Working Conference on Discourse Analysis in Education

June 1-4 we are hosting the 7th annual conference on Discourse Analysis in Educational Research. Three of the previous conferences have been held at OSU, three at Indiana University.  At the heart of the conference are small group sessions devoted to sharing and discussing work-in-progress. In addition to work-in-progress groups, the conference also includes keynote panel discussions, and lots of informal time for talking, smoozing and breaking bread together. I will bring to my working group data on pointing practices in Qur’anic school interaction.

Learning In and Out of School: Education across the Globe

May 22 and 23 I will be at the University of Notre Dame for a working conference, Learning In and Out of School: Education across the Globe, organized by Professor Susan Blum. The conference centers on one question: what can we learn about the range of human learning, in schools and out of schools, at various ages, that has significant effects on individual and social well-being? We will address both theory – exploring what educational practices reveal about the nature of humankind – and practice – identifying applications that may improve the everyday learning of children and adults. Participants include scholars and practitioners who focus on societies around the world. We will look at the issues of schooling – or not schooling – from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. My working paper is ‘Double schooling in northern Cameroon and Central Ohio’.

Shirley Brice Heath at OSU

Ethnographer of family life Shirley Brice Heath will be at OSU to give a talk, ‘Special-Interest Learning: The new best friend for education leaders?’, as well as to participate in other, smaller events with faculty and students of the School of Educational Policy and Leadership and the School of Teaching and Learning. The talk and panel discussion, part of the Karlsberger/Charters Lecture Series, take place 11-12 am on Tuesday, May 8 in the College Commons, Ramseyer Hall 260. Professor Heath is the author of Words at work and play: Three decades in families and communities (Cambridge, 2012) and the classic Ways with Words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms (Cambridge, 1983/1996).