group identification: By positioning documents on the map based on their code assignments, similar discourse groups can be identified. Documents with similar code assignments are placed closer together, indicating common discursive features.
• Recognition of discourse patterns: The visual representation of documents and their similarities on the map allows for the detection of patterns in discourse. Clusters of documents with similar codings may indicate common themes, arguments, or language patterns.
• Exploration of discourse dynamics: The use of connecting lines between codes on the map can reveal which codes overlap within documents. Thick connecting lines indicate frequent overlap and may suggest discursive relationships or connections.”
• Typification: The Document Map can serve as a basis for typology in discourse analysis. By grouping documents with similar code assignments, different discourse types can be identified and described”.

Profile Comparison Chart

The Profile Comparison Chart MAXQDA allows you to select multiple documents and compare the use of codes within those documents. This comparison allows you to identify differences or similarities in discourse between the selected documents. Below are some steps for using the Profile Comparison Chart:

• Document selection: Select the documents you want to compare. You can choose single documents or a group of documents. These documents should represent the discourse you want to analyze.
• Code selection: Select the codes you wish to compare in the selected documents. These can be specific themes, concepts or discursive elements that are of interest in the discourse.
• Create the comparison chart: Create the comparison graph in MAXQDA. The graph shows the occurrence of codes in individual paragraphs of the documents.
• Analysis of the chart: Analyze the comparison chart to identify differences or similarities in the discourse of the selected documents. Examine the assignment of codes in the paragraphs of the documents. Different patterns or variations in frequency may indicate differences in discourse, while similar patterns may indicate similarities in discourse.

Document Portrait

The Document Portrait feature in MAXQDA allows you to visually represent important features, themes, or characteristics of a document by visualizing the sequence of coding within that document. This feature allows you to identify relevant aspects of the discourse and analyze their weight in this particular document. Below are some steps for using the Document Portrait:

• Document Selection: Select the document for which you want to create a document portrait. The document selected should be representative of the discourse you are analyzing.
• Identify relevant features: Identify the codes that you want to visualize. These may be specific relevant features, themes or characteristics of the document, or other elements relevant to the discourse.
• Weighting of Features: The length of the segment is used as a weighting factor for the Document Portrait.
• Creation of the Document Portrait: Generate the Document Portrait in MAXQDA. The portrait visualizes the identified features and their weighting in the selected document. As a result, you obtain a visual representation of the sequence of coding performed within the document.
• Analysis of the Portrait: Analyze the Document Portrait to identify important features, themes, or characteristics of the document. This allows you to locate and understand relevant aspects of the discourse within a particular document.

The Codeline is a powerful tool in MAXQDA that allows you to visually represent the use of different codes within a document. By displaying the sequence of codes, you can see the flow and development of the discourse. With the Codeline, you can not only see which codes were used in specific sections of the document, but you can also track the progression of codings within a document. This allows you to identify crucial stages, turning points, or focal points in the discourse.The Codeline also allows you to analyze coded segments over time. You can examine specific codes and their occurrences or changes over time. This allows you to examine and interpret trends, patterns, or changes in the discourse more closely. The Codeline is therefore a valuable tool for considering the temporal progression and development of discourse in your analysis.By analyzing coded segments over time, you can gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics and context of the discourse, leading to more informed interpretations.

The Word Cloud is a powerful visualization tool in MAXQDA that helps you visually represent frequently occurring words or terms in the discourse. By looking at the size or weight of the words in the Word Cloud, you can quickly see which terms are particularly prevalent or significant in the discourse. By analyzing the Word Cloud, you can identify key terms in the discourse and examine their weight or frequency in relation to other terms. This allows you to identify and understand important themes, trends, or focuses in the discourse. In addition, you can use the Word Cloud to identify connections between different terms. If certain words occur frequently together or are used in similar contexts, you can identify associations or links in the discourse. The Word Cloud is thus a valuable tool for getting a quick and clear representation of the most common words or terms in the discourse. By analyzing the key terms and their weighting, you can gain important insights into the content and structure of the discourse and make a well-informed interpretation.

We offer a variety of free learning materials to help you get started with MAXQDA. Check out our Getting Started Guide to get a quick overview of MAXQDA and step-by-step instructions on setting up your software and creating your first project with your brand new QDA software. In addition, the free Literature Reviews Guide explains how to conduct a literature review with MAXQDA.

Getting Started with MAXQDA

Literature Reviews with MAXQDA

MAXQDA Newsletter

Our research and analysis tips, straight to your inbox.

• By submitting the form I accept the Privacy Policy.

• Tools and Resources
• Customer Services
• Original Language Spotlight
• Alternative and Non-formal Education 
• Cognition, Emotion, and Learning
• Curriculum and Pedagogy
• Education and Society
• Education, Change, and Development
• Education, Cultures, and Ethnicities
• Education, Gender, and Sexualities
• Education, Health, and Social Services
• Educational Administration and Leadership
• Educational History
• Educational Politics and Policy
• Educational Purposes and Ideals
• Educational Systems
• Educational Theories and Philosophies
• Globalization, Economics, and Education
• Languages and Literacies
• Professional Learning and Development
• Research and Assessment Methods
• Technology and Education
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Critical discourse analysis and information and communication technology in education.

• Cheryl Brown Cheryl Brown University of Canterbury
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.794
• Published online: 28 August 2019

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a cross-disciplinary methodological and theoretical approach. At its core CDA explores the intersections between discourse, critique, power, and ideology which hold particular values for those teaching in developing contexts. CDA has emerged as a valuable methodological approach in cultural and media studies and has increased in prominence since the 2010s in education research where it is drawn on to explore educational policy, literacy education, and identity. This research has intersected with the field of information systems which has explored the dominant discourses and discursive practice of how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are viewed in policy and the contradictions between rhetoric and reality. It has also been drawn on in research in developing contexts to critique the role of ICTs in education. A brief historical background to CDA and overview of the key components of the approach will be provided. How CDA has been drawn on in educational studies will be examined and research on CDA will be highlighted to explore discursive practices of students and the influence of students’ digital identities on their engagement with and experience of online learning. By focusing on four key constructs of CDA—namely meaning, context, identity, and power—the potential of CDA to critically investigate how students’ are constructing their technological identity in an increasingly digital world will be demonstrated, particularly as examples of research emanating from developing contexts will be drawn.

• critical discourse analysis
• higher education
• information and communication technology
• digital world

Historical Overview

During the 1960s, the term “discourse” began to take on a more philosophical and theoretical meaning (Mills, 2004 ). In trying to provide an all-encapsulating summary of the theoretical conception of discourse, van Dijk ( 1997 ) notes that it goes beyond who uses the language to include the how, why and when. Underpinning this is a communicative event which observes that when people use language to communicate ideas, beliefs, or emotions, they do it as part of a more complex social event (i.e., within a context). Therefore, the three main dimensions of discourse analysis are language use, communication of beliefs, and interaction in social situations (van Dijk, 1997 ).

Critical approaches to discourse analysis first began to emerge as a cohesive paradigm in the early 1990s (Billig, 2003 ; Wodak & Myers, 2001 ) with the coming together of a network of scholars in Amsterdam (van Dijk, 2001 ), the launch of the journal Discourse and Society , and the “rise to fame” of various seminal, critical discourse analysis (CDA) books, such as Language and Power (Fairclough, 2001 ) and Language, Power and Ideology (Wodak, 1989 ). Billig ( 2003 ) notes the change from Fairclough’s discussion of critical approaches (in the plural) in his 1992 Discourse and Social Change to the use of the definite article in his book Critical Discourse Analysis in 1995 , which seemed to signal the recognition of a CDA that is used to refer particularly to Fairclough’s brand of discourse analysis.

CDA (as opposed to other types of discourse analysis) regards language as social practice and has been described as “at most a shared perspective on doing linguistic, semiotic and discourse analysis” (van Dijk, 1993 , p. 131) due to the “heterogeneity of methodological and theoretical approaches represented in this field of linguistics” (van Dijk, 2001 , p. 2). Its roots lie in “classical rhetoric, text linguistics and sociolinguistics as well as in applied linguistics and pragmatics,” and it still has a huge continuity with critical linguistics (van Dijk, 2001 , p. 3).

What distinguishes CDA from other sociolinguistic approaches relates primarily to the problem under investigation. Myers sums it up as “it endeavors to make explicit power relationships which are frequently hidden and thereby to derive results which are of practical relevance” (Myers, 2002 , p. 15). Because one of the central tenets of CDA is that discourses cannot be understood without reference to context, it draws on extra-linguistic factors in its research approach (Myers, 2002 ), particularly social processes and structures (Wodak & Myers, 2001 ).

CDA emerged at a time of growth in critical paradigms in other disciplines, such as critical anthropology and critical psychology (Billig, 2003 ). Billig ( 2003 , p. 37) notes that “in this context, the term ‘critical’ can be seen to mark out a specific genre of academic studies.” While most critical discourse analysts do not tend to position themselves directly with philosophers from the critical theory school, such as Kant and Popper, there are two philosophers who have had a strong influence on the development of CDA, namely Foucault and Habermas (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ).

However, even though CDA does not have a specific association with a single critical theorist, it does share the concerns and agenda of critical theorists in that it argues that language is always “part and parcel of, and partially constitutive of, specific social practices and the social practices always have implications for inherently political things like status, solidarity, the distribution of social goods and power” (Gee, 2004 , p. 23). Gee notes that when discourse analysis combines a model, grammar or textual analysis (of some kind) with sociopolitical and critical theories of society and its institutions, it becomes critical. Critical approaches always examine the implications of status, power, distribution of social goods, and solidarity.

Critical Discourse Analysis and Theory

One of the strengths of CDA is that it is multidisciplinary and essentially diverse (van Dijk, 2001 ). In fact, van Dijk ( 2001 , p. 95), who is one of its original proponents, says that good CDA scholarship seldom follows just one person or one approach but is enriched through the integration of the “best work of many people, famous or not, from different disciplines, countries, cultures and directions of research.” However, given that CDA is concerned with the critique of ideology and the effects of domination, it has clear links to critical theory. There is quite a broad range of epistemological and ontological positions that fall under the ambit of critical theory, ranging from the Frankfurt school of Habermas, Adorno, and Horkheimer, to the actor–network theory of Latour, to Marxism, to Bourdieu, to Foucault and Heidegger (Howcroft & Trauth, 2004 ). While there is no such thing as a uniform, common theory formation determining CDA (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ), it can also be argued that the plurality of theory in CDA is a positive phenomenon to which this research discipline owes its dynamics. The mediation between the social and linguistic levels of texts is highly relevant to the theory formation process of CDA (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ). The CDA viewpoint is likened to Giddens’s “duality of structure” and Bourdieu’s “structured and structuring structures”—as social systems and societies are not viewed as self-contained entities (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ). However, this flexibility within CDA has also been criticized, as lack of theoretical consistency or “indiscriminate mixing” can lead to inconsistencies that become even more acute when under the influence of grand theorists like Bourdieu and Giddens (Myers, 2002 ).

Weiss and Wodak ( 2003 ), therefore, recommend a number of steps in order to develop an integrated theoretical framework. Clarification of the theoretical assumptions regarding text, discourse, language, action, social structure, institution, and society should be done preceding analysis. This creates the framework for analytical operationalization. When using CDA, it is not about what grand theory is needed but rather which conceptual tools are relevant to solve which problem in which context. This makes the context of the discursive practice very important.

This requires the development of conceptual tools that are “capable of connecting the level of text or discourse analysis with sociological positions on institutions, actions and social structures” (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 , p. 8). These conceptual tools are analytical interfaces that allow connection between the linguistics and the sociological. They do not represent a “self contained edifice of theories” (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 , p. 8) but rather an integrated theoretical framework and mediate between “text and institution, communication and structure and discourse and society” (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 , p. 9).

The notion of discourse offers us possibilities for engaging critically with language and meaning located in the context of use (the speakers and their intentions in wider social, cultural, and political worlds).

Common Themes

While CDA has been noted as having a heterogeneity of methodological and theoretical approaches, cornerstones to the approach have been described as discourse, ideology, and power (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ; Wodak & Myers, 2001 ). CDA, like many other dominant theories of education, arose in the Global North, and whatever the opportunity for critical analyses it offers, has aimed at uncovering power relations, often focusing on disempowered groups, such as women (Adam, 2002 ; Kvasny, 2006 ; Trauth & Howcroft, 2006 ) or lower socioeconomic groups (Bozionelos, 2004 ; Lizie, Stewart, & Avila, 2004 ). This has made it a very useful approach for scholars operating in developing contexts (Brown, 2011 ; Ng’āmbi, 2008 ; Wagid & Wagid, 2016 ) and those exploring black discursive identity (Brock, 2018 ).

While the term discourse is used differently by researchers, all share the perspective that language use in speech and writing is a form of social practice (Fairclough, 2009 ) and that discursive practices—the process through which texts are produced (created) and consumed (received and interpreted)—are an important form of social practice which contribute to the constitutions of the social world (including identities and relations) (Pennycook, 2001 ).

Language is not viewed as powerful on its own but is seen to gain power by the use people make of it (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ). Discursive practices contribute to unequal power relations between social groups, namely class and gender, which have ideological effects. The research focus of CDA is therefore on the discursive practices which construct representations of the world, social subjects, and social relations (including power); and the role these have in furthering the interests of particular social groups (Fairclough, 2001 ; Pennycook, 2001 ; Wodak & Myers, 2001 ).

Differences and Points of Contention

One of the main criticisms leveled at CDA from “outside” the field is that it is an ideological interpretation and not an analysis. It has been criticized particularly for being prejudiced in favor of a particular ideological commitment (i.e., the uncovering of power imbalances and hidden meanings) and selecting texts that support this preferred interpretation (Myers, 2002 ).

However, the main response to this has been that CDA is transparent about its positions and commitments, and does not hide this bias (Myers, 2002 ). CDA is not politically neutral but is committed to social change and takes the side of oppressed social groups (Jørgenson & Phillips, 2002 ). In this, van Dijk ( 2001 ) notes that it is biased scholarship and is proud of it. He also notes that biased scholarship is not necessarily bad scholarship if based on rigorous scholarship with explicit and systematic methods that are empirically grounded.

This particular conflation of discourse and ideology has been tackled head on by Pennycook ( 2001 ), who also takes issue with the way the real world is confused with ideology in CDA and consequently adopts a more explicitly Foucauldian position on discourse that separates discourse and ideology, suggesting that the latter determines the former. Discourses are about the creation and limitation of possibilities; they are systems of power and knowledge within which subject positions are taken up. A Foucauldian analysis is not concerned with how discourses (texts) reflect social reality, but how they produce social reality (Pennycook, 2001 ).

Critical discourse researchers also openly acknowledge the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches, publishing books that explicitly explore the multidisciplinary range of both (Weiss & Wodak, 2003 ; Wodak & Myers, 2001 ).

Critical discourse researchers are not shy of self-criticism or reflection. Billig ( 2003 ) raises the issue of subjecting the field of CDA to its own critique in an endeavor to be reflexively self-critical and aware that CDA must necessarily occur within an academic context of power and economic relations. Billig ( 2003 ) notes that academics themselves replicate power imbalances through the process of teaching, grading and passing or failing students.

Critical Discourse Analysis in Education

CDA as a multidisciplinary set of theories and methods has been adopted in educational research by scholars exploring the ideological nature of educational practices and the social, historical, and political contexts in which they emerge and are transformed.

It has increased in prominence in educational research over the past 20 years, particularly in countries where English is the primary language: the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, or Canada (Rogers et al., 2016 ). In a review of CDA and education-related literature between 2004 and 2016 , Rogers et al. ( 2016 ) noted that the majority of studies were situated in the higher education contest (including teacher education and professional development), but were also scattered across early childhood right through middle and high school settings to include community and adult education. Nearly half of the studies included a focus on cultural and linguistic diversity of students or teachers, or an emphasis on local, state, or national ideologies. Although the study of global technologies in CDA research increased (20%), Rogers et al. ( 2016 , p. 24) noted a paucity of CDA research in the area of online learning and became interested by the lack of critical examination of digital data sources, commenting that CDA was “amply prepared to inquire into how meanings are made in an increasingly digital world.”

Rogers ( 2004 ) notes that Gee is one of the few examples where discourse theories have been applied to matters of learning. It is therefore not surprising that many of the applications of his research have a firm base in the areas of education. In addition, because of his explicit link between Discourses and identities, Gee’s ( 2000 ) approach to discourses has been utilized by various researchers across many different contexts (e.g., fan fiction writing, internationalization of universities, and science learning) to examine how individuals use language and text to identify aspects of their identity when traditional markers of identity are unavailable. Gee’s concept of big D Discourse encompasses more than just the use of language (what he refers to as little d discourse); it includes ways of being (thinking, acting, and interacting) (Gee, 2005 ) that take on socially meaningful identities in various situations or contexts.

For example, Black ( 2008 ) looks at the world of online gaming and how individuals use language and text to identify aspects of their identity when traditional markers of identity are unavailable. She examines the sort of roles an individual occupies compared to the one ascribed to them by society. Brown, Reveles, and Kelly ( 2005 ) examine how the relationship between language, identity, and classroom learning can provide insights into how students learn to become literate members of a scientific community. They note that, in every discursive exchange, speakers and listeners are co-constructing meaning through interactions that position them as certain types of people. Their examples focus on students’ demonstrations of themselves as experts, willing participants in the discourse, and outsiders.

Gee’s notion of D(d)iscourse has been drawn on to better understand the way in which groups of students construct science knowledge in an engineering context. Kittleson and Southerland ( 2004 ) did not find much evidence of competing discourses and attributed this to the unusual homogeneity of the students’ group, but they did note that the disciplinary discourse of engineering was an important element in structuring the groups’ interactions. In order to understand their work on a project, students had to be aware of the ways in which they actualized their understanding of being engineers and doing engineering.

The contradictions between different types of discourses were also explored in an Australian education context where primary school girls struggled with discourses of ethnicity in a Studies of Asia curriculum project (Hamston, 2006 ). Here Fairclough’s earlier textually oriented discourse analysis (TODA) was complemented by Bakhtin’s theory of dialogue. This enabled a micro-linguistic description of the data, which was foundational to the students’ struggle with discourses and their framing of it within the curriculum and an exploration of the shift toward the individual nature of the struggle occurring at a micro level within the classroom. The flexibility of CDA to work alongside other approaches enabled foregrounding of both the larger social discourses at play as well as the individual internalized discourses.

Discourses and Information and Communication Technologies

In the field of information systems CDA has played a role in understanding people’s interaction with ICTs generally, which has aided in interpreting hidden meaning about ICTs and in understanding what ICTs are, how they can be used, and how different understandings affect use (Stahl, 2004 ).

Examples of this include analysis of media discourses about technology projects and applications in Canada and South Africa (Chigona & Chigona, 2008 ; Chigona, Mjali, & Denzl, 2007 ; Cukier, Bauer, & Middleton, 2004 ; Cukier, Ngwenyama, Bauer, & Middleton, 2009 ), and the exploration of contradictions between rhetoric and reality in Egyptian ICT policy (Stahl, 2004 , 2008 ). This has been extended into the education context with a CDA analysis of specifically ICT educational policy in Cameroon (Ndenge, 2013 ), Zambia (Konayuma, 2012 ), and Rwanda (Byungara et al., 2016 ). The research concludes that CDA was useful in understanding the particular historical, social, and political contexts, and some of the contradictions between these in terms of the perceived and actual role of ICTs in education in developing contexts.

Building on CDA research of discursive practice and genres in relation to global or national ICT policy (Roode, Speight, Pollock, & Webber, 2004 ; Thompson, 2004 ), Ng’ambi ( 2008 ) explored social practices (text messages) in a community of online learners in the South African higher education context. He highlighted the tension between perceptions of inflexibility of traditional teaching practices and student demands for flexible learning. In Pakistan Perveen ( 2015 ) evaluated discursive practice in online discussion forums and noted how a virtual context (which lacks explicit social context as it is anonymous and devoid of usual demographic details) enables a neutrality that can be very empowering for learners as it does not explicitly reproduce sociopolitical hierarchies. Rambe ( 2012 ) analyzed academic relations in social media sites such as Facebook using CDA in the South African higher education context. He noted less formal, more liberating discourses, and a nascent developing networked learning culture (although one where learning was still regarded as shallow rather than deep, and that has not achieved its transformational potential). CDA was also used as an analytical tool to engage secondary school students deliberately and critically to explore social, political, and cultural issues using Facebook as a social media platform (Waghid & Waghid, 2016 ).

Using CDA to explore interactions in a virtual learning environments, Giles ( 2017 ) examined how learners use discourse devices to portray identities and how this can contribute to their learning in the higher education context in Mexico. She foregrounds the complexity of multiple identities and their role in creating a social presence which is essential for effective learning in a virtual context. In the South African higher education context, Brown explored discursive practices using CDA to expose hidden assumptions about power and implicit ideologies related to technology in education. The dominant Discourse around learning was about efficiency rather than effectiveness of learning with some students viewing technology as a liberator with access to information equating to knowledge (in their mind). However, they lacked the critical digital literacy abilities that are needed to transform their learning. There is also a small but significant group who feel alienated by technology. These students are marginalized and face enormous challenges in using technology effectively for their learning (Brown, 2012 ; Brown & Hart, 2012 ).

Similarly, but with a focus on instructors this time, the discursive practices around online learning were explored at open universities in two countries where cultural norms meant the relationship between students and teachers were viewed quite differently (Lee & Brett, 2014 ). The prevailing rhetorical discourse was shown to be one of interactivity (or lack of it). Like Brown, Lee noted this had the potential to marginalize particular groups of students and urged researchers not to have a single-minded focus on developing more effective interactive distance education practices as the only response to online education ( 2014 ).

Discourses about Information and Communication Technologies and Education

Research on discourses of ICTs in education has revealed a variety of themes across educational settings, and while researchers have named these differently and noted varying levels of dominance across their contexts, these can generically be categorized as technological optimism, disembodiment, liberation, imperialism/globalization (digital divide), and productivity (Brown, 2012 ; Budd, 2005 ; Sasseville, 2004 ).

Technological optimism privileged technology, seeing it as a “force to which all things must respond and adapt” (Budd, 2005 ), as having “no choice but to follow technological evolution” and from the teachers’ point of view, as essential for today’s job market (Sasseville, 2004 ), and being essential for the working world since “nowadays wherever a person is working, a computer is needed” (Brown, 2012 , p. 50).

The invisible space or disembodiment in the virtual space due to a lack of physical presence offered both positive dimensions to learning, namely anonymity and potential empowerment for marginal groups (Budd, 2005 ), and negative ones as learners feel disconnected: “a person can depend too much on using ICTS & not even use their own mind to think & study from books” (Brown, 2012 , p. 51).

The myth of freedom of information and notions of liberation through the availability of free information ignores the reality that information is commodified and controlled. Sasseville notes that having access to so much information changes the way students think ( 2004 ) while Brown ( 2012 ) notes both opportunities this offers students in terms of furthering themselves in their studies and in contrast new forms of discrimination.

The discourse on imperialism, which Budd ( 2005 ) notes, acknowledges social divisions and yet still “sells” ICTs to the world as potentially liberating for development, which contributes to reinforce the myth of the global marketplace and neoliberal education. Brown ( 2012 ) notes that students in developing contexts often view this as “the privilege of having access to and using these new technologies” (p. 50).

Productivity discourses viewed ICTs as having a strong imperative and helping students to get things done better, faster, and to keep up with the fast pace of life. However, teachers in Sasseville’s study ( 2004 ) were also aware of the challenges of learning to use new technologies and were principally concerned with the lack of time at their disposal.

Value of Critical Discourse Analysis as an Approach to Information and Communication Technologies in Education

Avgerou and Madon ( 2004 ) note that it is necessary to understand new technologies (i.e., the Internet and the mobile phone), which can only be achieved by taking into account their symbolic meaning in everyday life. One of the ways of examining meaning is to look at identity, as identity also acts as a source of meaning and experience for people (Koc, 2006 ). It is not just about how the technology is adopted, but also about the way it is integrated into people’s lives (Cushman & McLean, 2008 ). However, critical research involves a shift away from just individual situations and local meanings to the system of relations which make these meanings possible (Trauth & Howcroft, 2006 ). Thus, context is critical if we are to understand how ICTs are used, especially in developing countries (Avgerou & Madon, 2004 ).

Issues of power surface when people’s freedom to set and pursue their own goals and interests or achieve their personally constructed life projects are curtailed (Cushman & McLean, 2008 ; Zheng & Walsham, 2008 ). That is, where local actors are not able to shape ICTs to their interests and appropriate their functionality.

Consequently, Brown ( 2011 ) foregrounded four key analytical concepts which she believed were key to exploring the relationship between ICTs and learning in a resource constrained context. These were identity and meaning (which were considered essential in understanding how new technologies were appropriated), context (which was necessary to examine the system as a whole), and power (as this influenced what was possible within the context the actors operated within).

One of the key elements of discourse analysis (critical or not) is the relationship between form (the hard structures of the linguistic system, i.e., the words, nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.) and the function (the soft structures; i.e., the communicative purpose or, as Gee [ 2004 , 2005 ] phrases it, the “meaning potential”) (Rogers, 2004 ). Gee’s ( 1994 ) premise is that literacy in and of itself does not lead to any higher level cognitive skill, but that literacy acquisition is a form of socialization into a mainstream way of taking meanings, of making sense of experiences, and that, as students participate in different literacy practices, they begin to partake of this set of values and norms, of this worldview.

Given that higher education institutions are expected to produce students who are computer proficient and have 21st-century skills, the importance of having a positive attitude toward computers and high computer self-efficacy is critical to students learning (Kilfoil, 2015 ; Schlebusch, 2017 ). It is therefore not surprising that students are so positive about ICTs and their role in education. How can they not be? In Brown’s ( 2011 ) research students were positive about the global opportunities ICTs enable, the value of ICTs for learning, the access to information offered, and the efficiencies ICTs offered them in life. However, by excavating beneath the surface of the Discourse and endeavoring to uncover hidden meanings, it became clear that “discursive mechanisms” limited what could be said, in what forms, and what was counted as worth knowing or remembering (Mills, 2004 ). Using this concept of hidden meanings, one can see how hard it is for students to say anything negative about computers and technology. Their overwhelmingly positive attitudes are not necessarily a true reflection of what they think. It is a consequence of operating in a larger context where negativity with regard to ICTs is perceived to be associated with ignorance which is then associated with backwardness (Brown, 2011 ).

CDA has been noted by Ainsworth and Hardy ( 2004 , p. 225) as being “regularly used to study identity.” For Gee ( 1996 ), capital “D” Discourses are a sort of identity kit. They are the combination of what people say, do, think, feel, and value. Each community or social group masters a home-based discourse that integrates words, actions, values, feelings, attitudes, and thinking in specific and distinctive ways. Each of these discourses is connected to a particular social group’s way of being in the world, its “form of life,” its very identity it regards itself as having (Gee, 1996 ). Discourses are acquired through enculturation into a social practice and they cannot be taught (Gee, 1996 ).

Each discourse incorporates a usually taken-for-granted and tacit theory of what counts as a normal person and the right way to think, feel, and behave. These theories crucially involve viewpoints on the distribution of social goods, like status and worth, and material goods in society (who should and should not have them). They are defined not just by what they are, but also by what they are not (i.e., often in relation to an opposing discourse).

Discourse theories are related to the distribution of social power and hierarchical structure in society and empower the groups who have the least conflict between their discourses. Sometimes people’s discourses can be conflicting. For example a discourse can be at odds with a person’s other social practices. Gee ( 2005 ) also notes that it is a great advantage when secondary discourses are compatible in words, deeds, and values with one’s primary discourse.

However, identity construction is more than the sum of an individual’s social experiences. There is an inherent tension between group affiliation and individual agency. Membership of an identity group does not determine behavior but, as Foucault notes ( 1994 ), there is an ease with which people readily accept the social groupings imposed.

Students do not just talk about technology, but also about how technology makes them feel, what values it holds for them, and what role they see for technology in their lives. These collections of ideas are a representation of an identity, in that it shows how students understand their relationship to the digital world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how they understand their possibilities for the future (Norton, 2000 ). As Foucault ( 1994 ) notes, membership of an identity group does not determine one’s behavior, but there is an ease with which people readily accept the social groupings imposed on them. Many students do not exercise individual agency and move with the mainstream Discourse, feeling like outsiders, marginalized, excluded, lost, and powerless. Thus, technological identity has a role in both facilitating and constraining students’ participation and future opportunities (Brown, 2011 ).

Blommaert ( 2005 ) notes that context is a crucial methodological and theoretical issue within CDA as it comes in various shapes and sizes, and operates at different levels from very small to very big. Context is potentially everything and potentially infinite, but it can be to some extent predictable.

Another important aspect of context is Foucault’s ( 1969 ) rooting of discourse as a historical product, Gee ( 2008 , p. 162) notes that, in this regard, it is sometimes helpful to say that “it is not individuals who speak and act but rather that historically and socially defined Discourses speak to each other through individuals. The individual instantiates, gives body to a Discourse every time he or she acts or speaks, and thus carries it and ultimately changes it through time.”

In other words, discourses are systematically organized sets of statements that give expression to the meanings and values of an institution. Beyond that, they define, describe, and delimit what it is possible to say and what it is not possible to say (and by extension, what to do, and what not to do) with respect to the area of concern of that institution, whether marginally or centrally (Pennycook, 2001 ).

In resource constrained contexts there exists an economic and moral dilemma with regard to using technology for learning and teaching as students come from diverse backgrounds, geographical locations, and material and technological capacities. In South African higher education this means that access to ICTs cannot be assumed (Broekman, Enslin, & Pendlebury, 2002 ; Brown & Pallitt, 2015 ; Czerniewicz & Brown, 2014 ). This dilemma is not unique to the context of developing countries. Even in contexts with high Internet penetration like New Zealand, disparities of digital access have also been observed as a consequence of socioeconomic background (Internet World Stats, 2016 ). This influences the number of digital devices in the home, the types of devices available, and whether the device(s) are shared or individually owned by students (Hartnett, 2017 ). The contextual reality is that we cannot ever assume equality, and we need to consciously choose not to disadvantage particular groups of students due to their socioeconomic or cultural contexts.

Theoretically, the concept of power is hotly contested. In a history of theoretical conceptions of power, Hindess ( 1996 ) describes three core views of power at the level of the individual. The first view of power is as a capacity to act, where people use power over things and people. In this view, there is an unequal relationship between those who use power for their own purposes and those who are subject to its effects; and power is used as an instrument of domination.

The second view of power is one where the subjugated are covertly excluded from decision-making structures and thus, while they might be exercising some voice, that voice is not heard.

The third view of power is where the subjugated are compliant in their powerlessness, failing to recognize that their interests are at risk or not making any attempts to defend these interests.

The view of power and identity as being open to change is crucial as it opens up opportunities or possibilities for interventions—a crucial aspect of critical research.

Norton ( 2000 , p. 7) comes up with a very useful succinct definition of power as the “socially constructed relations among individuals, institutions and communities through which symbolic and material resources in society are produced, distributed and validated” relations that are inevitably produced in language.

Having access and being seen to be computer or digitally literate is a big status symbol, and students perceive the opportunities afforded through digital technologies and use of ICTs as giving them higher status and more power. Interestingly, there is a contradiction though as students with empowerment also come with feelings of disempowerment. They feel they are operating in an environment with limited options and choices, hence limiting their sense of empowerment. Thus, students are encouraged to embrace technology but within its existing structures and processes, in other words, they seldom challenge it in the way described by Kvasny and Trauth ( 2002 , p. 276) as “commandeering IT to charts one’s own usage and career course.” However, there is some evidence of students who demonstrate agency and drive to achieve their goals, despite contextual challenges (Czerniewicz & Brown, 2014 ).

CDA as a theoretical and methodological approach enables researchers to systematically explore language (in whatever form it takes) and to move beyond understanding what people say to understanding meaning. This enables them to uncover hidden power dynamics, critique the status quo, and challenge dominant views. CDA places the unit of analysis at the level of the individual, and foregrounds social and cultural contexts by situating lived experiences in a landscape of culturally situated practices and by enabling a more nuanced understanding of peoples’ worlds. Research drawing on CDA to explore the intersection of ICTs and education has demonstrated its value as a lens for questioning assumptions, understanding the marginalized, and mapping contradictions between policy and practice. Yet there is still further potential to draw on this approach in educational studies in particular by exploring technological identities and practices. The type of technological identity a student holds creates both academic opportunity and obstacles for them. By understanding the act of being a student in social, economic, political, and educational terms and how students construct their technological identities and position themselves, they can benefit from better support. In their learning, viewing identities as a product of participation in communities (i.e., as contextually specific) can strengthen the investigation of how digital experiences influence individuals’ relationhships with technology.

This article has demonstrated that, although CDA has been dominated by analysis of formal texts like policy documents, there is a move to using and encouraging CDA in new emerging texts and discourses, particularly in resource constrained contexts. This is an underdeveloped opportunity for CDA to expand as a methodological approach to exploring the intersections of learning in a digital world.

• Adam, A. (2002). Exploring the gender question in critical information systems. Journal of Information Technology , 17 , 59–67.
• Ainsworth, S. , & Hardy, S. (2004). Critical discourse analysis and identity: Why bother? Critical Discourse Studies , 1 (2), 225–235.
• Avgerou, C. , & Madon, S. (2004). Framing is studies: Understanding the social context of is innovation. In C. Avgerou , C. Ciborra , & F. Land (Eds.), The social study of information and communication technology (pp. 162–182). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Billig, M. (2003). Critical discourse analysis and the rhetoric of critique. In G. Weiss & R. Wodak (Eds.), Critical discourse analysis: Theory and interdisciplinarity . New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Black, R. W. (2008). Adolescents and online fan fiction . New York, NY: Peter Lang.
• Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction . London, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
• Bozionelos, N. (2004). Socio-economic background and computer use: The role of computers anxiety and computer experience in their relationship. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies , 61 , 724–746.
• Brock, A. (2018). Critical technocultural discourse analysis. New Media & Society , 20 (3), 1012–1030.
• Broekman, I. , Enslin, P. , & Pendlebury, S. (2002). Distributive justice and Information Communication Technologies in higher education in South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education , 16 (1), 29–35.
• Brown, B. A. , Reveles, J. M. , & Kelly, G. (2005). Scientific literacy and discursive identity: A theoretical framework for understanding science learning. Science Education , 89 (5), 779–802.
• Brown, C. (2011). Excavating the meaning of information and communication technology use amongst South African university students: A critical discourse analysis (Doctoral thesis). University of Cape Town, South Africa.
• Brown, C. (2012). University students as digital migrants. Language and Literacy , 14 (2), 41–61.
• Brown, C. , & Hart, M. (2012). Exploring higher education students’ technological identities using critical discourse analysis. In P. Isaias & M. B. Nunes (Eds.), Information systems research and exploring social artifacts: Approaches and methodologies . Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Brown, C. , & Pallitt, N. (2015). Personal mobile devices and laptops as learning tools. In W. R. Kilfoil (Ed.), Moving beyond the hype: A contextualised view of learning with technology in higher education . Pretoria: Universities South Africa.
• Budd, Y. ((2005, November 15–18). Technological discourses in education . Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference on Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory into Research. University of Tasmania, Australia.
• Byungara, J.-C. , Hansson, H. , Masengesho, K. , Karunaratne, T. (2016). ICT capacity building: A critical discourse analysis of Rwandan policies from higher education perspective. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning , 19 (2), 46–62.
• Chigona, A. , & Chigona, W. (2008). MXit up in the media: Media discourse analysis on a mobile instant messaging system. Southern Africa Journal of Information and Communication , 9 , 42–57.
• Chigona, W. , Mjali, P. , & Denzl, N. (2007, November 18–23). Role of ICT in national development: A critical discourse analysis of South Africa’s government statements . Paper presented at the QualIT’07 Qualitative research in IT, Wellington, New Zealand.
• Cukier, W. , Bauer, R. , & Middleton, C. (2004). Applying Habermas’ validity claims as a standard for critical discourse analysis. In B. Kaplan , D. P Truex , D. Wastell , A. T. Wood-Harper , & J. DeGross (Eds.), Information systems research: Relevant theory and informed practice (pp. 233–258). London, U.K.: Kluwer Academic.
• Cukier, W. , Ngwenyama, O. , Bauer, R. , & Middleton, C. (2009). A critical analysis of media discource on information technology: Preliminary results of a proposed method for critical discourse analysis. Information Systems Journal , 19 , 175–196.
• Cushman, M. , & McLean, R. (2008). Exclusion, inclusion and changing the face of information systems research. Information Technology & People , 21 (3), 213–221.
• Czerniewicz, L. , & Brown, C. (2014). The habitus and technological practices of rural students: A case study. South African Journal of Education , 34 (1), 1–14
• Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power (2nd ed.). London, U.K.: Longman.
• Fairclough, N. (2009). A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research. In R. Wodak & M. Myers (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd rev. ed., pp. 162–186). London, U.K.: SAGE.
• Foucault, M. (1969). The archaeology of knowledge ( A. M. Sheridan Smith , Trans.). London, U.K.: Routledge.
• Foucault, M. (1994). Truth and power. In J. Faubion (Ed.), Power (pp. 111–133). New York, NY: The New Press.
• Gee, J. (1994). Orality and literacy: From the savage mind to ways with words. In J. Maybin (Ed.), Language and literacy in social practice (pp. 168–192). Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters.
• Gee, J. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses . London, U.K.: Falmer.
• Gee, J. (2000). Identity as an analytical lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education , 25 (1), 99–125.
• Gee, J. (2004). What is critical about critical discourse analysis? In R. Rogers (Ed.), An introduction to critical discourse analysis (pp. 19–50). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Gee, J. (2005). An introduction to discourse analysis (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
• Gee, J. (2008). Social linguistics and literacies (2nd ed.). London, U.K.: Falmer.
• Giles, D. (2017). Discourse in the development of identities in an online teacher education programme . Memorias del Encuentro Internacional de Educación a Distancia , 5 (5).
• Hamston, J. (2006). Bakhtin’s theory of dialogue: A construct for pedagogy, methodology and analysis. Australian Education Researcher , 33 (1), 55–74.
• Hartnett, M. (2017). Differences in the digital home lives of young people in New Zealand. British Journal of Educational Technology , 48 (2), 642–652.
• Hindess, B. (1996). Discourses of power . Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.
• Howcroft, D. , & Trauth, E. (2004). The choice of critical information systems research. In B. Kaplan , D. P. Truex , D. Wastell , A. T. Wood-Harper , & J. DeGross (Eds.), Relevant theory and informed practice: Looking forward from a 20 year perspective on IS research (pp. 195–211). London, U.K.: Kluwer.
• Internet World Stats . (2016). Internet world stats: Usage and population statistics .
• Jørgenson, M. , & Phillips, M. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method . London, U.K.: SAGE.
• Kilfoil, W. R. (Ed.) (2015). Moving beyond the hype: A contextualised view of learning with technology in higher education . Pretoria: Universities South Africa.
• Kittleson, J. , & Southerland, S. (2004). The role of discourse in group knowledge construction: A case study of engineering students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching , 41 (3), 267–293.
• Koc, M. (2006). Cultural identity crisis in the age of globalisation and technology. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology , 5 (1), 37–43.
• Konayuma, G. (2012). A critical discourse analysis of e-learning policies in education and training in Zambia . Paper presented at the ODL 12, Pretoria, South Africa.
• Kvasny, L. (2006). Let the sisters speak: Understanding Information Technology from the standpoint of the “other.” Database for Advances in Information Systems , 37 (4), 13–25.
• Kvasny, L. , & Trauth, E. (2002). The digital divide at work and at home: Discourses about power and underrepresented groups in the Information Society. In E. Whitley , E. Wynn , & J. DeGross (Eds.), Global and organizational discourse about information technology (pp. 273–294). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic.
• Lee, K. , & Brett, C. (2014). A critical discourse analysis: Reconceptualising online distance learning through a Foucauldian lens . Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Networked Learning 2014.
• Lizie, A. , Stewart, C. , & Avila, G. (2004, July 24–30). Cultural dimensions of the digital divide: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Brockton’s Cape Verdeans . Communication and Technology Policy Division 2004 International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• Mills, S. (2004). Discourse: The new critical idiom . London, U.K.: Routledge.
• Myers, M. (2002). Between theory, method, and politics: Positioning of the approaches to CDA. In R. Wodak & M. Myers (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 14–31). London, U.K.: SAGE.
• Ndenge, K. (2013). Analysing Cameroon government’s ICT policy documents and trainee teachers’ perception of ICT in education policy implementation using critical discourse analysis . Paper presented at the Pan-Commonwealth Forum 7 (PCF7).
• Ng’ambi, D. (2008). A critical discourse analysis of students anonymous online postings. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education , 4 (3), 31–39.
• Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change . Harlow, U.K.: Pearson Education.
• Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Perveen, A. (2015). Critical discourse analysis of moderated discussion board of abstract virtual university of Pakistan . Open Praxis , 7 (3), 243–262.
• Rambe, P. (2012). Critical discourse analysis of collaborative engagement in Facebook postings. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology , 28 (2), 295–314.
• Rogers, R. (2004). An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Rogers, R. , Schaenen, I. , Schott, C. , O’Brien, K. , Trigos-Carrillo, L. , Starkey, K. , & Chasteen, C. (2016). Critical discourse analysis in education: A review of the literature, 2004 to 2012 . Review of Educational Research , 86 (4), 1192–1226.
• Roode, D. , Speight, H. , Pollock, M. , & Webber, R. (2004, June 14). Its not the digital divide—Its the socio-techno divide! Paper presented at the 12th European conference on Information Systems Turka.
• Sasseville, B. (2004). Integrating information and communication technology in the classroom: A comparative discourse analysis . Canadian Journal of Learning Technology , 30 (2).
• Schlebusch, C. L. (2017). Computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards the Internt at of first year students at a South African University of Technology. African Education Review , 15 (3), 72–90.
• Stahl, B. (2004, August). Whose discourse? A comparison of the Foucauldian and Habermasian concepts of discourse in critical is research . Paper presented at the Proceedings of the tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York.
• Stahl, B. (2008). Empowerment through ICT: A critical discourse analysis of the Egyptian ICT policy. In C. Avgerou , M. L. Smith , & P. van der Besselaar (Eds.), Social dimensions Of information and communication technology policy. IFIP International Federation for Information Processing (vol. 282, pp. 161–177). Boston, MA: Springer.
• Stahl, B. (2009). Critical research and ethics. In C. Brooke (Ed.), Critical research in information systems (pp. 25–40). Oxford, U.K.: Elsevier.
• Thompson, M. (2004). ICT, power, and developmental discourse: A critical view. Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries , 20 (4), 1–25.
• Trauth, E. , & Howcroft, D. (2006). Social inclusion and the information systems field: Why now? In E. Trauth , D. Howcroft , T. Butler , B. Fitzgerald , & J. D. Gross (Eds.), Social inclusion: Societal and organisational implications for information systems (pp. 347–364). Boston, MA: Springer.
• van Dijk, T. (1993). Editor’s foreword. Discourse and Society , 4 , 131–142.
• van Dijk, T. (1997). Discourses as structure and process . London, U.K.: SAGE.
• van Dijk, T. (2001). Multidisciplinary CDA: A plea for diversity. In R. Wodak & M. Myers (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis . London, U.K.: SAGE.
• Wagid, Z. , & Wagid, F. (2016). Examining digital technology for (higher) education through action research and critical discourse analysis. South African Journal of Higher Education , 30 (1), 265–284.
• Weiss, G. , & Wodak, R. (2003). Introduction: Theory, interdisciplinarity and critical discourse analysis. In G. Weiss & R. Wodak (Eds.), Critical discourse analysis: Theory and interdisciplinarity (pp. 1–34). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wodak, R. (1989). Language, power, and ideology: Studies in political discourse Amsterdam, The Netherlands: J. Benjamins.
• Wodak, R. , & Myers, M. (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis . London, U.K.: SAGE.
• Zheng, Y. , & Walsham, G. (2008). Inequality of what? Social exclusion in the e-society as capability deprivation. Information Technology & People , 21 (3), 222–243.

Related Articles

• Critical Perspectives on Evaluative Research on Educational Technology Policies in Latin America

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Education. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 18 April 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [66.249.64.20|185.66.14.133]
• 185.66.14.133

Character limit 500 /500

Globalisation and Dominant Models of Motivation Theories in Education pp 99–109 Cite as

The Use of Discourse Analysis in Understanding Motivation

• Joseph Zajda   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4422-9782 38  
• First Online: 19 November 2023

130 Accesses

Part of the book series: Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research ((GCEP,volume 39))

This chapter analyses the use of discourse analysis in understanding major theories of motivation in educational settings. Motivational theories communicate power, values, discipline and control in the classroom. Foucault used the role of discourses in wider social processes of legitimating power and emphasizing the construction of current truths. The chapter argues that discourse analysis, as employed by Foucault, and others, concentrated on analysing power relationships in society, as expressed through language and social practices. It is argued that the relevance and effectiveness of the use of discourse analysis in understanding major theories of motivation in the classroom is dependent on students’ identities, their characteristics, self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy, social and cultural diversity, engagement, and motivational strategies, school’s location, and the quality of teachers. Major variables impacting on the quality of the individuals learning process include cognitive, social and cultural dimensions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Durable hardcover edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Joseph Zajda

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joseph Zajda .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Zajda, J. (2023). The Use of Discourse Analysis in Understanding Motivation. In: Globalisation and Dominant Models of Motivation Theories in Education. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, vol 39. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42895-1_7

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42895-1_7

Published : 19 November 2023

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-42894-4

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-42895-1

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• Bibliography
• More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Automated transliteration
• Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Referencing guides

Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Analysis of Discourses'

Create a spot-on reference in apa, mla, chicago, harvard, and other styles.

Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Analysis of Discourses.'

Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.

You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.

Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.

Brodscholl, Per Christian. "Negotiating sustainability in the media: critical perspectives on the popularisation of environmental concerns." Curtin University of Technology, Faculty of Media, Society and Culture, 2003. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=13600.

McLean, Stacy Avril. "Negotiating identity in multilingual parliamentary discourses in the Western Cape: a discourse analysis." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/4282.

Roscoe, Karen D. "Social work discourses : an exploratory study." Thesis, University of Chester, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10034/613313.

Potgieter, Stephan Andries. "Exploring rock climbing discourses." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2006. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-09302008-125706.

Considine, Lynda Jayne. "Discourses of the River Murray : a Foucauldian analysis /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arc7558.pdf.

Tong, Chee Yee Jennifer. "Separate discourses : a study of performance and analysis." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.259687.

Samu, Tanya Lee-Anne Maleina. "Pasifika Education: Discourses of Difference within Aotearoa New Zealand." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Educational Studies and Leadership, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/8731.

Davies, Alison. "Conceptions of 'talent' in official and student discourses within a music conservatoire : a critical discourse analysis." Thesis, Birmingham City University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.272089.

Levett, Ann. "Psychological trauma : discourses of childhood sexual abuse." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17128.

Bilgin, Elif. "An Analysis Of Turkish Modernity Through Discourses Of Masculinities." Phd thesis, METU, 2004. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12605575/index.pdf.

Bishop, Jared M. "The vocal minority an analysis of mediated protest discourses /." Online access for everyone, 2008. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Summer2008/J_Bishop_072108.pdf.

Bibbings, Harriet Joan Frances. "Children's restricted eating : analysis of parental and mealtime discourses." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/19663/.

Maloney, Kelly. "Analysis of Gender Discourses in Neo-Charismatic Leadership Theories." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin153546415895209.

Kim, Kyung Hye. "Mediating American and South Korean news discourses about North Korea through translation : a corpus-based critical discourse analysis." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/mediating-american-and-south-korean-news-discourses-about-north-korea-through-translation-a-corpusbased-critical-discourse-analysis(a85fbda5-ca2f-44bd-a882-afb6d9d9f34f).html.

Nowak, Keren. "Discourses in adult-adolescent communication in therapy." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/discourses-in-adultadolescent-communication-in-therapy(a996e9d4-a1df-4e80-bdad-517188abe380).html.

Maier, Florentine, and Michael Meyer. "Managerialism and beyond: Discourses of civil society organization and their governance implications." Springer Science & Business Media, 2011. http://epub.wu.ac.at/3275/2/Managerialism_and_beyond_epub.pdf.

Vidali, Amy. ""Disabling" discourses : disability identity in institutional texts /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9518.

Greenwood, Gay. "The spaces within : a Foucaudian analysis of organ donation discourses /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phg81652.pdf.

Haider, Jutta. "Conceptions of 'Information Poverty' in LIS: An Analysis of Discourses." Tallinn University, Estonia; Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/105285.

Hoel, Nina. "Contemporary discourses on Muslim women and veiling : a critical analysis." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8047.

Frissa, Merertu Mogga. "Reproduction of Power: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Female Circumcision." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/19962.

Rios, Guilherme Veiga. "Literacy discourses in two socio-economically differentiated neighbourhoods in Brazil : a study in situated literacies and critical discourse analysis." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.414921.

King, Lance E. "Competing discourses in science education policy a discourse analysis of the tensions surrounding biological evolution in Florida's science standards /." Tallahassee, Florida : Florida State University, 2009. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05052009-121505/.

Humphreys, Deborah Maria. "Discourses of educational leadership the under-explained influence of context." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2016. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/4421/.

McElvein, Elizabeth. "Discourses of Domination: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Development in Haiti." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/427.

Yoong, Melissa. "An analysis of professional discourses and gendered identities in Malaysian media." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52275/.

Middup, Judy. "Discourses of racial prejudice : an analysis of discussions on open schooling." Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21343.

Smiley, John-Paul. "Exploring policy discourses in the UK construction sector : an interpretive analysis." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2016. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/22913.

Lemire, Diane M. "The body in Western and Chinese medicine : discourses and practices." Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33297.

Munksgaard, Daniel Carl. "Warblog without end: online anti-Islamic discourses as persuadables." Diss., University of Iowa, 2010. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/715.

Scott, Charlotte. "Stakeholder Engagement and Conflicting Discourses in Urban Policy in the Two Rivers Urban Park, Cape Town: An Argumentative Discourse Analysis." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29481.

Widell, Karin, and Tornblad Hanna. ""Education is the key of life" : A Minor Field Study about the discourses of parental involvement in two Tanzanian primary schools." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för hälsa och lärande, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-8777.

Feldes, Klara Katharina. "Media Discourses on the Interlinking of Rivers in India." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/20334.

Asik, Mehmet Ozan. "A Sociological Analysis Of Religious Educational Institutions, Policies And Discourses In Egypt." Master's thesis, METU, 2007. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12608122/index.pdf.

Quilter, Julia 1970. "Re-inventing rape : an analysis of legal, medical, feminist and governmental discourses." Monash University, Dept. of Literary, Visual and Cultural Studies, 1999. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8572.

Flanagan, Eugene Patrick. "Capital punishment discourses and the U.K public sphere : a critical realist analysis." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.558086.

Martin, Clayton Vance. "The Magnificent Seven: a Narrative Analysis of Suppressed Discourses in Psychiatric Diagnoses." W&M ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1550153771.

Schryer, Stephen E. "Discourses of delinquency : language and power in a Canadian juvenile court /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0007/MQ42200.pdf.

Fernández, C. M. Beatriz. "Framing Teacher Education in Chile: Negotiating Local, National, and International Discourses." Thesis, Boston College, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:106806.

Castineira, Benítez Teresa Aurora. "Exploring political, institutional and professional discourses in Mexico a critical, multimodal approach /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/70422.

Lamond, Catherine. "Young people leaving care : plans, challenges and discourses." Thesis, University of Wolverhampton, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2436/621224.

Wagg, Catherine Anne, and cathy wagg@rmit edu au. "Finding meaning: differentiating the multiple discourses of the Potter farmland plan." RMIT University. Global Studies, Social Science and Planning, 2009. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20091112.121423.

Olofsson, Frida. "Discourses of Sami rights in the public debate of Sweden." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22165.

Irving, Hannah. "Dancing with Difference: An Auto/ethnographic Analysis of Dominant Discourses in Integrated Dance." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/19725.

DeShong, Halimah. "Gendered negotiations : interrogating discourses of intimate partner violence (IPV)." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2010. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/gendered-negotiations-interrogating-discourses-of-intimate-partner-violence-ipv(eb60fd69-73db-4fb5-a434-fc67dd62cc65).html.

Spiering, Jenna. "Discourses of adolescence in interpretations and responses to literature." Diss., University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6293.

Hansjee, Jateen. "Abortion as disruption: discourses surrounding abortion in the talk of men." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002493.

von, Brömssen Kerstin. "2083 – A European Declaration of Independence - An Analysis of Discourses from the Extreme." Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för samhälls- och kulturvetenskap, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-27400.

Naude, Jonelle. "Reconstructing paedophilia: an analysis of current discourses and the construct of close relationships." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3048.

Allan, Julie. "Pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools : a Foucauldian analysis of discourses." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2190.

Search NYU Steinhardt

2024 faculty first-look scholars.

Symone A. McCollum (she/her/hers) is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Higher Education Administration Program at Texas A&M University. Before joining Texas A&M University, Symone received her Bachelor of Science in Education and Public Policy and a Master of Education in Higher Education from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include the educational trajectories of Black women in higher education, policies and practices that impact Black women's educational trajectories, and Black women's use of social media/technology. Symone also maintains a broader research interest in graduate student retention and support at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities.

Symone’s dissertation research will examine how Black women doctoral students at historically white institution use digital communities while navigating their graduate programs. Through a digital Black feminism theoretical lens and endarkened storywork methodology, she will investigate the extent to which digital communities serve as counterspaces for Black women doctoral students, helping them persist and reach their academic and professional aspirations.

Kavitha Murthi is pursuing her doctoral studies in the Department of Occupational Therapy at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She is collaborating with Counselor to the President, Dr. Kristie Patten, on a National Science Foundation (NSF) project titled “Developing Abilities and Knowledge for Careers in Design and Engineering for Students on the Autism Spectrum by Scaling Up Making Experiences.” Her research aims to investigate how interest-driven and strength-based engineering activities impact the learning and social development of autistic students. Kavitha is particularly interested in understanding how autistic adolescents interested in engineering and design engage in maker clubs to problem-solve independently using the Engineering Design Process (EDP). She is also dedicated to amplifying authentic autistic voices in her research by including her participants in the research process using a research process called Photovoice. Kavitha collaborated with her participants in different stages of the research process, namely developing socially valid research questions, data collection, and data analysis. She has also authored several peer-reviewed journal articles; most notably, she co-authored practice guidelines for occupational therapy practitioners working with autistic individuals. She also has presented at several national and international conferences.

Before beginning her doctoral studies at NYU, Kavitha obtained her post-professional graduate degree in Occupational Therapy from the United Kingdom and completed her undergraduate studies in Occupational Therapy at the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences in India. In the United Kingdom, she was inducted as a Fellow by the Higher Education Academy for her deep commitment to developing a culturally sensitive course for undergraduate occupational therapy students. She has extensive experience as a registered clinical pediatric occupational therapist in Mumbai and Edinburgh.

Kavitha has been invited to be a guest lecturer at NYU, Queen Margaret University (UK), and internationally. She is also invited to guest in several podcasts in her profession, like the OT Potential, Everyday Evidence by AOTA, and the OT Lifestyle movement. She also was interviewed to be a part of a documentary called ‘Finding Me in OT.’ The American Occupational Therapy Association has also invited her to be a reviewer on panels of award committees.

Additionally, she has contributed to various research projects, notably the Global Co-operation on Assistive Technology with the World Health Organization, for which she was nominated by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists in 2019. Kavitha is passionate about serving her professional community and has been invited as a project implementation manager in critical projects like the Occupational Therapy Narrative Database as an advisor to the American Occupational Therapy Association Evidence-Based Practice and Knowledge Translation group.  

According to CDC reports, 1 in 36 children in the United States are diagnosed with autism (CDC Reports, 2023), and estimates indicate that approximately 200,000 autistic students will enter universities and the workforce in the next decade (Lubin & Brooks, 2021). Consequently, inclusive education programs are gaining increased attention to prepare the educational and vocational systems to carefully integrate these students (Bakker et al., 2019). Nevertheless, many such programs still focus on remediating these students’ deficits in communication, problem-solving, sensory needs, and behavioral differences using interventions that aim to normalize them to non-autistic levels (Kornblau & Robertson, 2020; Patten-Koenig, 2020). Challenges arise when differences in executive functioning and problem-solving mimic social and behavioral challenges and are unnoticed or unmet (Cramm et al., 2013). 

Potent educational services that authentically include autistic students’ cognitive, sensory, and social differences are imperative to challenge conventionally dominant and ableist practices. To develop interventions that identify and develop these skills, the need to include autistic voices in educational research is imperative (Keating, 2021). Hence, this dissertation is developed to champion the voices of autistic middle schoolers who engage in independent problem-solving in informal educational contexts. This dissertation will attempt to shift the power dynamics toward the participants through authentic collaboration and include their perspectives at all stages in the decision-making process. By highlighting their strategies for independent problem-solving, this study will act as a starting point to develop educational interventions that value individual interests and build independent problem-solving to foster self-determination in these adolescents (Chapman, 2021).  Her dissertation will use the identity-first language "autistic individuals.” This non-ableist language describes their strengths and abilities and is a conscious decision. This language is favored by autistic communities and self-advocates and has been adopted by healthcare professionals and researchers (Bottema-Beutel et al., 2020; Kenny et al., 2016).

Iman Lathan is a former Division I women’s basketball player and a Southern California native. Currently, she is a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Culture, Policy, and Society within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research revolves around exploring the commodification of Black women’s bodies, neoliberalism, NCAA, sports, and the Diaspora.

This qualitative case study aims to elucidate the internal mechanisms shaping the Division-I educational pathway and its role as a secondary diasporic conduit for Black female Division I basketball student-athletes. In so doing, I aim to unravel how the neoliberal intercollegiate sports model engages, exploits, and disposes individuals descended from the African Diaspora to sustain its operations. The research delves into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a neoliberal structure, akin to a secondary diasporic vessel, directing Black female student-athletes—descendants of the Black Atlantic Diaspora—to predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Employing Black feminist thought (BFT) and a queer diasporic lens, this study seeks to comprehend how Black female ball players, coaches, and parents perceive their roles, positions, and experiences within the confines of the NCAA's neoliberal structures.

Moreover, BFT and a queer and diasporic framework inform the research design and data interpretation of this study as this project seeks to contribute to a nuanced understanding of how the NCAA's systems and capitalist structures perceive, treat, and utilize Black female athletes. The scarcity of work on the intersection of femininity, Blackness, and sport within the realm of a male-dominated sport like basketball necessitates a fresh perspective. The application of a queer diasporic lens becomes paramount in unveiling aspects concealed within dominant epistemologies.

Sharon Lai-LaGrotteria is an international scholar from Hong Kong and Singapore. She began her academic journey at the University of Hong Kong as a Jockey Club Scholar, earning her Bachelor’s in English with First Class Honors and Master’s in Education with Distinction, then continued to complete her Graduate Degree in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Montclair State University as a Doctoral Fellow, Sharon served as an adjunct professor at the Jack Welch School of Business at Sacred Heart University, while concurrently holding writing seminars for first-year immigrant students at Monroe College in New York. An educator at heart, Sharon has taught at a wide range of schools, from preschool to higher education, both private and public, spanning from Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, to Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. She also served as the Chief Education Director of Young Writers, a learning cooperative center established in 1997 with the mission of serving English learners in Southeast Asia. As a first-gen college graduate with humble upbringing, Sharon is a huge advocate for Asian and Asian American communities. She is a volunteer teacher at the Chinese Community Center, where she teaches Cantonese to heritage speakers and organizes community events for Chinese families across New Jersey.   

During the early stage of her research career, Sharon focused heavily on inclusive education, English language education, and culturally relevant pedagogy, where she conducted qualitative studies on the implementation of inclusive education in kindergartens, language teacher identity, and the use of drama as an example of culturally relevant pedagogy for English learners. Her work was published in various journals, including Action in Teacher Education, Journal of Religion and Health, and Journal of Loss and Trauma. She has presented at local and international conferences, including the AERA Annual Meetings over the last three years, and Redesigning Pedagogy Conference at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. As she continues to witness the troubling escalation of deadly violence against Asian communities across the country, Sharon’s research interests became more centered on policy perspectives and curriculum implementation concerning Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).  Sharon’s dissertation research grew out of her experiences witnessing the troubling escalation of deadly violence against AAPI individuals in New York City during the pandemic. In pursuing meaningful ways of creating change for AAPI students in US schools, she extensively reviewed literature on AAPI history, spoke with district and school administrators, and collaborated with various advocacy groups to gather in-depth ethnographic data regarding the implementation of AAPI-inclusive curriculum across New Jersey. Given different state policies pertaining to the teaching of AAPI history across many parts of the States, this study will provide timely and novel insights related to how teachers enact this curriculum in K-12 classrooms. Engaging quantitative and qualitative methods, this study aims to explore broader trends across the state through the use of a teacher survey and case studies of individual teachers’ implementation. Beyond documenting the need for culturally responsive approaches, this study hopes to offer insights into the constraints and possibilities different stakeholders (teachers, school administrators, and policymakers) encounter when enacting curricular changes and implementing state mandates. 

Kia Turner is pursuing a PhD in race, inequality, and language in education at Stanford Graduate School of Education. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in history and literature in 2016 and from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2017. She is also pursuing her JD at Yale Law School. Kia taught middle school English in Harlem for five years, where she instituted a culturally relevant "Tools for Liberation" advisory curriculum. Kia is a recipient of the National Council of English Teacher's Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award, Teaching Tolerance's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. She is currently a Knight Hennessy Fellow, a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow, and a Stanford Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Fellow.

Kia’s research seeks to understand how we might operationalize abolitionist theory and Black creative practices in educational and legal research and practice to (re)imagine speculative and liberatory educational and criminal legal systems. Kia works directly with youth, community organizers, movement lawyers, and teachers to build research-practice communities founded on long-term relationality. She specifically aims to uplift Black and other minoritized youth as scholars by co-authoring with the community members she works with. Her work pulls methodologically from different disciplines, as she uses archival, participatory, poetic, and more traditional social scientific methods to syncretically make knowledge outside of epistemic domination. 

Kia’s dissertation focuses on the long durée of artistic creation in abolitionist practice and theory. It does so through a historically grounded research intervention, inviting Black youth to use Black poetics and abolitionist theory to artistically reimagine legal decisions that have perpetuated carceral practices in and beyond educational systems. Ultimately, her dissertation aims to 1) deepen our understanding of the ancestral and contemporary role of the arts in abolitionist practice, 2) position Black youth as legal knowledge creators, and 3) introduce a framework for the dovetailing of artistic, participatory, and social science methods in studies that aim to build abolitionist futures.

Briana A. Savage is currently a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program at the University of California, Riverside. She serves as a Research Associate at the UCR Center for Athletes' Rights and Equity (CARE), as well as a Project MALES graduate scholar.  Briana received her M.Ed. from the USC Rossier School of Education, and her B.A. in Political Science with a double minor in Education and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

As a former college athletics practitioner, she combines theory with practice and is involved in multiple projects centered on Black college athlete experiences on higher education campuses. Briana focuses on exposing how racism, sexism, and antiblackness are present within higher education and NCAA policies and practices in order to create equitable environments for diverse student athlete populations. Her dissertation research, tentatively titled “Imagining Life After Sport: Black Women College Athletes’ Postgraduate Career Transitions”, will use antiblackness and intersectionality theory to examine how racialized and gendered experiences of D-I Black women college athletes, during their undergraduate years, influence their postgraduate career transitions.  Outside of her dissertation, she is involved in a co-authored, multi-paper project focused on Black Student Athlete Organizations on PWI campuses serving as counterspaces and places of healing for Black college athletes. Additionally, as a Research Associate for UCR CARE, Briana is involved in projects centered on Black athlete development and experiences during college (e.g. sources of support, engagement activities, and mentorship). Her most recent co-authored publication highlights the lack of career preparation beyond sports, hyperfocus on eligibility requirements over academics, and the microaggressions and racism evident within college athletics departments across the D-I level, specific to Black athletes. 

Maricela is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants who valued education but were only able to obtain third-grade level educations. Maricela’s mother was her first teacher, she taught her to read and write in Spanish when she was four and her father often encouraged her and her siblings to pursue higher education so that they could have better paid and less arduous jobs. Maricela Bañuelos received her Sociology B.A. from the University of California, (UC) Santa Barbara in 2016, and graduated with Summa Cum Laude, highest honors. When Maricela started college, she took sociology of education and sociology of inequality courses that allowed her to understand the inequities she observed in educational institutions and how structural oppression limited the opportunities of the communities she comes from. This led her to pursue roles where she could support the higher education pathways of underrepresented students of color. For example, she served as an officer for La Escuelita [The Little School], a non-profit that supported the higher education pathways of low-income students of color by providing college scholarships, organizing a Student-Parent Conference at UC Santa Barbara, and offering free tutoring for students in K-12. She also worked for the Educational Opportunity Program, where she served as the Chicanx Latinx Resource Center mentor and created and facilitated programming to support the experiences of first-generation and low-income students of color. After graduating, she worked for City Year Los Angeles, and worked in an after-school program at a high school serving predominantly low-income Latinx students. She received her master’s in Educational Policy and Social Context from UC Irvine in 2020 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology at UC Irvine with an emphasis in Chicano Latino studies. Maricela was awarded the Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, to support her doctoral research on issues of access and persistence in higher education. She is particularly interested in the educational pathways and social mobility of first-generation college students, low-income students, and underrepresented students of color.

Maricela’s research examines the role of race, class, gender, and intersectionality in shaping educational and occupational experiences. Maricela recently published a co-authored article titled “Gendered Deference: Perceptions of Authority and Competence Among Latina/o Physicians in Medical Institutions” in the top ranked journal Gender & Society. Our study found that gendered demonstrations of deference manifested through 1) gendered cultural taxation; 2) microaggressions from women nurses and staff and; 3) the questioning of authority and competence. These findings highlight the importance of gendered deference in transforming medical schools and medical workplaces into more inclusive environments. Through this project, her research interests have extended into examining the role of peoples’ social location in shaping not only their educational trajectories but also shaping their occupational experiences. 

Maricela’s research has also focused on the doctoral pipeline and improving accessibility and retention of underrepresented students. One of her studies focuses on understanding the forms of support and barriers first-generation Latine college students experience on their pathways towards enrolling in doctoral programs. She conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with first-generation Latine students who successfully enrolled in doctoral programs in California. She co-authored a paper examining professors’ influence in first-generation Latine college students’ pathways into doctoral programs, which has now been published in the journal of Race Ethnicity and Education. 

Her dissertation builds on this research by employing a longitudinal qualitative methodology spanning across three years (2021- 2024), that interrogates the experiences of 45 Latine participants who either 1) applied and enrolled into Ph.D. programs or 2) applied and but did not enroll in a Ph.D. program. In one chapter, she compares the social capital of Latines who got accepted into Ph.D. programs to that of Latines who did not get admitted or declined admission and the impact that COVID-19 had on their doctoral application processes. In another chapter, she examines how resources and social support affect whether Latines decide to reapply to Ph.D. programs, and how Latines navigate the doctoral reapplication processes. In a third chapter, she interrogates how information and networks at the time of application affect students’ acclimation and satisfaction in their Ph.D. program in the first two years and seeks to understand the long-term impact of applying and enrolling in Ph.D. programs after the onset of COVID-19. While sociologist broadly understand the inequitable processes that shape Latine Ph.D. trajectories, her dissertation will meaningfully contribute to the field by examining these processes longitudinally across multiple junctures, underscoring the impact of COVID-19, and including Latine with stifled and nonlinear Ph.D. pathways, whose experiences are important to fully understanding the seals and leaks in the Latine Ph.D. pipeline.

Karen Villegas is a doctoral candidate in the Berkeley School of Education at UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in Political Science from UCLA. Karen’s overarching work explores issues of language, citizenship, and nation-building processes.

Karen’s dissertation is a study of the ideological conceptions of language and literacy practices in adult, English as a Second Language (ESL) citizenship classes. Adults enroll in these classes to prepare for the naturalization process; a means of acquiring U.S. citizenship available to lawful permanent residents after meeting extensive federal requirements. Using a range of methods, including interviews, participant observation, and archival research, Karen’s work shows how these learning spaces do not foster a sense of political incorporation or belonging, and instead position U.S. immigrants to identify as workers rather than citizens who can influence their world. Although Karen’s dissertation identified ESL citizenship classes as indoctrinating spaces, their future work will examine the political possibilities of such spaces. While thinking beyond liberal notions of justice. Karen plans to observe, possibly even design, a community-based, Spanish-speaking ESL citizenship classroom, centering a pedagogical approach that explicitly privileges concientización by fostering critical consciousness among learners toward counter-hegemonic understandings of belonging, learning, and citizenship.

Khrysta A. Evans is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Educational Policy Studies program with a Social Sciences concentration and a minor in Gender and Women's Studies. She is born and raised in the Bronx, NY and earned her BA in sociology from the University of Maryland, and her MA in educational studies from the University of Michigan. Before coming back to the academy for her Ph.D., Khrysta spent several years working in student support roles in schools and non-profit organizations. As a scholar, Khrysta is excited to learn about Black girls’ knowledge production and placemaking within schools. Situated in sociology of education, Black studies, gender and women’s studies, and cultural geography, Khrysta's teaching, research, and mentoring are all concerned with how race, ethnicity, gender, and place shape students’ educational experiences, with specific attention to how Black girls develop and employ spatial strategies and social networks to navigate their schools.

Using Black feminist geographies to animate her scholarship, Khrysta’s research (1) attends to the influence of ethnicity in Black girls racialized and gendered socialization within schools; (2) interrogates the role of peer groups in Black girls’ schooling; and (3) explores how the relationship between Black girls’ spatial strategies and their schools’ organizational routines differs across organizational contexts. In her current study, a 10-month multi-site ethnography at two New York City public high schools, she centers the experiences of Black West Indian girls. Khrysta uses social network analysis, walking interviews, and education journey mapping to understand how Black girls negotiate their own understanding of their schools and peer networks. Complemented by document analysis and interviews with school staff, this research seeks to understand the policies and actors shaping these girls’ school landscape. Her study positions Black girls’ articulations of their lived experiences as critical insight for education stakeholders seeking to improve the inequitable racialized and gendered school experiences of marginalized youth.

Stephanie Bent is a Ph.D. candidate in the Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy program with a concentration in Student Affairs at the University of Maryland. At the University of Maryland, she is also a student in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies graduate certificate program. She holds a Master of Education in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College-Columbia University, a Master of Science in Higher Education-Student Affairs from Florida State University, and an Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics for Georgia Tech. From her experience working in residence life, living-learning communities, and academic advising at various institutions, Stephanie understands the challenges student affairs practitioners face in using theory in their practice. Stephanie sees her practitioner experience as an asset for producing scholarship which student affairs practitioners can use for translating theory to practice.  Stephanie migrated from Jamaica to the United States during high school. She proudly embraces her Jamaican culture in all aspects of her life. She attributes her love for education to one of the proverbs she recited in school in Jamaica: “Silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.” Stephanie uses research to quench her curiosity for learning and hopes her teaching inspires students to be curious learners.  During her time at Teachers College, Stephanie learned about the power of the Caribbean-American identity in Brooklyn, NY. Stephanie identifies as Caribbean American and advocates for alliances among Caribbean people. She is committed to using her research and teaching to advance liberation for Caribbean peoples. Stephanie received a Fulbright student award to complete her dissertation fieldwork in Barbados, where she is exploring how to teach youth (18-25 year old) about decolonization.  Stephanie is an avid track and field fan. During the Olympics and the World Athletics Championships, you will find her watching a phone or tv screen cheering for a Jamaican or a Caribbean athlete. Stephanie finds inspiration in the lives of the Jamaican Women track athletes, especially Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce. Stephanie enjoys spending time with her nieces, who boldly hold Stephanie accountable for resting by inviting her to virtually join the play activity of the day.

Stephanie Bent's research focuses on decolonizing higher education and teaching about decolonization in the Caribbean and among the Caribbean diaspora in the United States. She draws on theories and methods from Caribbean Studies, U.S. Black Feminism, and digital humanities to identify practical ways to decolonize research methods. As a decolonization scholar, she also disrupts the colonial flow of knowledge from the Global North to the Global South by positioning the Caribbean as a source of knowledge in her push against how U.S. higher education and student affairs enacts coloniality. 

Stephanie explores how Caribbean youth and higher education students understand and enact decolonization. Her dissertation research is about how Barbadian youth aged 18-25 years understand decolonization. The Barbados government provides public education about decolonization through policy and programming, and Stephanie's research will provide insight into how youth respond to public discourse about decolonization. As research about Caribbean students' critical consciousness is limited, her dissertation research will undoubtedly raise questions for future research about how to engage college students in decolonizing the Caribbean. 

Stephanie also explores how Caribbean-American students develop a positive view of their ethnic identity. With limited research on the ethnic differences among Black students, Caribbean-American students' experiences are rendered invisible. When Black Caribbean college students in the United States want to explore their history and culture, student affairs theories direct practitioners to guide students toward exploring African American history. Stephanie’s research pushes back on this neo-colonial practice, which elevates the United States as the center of global history and culture. In her research, she aims to understand how Caribbean students currently use and could potentially use Caribbean culture to respond to racism in the United States. 

Stephanie’s research also explores how embracing Caribbean culture can create effective educational practices for Caribbean higher education. She explores existing student affairs practice in the Caribbean and uses Caribbean Studies theories to theorize about culturally appropriate Caribbean student affairs practices. 

Stephanie uses her research to push against the dominance of Western epistemologies and ontologies in student affairs practice and research. She uses U.S. Black Feminism and Caribbean Studies to form alternative methodologies. She hopes her scholarship provides pathways for others to develop their Caribbean-flavored student affairs scholarship and practice. 

Nicolas Daniel Silva, LMSW, MS, "Nico" is a Society for Neuroscience "NSP" Scholar, social worker, artist, scientist, musician, curator, theatre maker, performance studies researcher, writer, and consultant. He holds a BS in Microbiology with a concentration in Neuroscience, a Master of Social Work, a Master of Biological Sciences and Women's and Gender Studies and is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) investigating the use of music and sound as health behaviors, indicators, and neurotechnological interventions. He has lectured on performance studies theories, texts, and realities in the Department of Theatre and Dance with Dr. Melissa Melpignano, the Director of Dance. The first iteration of the course culminated in a multidisciplinary performance installation, MAPPING THE RIO which was part of World Water Week UTEP. He has been invited to the NYU Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics Global Convening where he was part of the "Thinking Beyond the Human" Working Group. Last Summer, he presented on the Border Bioentrepeneurship Ecosystem at the NYU/Imperial College London Racial Equity in Technology Entrepreneurship Workshop. He published an article titled "Ultraendurance Sports: A Call to Action" in the peer reviewed Sport Social Work Journal. He also reviews for the Journal as an advanced social work and ultraendurance performance practitioner and researcher. He is a contributor to the Houston-based online arts magazine Glasstire and is a supporter, entrepreneur, and advocate of the Paso Del Norte region. Most recently, he was awarded a BIPOC Point Foundation scholarship and is part of the sixth cohort of the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship. He has attended and was awarded a Full Scholarship to the University of Florida Arts in Health Intensive 2023. He also was awarded a 50% Professional Scholarship to the 2024 Arts in Health Research Intensive with the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at the University College London.  He recently submitted manuscripts for a co-authored book chapter in the Palgrave Macmillan Anthology "Fashioning the Borderlands" and an article in a special issue of the Routledge journal Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education, and Research. He currently serves as a Ph.D. Research Associate under the mentorship of Dr. Eva Moya Ph.D., LMSW and has engaged in focused study on the impacts and realities of sensorineural hearing loss with his Dissertation Committee Chair, Dr. Jason Mallonee, DSW, LCSW-S.

Nico's research and practice spans many disciplines and intersections including performance, social work, arts in health, medicine, and society, mental health, disability, gender studies, queer studies, and basic needs security.

Blayne D. Stone, Jr. is a PhD candidate in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a focus in Higher Education and a minor in Counseling Psychology. As an Army soldier's son, Blayne has lived in multiple states and abroad. He earned an M.A. in Human Development Psychology from Cornell University, and a M.Ed. in Higher Education and B.A. in Liberal Arts, both from Florida International University. Before starting his Ph.D., Blayne has worked in student affairs positions and within support placement positions for youth and adolescents in need. He has worked on the Career Readiness portfolio team as a summer intern for the Education Strategy Group (ESG) in 2023, focusing on projects related to social capital development and middle school career exploration. Currently, he serves as a Research Associate in Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory where he designs, conducts, and disseminates research that informs policymakers, practitioners, and concerned citizens on how to best promote equitable and inclusive learning and work environments in higher education.

Blayne's research interest focuses on advocating for educational equity and justice for Black college students with foster care experiences. His research explores the ways Black youth transition from foster care and through higher education institutions. He utilizes qualitative methodological approaches to heighten the awareness of the educational stories of students who have experienced time in the foster care system. Through his work, he examines the systems (e.g., foster care, child welfare, higher education) that continue to harm Black and brown bodies and explores strategies to improve their experiences. His dissertation explores the college-going process of Black students who were formerly in foster care. More specifically, his dissertation research examines how and why Black students formerly in foster care selected a specific institution and academic major.

Jennifer Lopez is a first-generation Mexican-American who strives for social justice and equity every day from her elementary classroom in Sylmar, California. With over 12 years of teaching experience in both elementary and middle school, Jennifer has also served as a grade level lead, a girls’ soccer coach, a student council facilitator, and mentor teacher. Outside of her educator responsibilities, Jennifer is actively involved in Educators for Excellence (E4E). Jennifer was a member of E4E’s Los Angeles Teacher Policy Team that wrote “One School of Thought: Moving Towards the Common Core” in 2015. Currently, she is on the Executive Committee of E4E’s National Teacher Leader Council, helping plan, facilitate, and guide the work for this group. As a lifelong learner, Jennifer is currently completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of Southern California, in the concentration of Leading Instructional Change. She previously received her B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles and M.A.T from Duke University. In her free time, you can find her hiking at national parks, watching soccer, or traveling the world. 

Her qualitative action research focused on how to best support her colleagues' capacity in creating more meaningful learning opportunities in math. In order to accomplish this, Jennifer facilitated weekly professional learning sessions for classified staff (i.e., teaching assistants and/or after-school coaches) to support Latinx students with math during the after-school program. Utilizing adaptive leadership, critical reflection, and the andragogical moves of modeling, cognitive structures, and discourse, Jennifer sought to create transformative learning moments for her colleagues as they lesson plan. The findings for this study can help inform educators, administrators, and after-school programming on how to create the conditions and structures to promote more meaningful learning opportunities for students.

Jesse Enriquez is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is a proud product of two Hispanic Serving Institutions; he earned his B.A. in Kinesiology from CSU, Chico, and M.A. in Postsecondary Educational Leadership from San Diego State University. Prior to starting his doctoral studies, he worked in the non-profit sector and in higher education as a student affairs professional. He currently serves as the Associate Director of the CSU Young Men of Color Consortium and as an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Channel Islands, which is located a short distance from his hometown of Oxnard, California.

Jesse’s research explores the lived experiences of Students of Color who begin their postsecondary education at “two-year” open access institutions (i.e., community colleges) with hopes of transferring to a “four-year” universities to complete a bachelor’s degree.

His research unapologetically uplifts the voices of students on the margins, particularly young men of color, student-parents, and community college students. To examine the transfer phenomenon, he employs critical frameworks such as the transfer receptive culture framework (Jain et al., 2010) that analyze how institutions of higher education facilitate the transfer pathway for students who have been historically underrepresented and excluded from higher education. Rather than focusing on what Students of Color can do to improve, change, or learn to adapt to their environments; his research examines what institutions of higher education can do to improve, how they can change, and how they adapt to their students.

Patricia Martín is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education & Information Studies in the Division of Higher Education at UCLA. She was born in San Juan de Los Lagos, Jalisco, and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Her experiences navigating higher education as a first-generation student and inequities in her P-20 schooling informed her research interests in studying higher education enrollment management, college recruiting, advertising, and college access. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology with minors in education and applied psychology from UC Santa Barbara and a master's degree in higher education from UCLA. Patricia serves as a graduate researcher for UCLA’s DataX initiative in the curriculum development and redesigning of undergraduate and graduate courses at the intersection of data, ethics, and society.

Her research interests focus on the intersection of college access and organizational behavior. She is interested in using computational social science to investigate postsecondary institutions' enrollment and advertising practices and their effects on college access for underserved students. Her dissertation research tackles understanding universities’ digital marketing approaches as a timely and critical way to inform equity in college admissions. She employs a 12-month critical ethnography informed by Chicana/Latina Feminist epistemologies with high school students from California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV). She utilizes semi-structured interviews, participant observations, collection of digital advertisements (e.g., emails and social media ads), and focus group interviews to explore the role digital advertising practices play in informing students’ college search and college application behaviors. Through a critical discourse analysis, findings from her dissertation shed light on the overwhelming information students receive through generic messaging and promotion of out-of-state, short-term, non-degree programs, and private institutions– perpetuating the inaccessibility of college.

I am a dedicated educational leader with a proven track record of success in fostering academic excellence and nurturing the potential within America’s underserved and undervalued communities.

As the superintendent of a thriving urban charter school district, I am proud to have spearheaded initiatives that have led to our institution being recognized as the #1 unionized charter school in New York State (22-23) based on student proficiency rates in ELA/Math. Our unwavering commitment to minimizing learning gaps, even amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been critical to our success. Under my leadership, we secured a third 5-year Charter Renewal – the maximum time allotted in NY State – and expanded our reach from a K-8 to a K-12. As we eagerly anticipate our first graduating class in 2024, my excitement is matched only by my resolve to continue providing an exceptional education to every student. My passion lies in transforming educational spaces to empower students, engage parents, and build communities. I advocate for creating inclusive policies supporting Black male leadership, recognizing their critical role in education, shaping student outcomes, and community engagement. I specialize in developing strategies that activate and sustain parent involvement, and my research in this area aims to provide actionable insights for educators and policymakers alike. With a focus on the intersectionality of race and leadership, I am committed to advancing practices that promote equity, cultural responsiveness, and authentic community partnerships.

In the dynamic landscape of urban charter schools, the role of school leaders is pivotal in shaping educational experiences and fostering community engagement. This research agenda delves into the intersection of Black male leadership and parent involvement within these academic settings. By examining Black male school leaders’ experiences, challenges, and impact, we aim to illuminate critical insights for enhancing parent engagement and support.

Understanding the Experiences of Black Male School Leaders Objective: Through qualitative interviews and focus groups, we will explore the unique experiences of Black male school leaders. These leaders navigate complex educational landscapes, and their perspectives can shed light on effective strategies for engaging Black parents and creating a supportive environment. Examining Black Parent Engagement in Urban Charter Schools Objective: Employing quantitative methods, we will assess the levels and types of parent involvement in urban charter schools with predominantly Black student populations. Epstein’s six types of parent involvement will serve as our analytical framework, allowing us to understand the multifaceted ways parents engage with the school community. Investigating the Impact of Black Male Leadership on Black Parent Engagement Objective: By comparing Black parent engagement levels in schools led by Black male leaders versus those led by leaders of other demographics, we seek to identify the specific impact of Black male leadership. Understanding how these leaders influence parent involvement can inform targeted interventions and best practices. Framework Analysis Using Bass’s Black Male Care (BMC) Framework Objective: Bass’s (2020) Black Male Care (BMC) framework provides a lens through which we will analyze the experiences of Black male school leaders. By examining their caregiving practices, emotional labor, and relational dynamics, we aim to uncover nuanced insights into fostering parent engagement and building a supportive school community. Identifying Barriers and Facilitators to Black Male Leadership Objective: Our investigation will delve into the factors that impact the representation of Black male leadership in urban charter schools. From recruitment challenges to retention strategies and professional development opportunities, we will identify barriers and facilitators that shape the leadership landscape. In summary, this research agenda seeks to amplify the voices of Black male school leaders, unravel the complexities of parent engagement, and contribute to informed practices that empower both educators and parents in urban charter schools. Through rigorous exploration, we aspire to create more equitable and thriving educational environments for all stakeholders.

Nicole is in the final stages of her Ph.D. program in Psychology, specializing in Brain, Behavior, and Quantitative Science at the University of Kansas. A NYC native, she pursued her undergraduate studies in Communication and Sciences Disorders at the University of Central Florida, followed by a Master’s in Speech Pathology at Howard University. Nicole then worked as a certified medical-based speech-language pathologist for two years before obtaining a second Master's degree in Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University. Her academic journey continued at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she completed a clinical doctorate in Speech Pathology and chose to further her research by pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. Nicole is deeply committed to enhancing diversity in academia, a passion that has led her to significant roles such as the inaugural Dean's Diversity Ambassador at Johns Hopkins University and a Diversity Ambassador at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Outside of her academic and professional endeavors, Nicole has a passion for global travel and cherishes spending quality time with family and friends. 

Nicole's research is focused on investigating the underlying neural mechanisms involved in speech and language. Her dissertation work focuses on using EEG to assess changes in sensorimotor rhythm modulation following 2 distinct motor training paradigms, potentially improving access to Brain-Computer Interface technology for those with severe motor impairments. As she moves forward, Nicole aims to apply these insights to select optimal interventions based on individual neurological profiles. Additionally, her work emphasizes the importance of integrating patient and caregiver perspectives, ensuring her research remains relevant and accessible. Nicole is committed to translating theoretical insights into practical, life-altering interventions for people with complex communication needs.

Mariatere Tapias is an arts-based teacher and educational researcher. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Education program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. At a young age, she picked up needles and thread to imagine and give shape to her world. Sewing was how mami made a living, and her grandmother Amá , made patchwork blankets to develop new ideas. In her family, textile work was more than a product centered art form but a practice of being in dialogue, community, inquiry, and care. Stitching was a process of looking back to critically examine and carry the knowledge of their ancestors forward, along with new findings, questions, and methods. Over time, she understood that each finished project was never an ending but an invitation towards something new, unexpected, and not yet fully visible. Mariatere brings this range of perspectives and practices to her research, as a methodology that facilitates new forms of embodiment, leaning into uncertainty, and critical consciousness in her scholarship. With over twenty years of experience teaching textile arts as a social and contemplative practice, Mariatere has worked in a variety of New York City environments: as an early childhood teacher, in youth and adult workshop settings, and most recently at an Older Adult Center. As the founder of the Slow Textiles Art Collective, she asks: Who are we engaged in radical imagination with? What healing practices are we nurturing? Where do we carry laughter and love? How do we undo, mend, and make what we imagine? In 2021, Mariatere became a founding member of the restorative / transformative justice group in the Urban Education program at the Graduate Center. With a commitment to community healing and engagement, she volunteers as a circle keeper with the New York Peace Institute. She turns to the land and ancestors to shape her sense of hope and direction.

Mariatere’s dissertation explores how artmaking as scholarship supports inclusivity, justice, and wellbeing in teaching and learning. In response to the harm caused by a positivist worldview that, all too often, reduces people to "objects of study," she centers collaborative seeing and making as a methodological response to the extractive nature of research. Through an emergent and participatory framework, she examines four themes: listening and collective agency, erasure and inclusionary justice, educational research as a practice of freedom, and student thriving. Her scholarship combines autoethnography, playwriting, and artmaking as paths for contemplation and transformative action in and outside of the academy. Bridging the divide between art and science, her project weaves together multiple worldviews to explore the generative possibilities of radical imagining. In her opening chapter, Mariatere creates map-poems to illustrate how artmaking can help us document injustice and increase methodological transparency in our work as researchers. In chapter 2, she examines the arpilleras (tapestries) in the digital archive at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile to investigate the consequences of institutional erasure. Then, through a one-act play, she participates in archival repair and the recovery of stories. In chapter 3, three paintings serve as heuristics to examine how artmaking contributes to educational research as a practice of freedom and wellbeing. In chapter 4, she centers BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) college students’ experiences in a reimagined research methods classroom, and how their perspectives regarding what a thriving learning environment looks, sounds, and feels like evolves over the course of a semester. Finally, in her closing chapter, she examines the transformative outcomes of artmaking as scholarship.

Currently, Martha is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Berkeley Graduate School of Education. Stemming from her own experiences navigating the beginning of her graduate education as an undocumented student, her dissertation seeks to uplift the academic, social, and financial experiences of undocumented Latinx/a/o/ graduate students attending the University of California. Through her research, Martha seeks to understand how institutions can attract, retain, and graduate undocumented graduate students. Martha’s doctoral work has been made possible by different research centers at the University of California, (UC Berkeley) including the Center for Race and Gender, Greater Good Science Center, and the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Martha holds a master’s degree in education from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in Latin American & Latino Studies from UC Santa Cruz. In her spare time, Martha loves visiting new restaurants and sharing meals with her husband.

Within the undocumented student literature, we have limited insights into the trajectories of undocumented graduate students. To date, only a handful of studies have examined the experiences of undocumented students enrolled in professional programs, including law school (Escudero et al., 2019; Freeman & Valdivia, 2021; Kennedy, 2014; Lee, 2020; Olivas, 2020). Similarly, only a few studies have examined the experiences of students enrolled in research-focused doctoral programs (Lara, 2014; Lara & Nava, 2018; Landgrave, 2021; Montiel et al., 2020). Collectively, these studies have been pivotal in furthering the undocumented student scholarship. However, it is noteworthy to highlight that some of these studies have not interviewed undocumented graduate students directly (Escudero et al., 2019; Lara, 2014; Lara & Nava, 2018; Montiel et al., 2020).  To fill in this critical gap in the literature, my dissertation centers on the voices and experiences of undocumented graduate students through the use and analysis of students’ testimonios. Specifically, it draws upon 44 testimonio interviews with 22 undocumented graduate students enrolled in one of the 10 University of California (UC) campuses. By doing so, this dissertation examines the educational experiences and trajectories of undocumented graduate students enrolled in professional and doctoral research-focused programs within the (UC) system and how they are shaped by their field of study, campus, and ever-shifting immigration statuses. I further analyze how the UC system’s commitments toward its undocumented student population have been operationalized and examine the commitments that remain unfulfilled. While the undocumented student college population is remarkably diverse in terms of ethnic backgrounds (Teranishi et al., 2015), this dissertation focuses on a specific subpopulation within the broader undocumented student community — undocumented Latinx/a/o graduate students within the UC system. Here, I use the Latinx/a/o terms interchangeably to refer to individuals who are foreign-born and who have ancestry to a Spanish-speaking Latin American country in Central and South America, and the Caribbean (García Bedolla, & Hosam, 2021).  To examine the complicated and shifting landscape that undocumented graduate students experience within the UC system, my dissertation draws upon “liminal legality” (Menjívar, 2006). Liminal legality (Menjívar, 2006) allows scholars to move beyond antiquated black-and-white conceptualizations of immigration status that once rendered individuals strictly either documented or undocumented. Liminal legality has been used to examine how federal-level policies have granted individuals an in-between immigration status (Cebulko, 2014; Hamilton et al., 2020; Morales Hernandez, & Enriquez, 2021; Roth, 2019). I extend liminal legality (Menjívar, 2006) to examine the role of federal, state, and institutional level policies.

Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus, Jr. (he/él) is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Program in Higher Education Leadership & Policy (PHELP) at The University of Texas at Austin with a dual graduate portfolio in Women & Gender Studies with a specialization in LGBTQ+ Studies and Mexican American & Latinx/a/o Studies. He is the son of Gabriel Rodríguez López and Rosario Lemus Quezada, who immigrated to Fresno, California, from Nueva Italia, Michoacán, México. Born and raised in Fresno, California, he has also lived in San José, California; Tucson, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; and currently resides in Austin, Texas. He earned his M.S.Ed. in Higher Education & Student Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington and his B.A. in Sociology, with a concentration in Community Change from San José State University. Currently, he is a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) for Dr. Alison Kafer, College of Liberal Arts, GRA for Project LEAPS (Latinx Education After Public Schools), and the Graduate Conference Coordinator for the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, College of Liberal Arts.  Gabriel’s contributions, scholarship, and service have earned him state and national recognition by receiving the 2023 Tracy Davis Emerging Research Award, Coalition on Men & Masculinities from ACPA; the 2023 AAHHE Best Scholarly Paper by the Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE); selected as 2022 Graduate Fellow by the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education (TACHE); a 2022 BIPOC Scholar by the Point Foundation; an 2021 & 2023 HSF Scholar by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund; and a 2021 Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program Fellow by The California State University. He currently serves as Consulting Editor for the newly formed Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education and as an Editorial Board Member for Research in Brief for the Journal of College Student Development. Moreover, he was appointed to be the Social Media Coordinator & Webmaster for SIG 168 Graduate and Postdoctoral Education Across Disciplines for the American Educational Research Association (AERA). At UT Austin, he is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of the LatinX Graduate Student Association.

His academic research focuses on four main areas: (1) Men & Masculinities of Color, specifically Queer & Trans Latinx/o Masculinities & Disabilities, (2) Latinx/a/o People in Higher Education, (3) Critical Disability Studies in Higher Education, and (4) Qualitative Research Methods, specifically Arts-Based & Visual Methodologies. As an interdisciplinary educational scholar, his work lives at the intersections of Higher Education, Jotería Studies, Chicanx & Latinx Studies, and Critical Disability Studies. His dissertation work engages, complicates, & interrogates the ways Latinx/o masculinities are understood, specifically for queer & trans Latinx/o collegians living with disabilities. He will be conducting an arts-based participatory action research study for his dissertation. He will be organizing an arts-based collective that elicits art, poems, and photography at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. As a photographer and poet, he believes in the power of using art in higher education research, specifically bringing the various forms of knowledge production of queer & trans Latinx/a/o people into the academy. Ultimately, as a queer jotx first-generation Latinx doctoral student who lives with a disability, his work is deeply tied to his positionality.

Janella D. Benson is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is from the Eastside of Detroit, MI. She has over 10 years of experience working with students in secondary and postsecondary environments on easing their transition to and through postsecondary education. Janella holds an MA in Higher Education/Student Affairs from Eastern Michigan University, and a BA in Communication Studies and Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a College Advisor within high schools in Detroit helping students prepare and navigate the college application process. She also worked with adjudicated youth on developing psychosocial and interpersonal skills that aided in their transition from a carceral setting through secondary attainment and postsecondary access. Finally, she worked in postsecondary transition programs supporting historically minoritized students navigating the transition into college through graduate education attainment. Her personal and professional experiences are deeply intertwined in her research. Janella’s dissertation explores Black women’s transition processes and the ways in which bridge programs influence their transition to and navigation through college during various socio-historical contexts.

Her research agenda draw from sociological frameworks and uses qualitative methodologies to (1) explore Black women’s transition through higher education programs to the professoriate and (2) examine the positive racialized experiences of Black women in higher education. Guided by this line of inquiry, her research will empower Black women to develop a legacy of fulfillment as they navigate to and through higher education.

Hayejin Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Research in Occupational Therapy at New York University. She holds her MA in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California and her BHS in Occupational Therapy from Hanseo University, South Korea. Her research interests focus on accessible community-based rehabilitation programs that integrate technology to support individuals with stroke. Under the guidance of Dr. Grace Kim, she is currently working on her dissertation project aimed at investigating the key factors influencing patient engagement in videoconferencing-based telehealth among community-dwelling individuals with stroke. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, she worked as an occupational therapist in an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in South Korea, where she specialized in rehabilitating patients with neurological conditions.

Her research interests stem from her clinical work with individuals with stroke, where she frequently observed their struggles in transitioning back to their homes. Many faced barriers due to the lack of adequate rehabilitation services in their communities, leaving them confined to hospital settings long after the acute phase of their recovery. Witnessing the gap in community-based rehabilitation services, which are critical for reintegration into society, fueled her resolve to empower patients to regain independence and reintegrate into their communities, driving her towards research.

Seeking to enhance her expertise in research on community-based rehabilitation, she pursued further study in this area during her Ph.D. Under the guidance of Dr. Grace Kim, she has centered her research on the integration of mobile technology in stroke rehabilitation. Her work as the lead author in a study exploring mobile technology use among individuals with stroke unveiled their positive attitudes towards the use of technology in home-based exercise. In collaboration with Dr. Grace Kim, she also examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with acquired brain injuries. Their work highlighted the potential of telehealth as a viable and accessible rehabilitation service, particularly due to its ability to overcome geographical barriers and enhance accessibility, especially in rural areas. However, their investigations also shed light on disparities in patient engagement in telehealth. 

Her dissertation, “Examining Key Factors Influencing Engagement in Videoconferencing-Based Telehealth in Individuals with Stroke” aims to thoroughly understand patient engagement in telehealth to make it a reliable and accessible service. This, in turn, will bridge the gap between the demand for continuous rehabilitation and the challenges faced by individuals with stroke in accessing in-person services. As she looks to the future, she aspires to be an independent researcher making substantial contributions to the development of inclusive and effective community-based stroke rehabilitation.

Deaweh Benson is currently a doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology program at the University of Michigan. She investigates racism, health, and healing with a focus on Black adolescents and young adults who experience intersecting marginalized identities (e.g., race, class, gender). Her work is grounded in cultural-ecological frameworks, Black feminist theory, critical consciousness, and positive youth development. Deaweh earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College and her Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has worked in non-profits, research organizations, and academic institutions where she has examined socioemotional development, college student academic success, and the economic security of young adults.

Deaweh’s work broadly pursues three lines of research: (1) Examining the potential neurobiological embedding of structural racism (i.e., brain function and structure), (2) Investigating factors that protect youth from racism exposure (e.g., ethnic-racial identity, critical consciousness, and social support), and (3) Identifying opportunities for healing and transformation despite exposure to structural racism. Her current dissertation entitled, “Development in the Context of Racism: An Exploration of Health Risk and Resilience Among Black Adolescents and Young Adults,” includes three empirical investigations examining how individual-level racism (e.g., racial discrimination) and structural racism (e.g., deadly gun violence, police contact) relate to a range of health outcomes including amygdala function, anxiety, and depression. In this work, Deaweh assesses whether broad sources of social support received from family, peers, romantic partners, and mentors promote resilience despite racism exposure. She also tests whether poverty further compounds disadvantage and constrains opportunities to demonstrate resilience.

Kimberly Williams is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at the University of Florida where her work encompasses Blackness, rhetoric, and sound studies across multimedia and literature. She previously graduated from Virginia Tech (B.S.) and Cornell University (M.F.A.) and claims Virginia as her home. She held previous fellowships with the National Humanities Council, Callaloo Oxford Residency, the Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, Crisner Museum Fellowship, and the Association for African American Museum Fellowship. You can find her works in Sounding Out! Journal of the Society for American Music, Peitho, Constellations: A Cultural Rhetorics Publishing Space, and more recently Global Black Feminisms: Cross Border Collaboration through an Ethics of Care published by Routledge. She has been awarded the 2022 Ruth McQuown Justice Scholarship, 2019 Virginia Tech Black Excellence Black Student Ally Award and the 2018 Virginia Tech’s Ed McPherson Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Activism & Change.

My research concerns Blackness, sound studies, and rhetoric or more specifically--I study how Black people create sonic testimonies through embodiment, literature, and multimedia studies. In my dissertation, I research how Black communities developed sonic practices across multiple disciplines during the COVID-19 quarantine and simultaneous Black Lives Matter Movement efforts. These examples include the Verzuz battles, Zong digital memorial, and sonic responses to "wokeness."

Yi-jung Wu is a PhD candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, with a doctoral minor in Educational Psychology. Before starting her doctoral studies, she worked as a research assistant, responsible for educational and psychological research projects, and as a middle school mathematics teacher. She is working on her dissertation, "Distributed Leadership Practices According to the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) in Taiwan’s Elementary Schools." Her research interests include Comparative Educational Administration, Gender Inequality in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education and Careers, Stratification and Social Mobility, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), International Students, Asian Immigrant Youths, Well-Being, and Mixed/Multi-Methods. Yi-jung holds a B.S. in Mathematics from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and an M.A. in Educational Leadership from the University of Manchester, UK.