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The neoliberal turn has driven attempts to marketize education, but how does marketization occur? In this article I draw on ethnographic and linguistic-ethnographic methods to investigate marketization through a microanalytic lens. My investigation focuses on a team of educational professionals, who participated in a workshop led by an organizational consultant named Eric. During the workshop, Eric successfully encouraged the educators to adopt some key business terms that he imported from the high-tech sector. My findings indicate that the marketization of education was not straightforward. Rather, the process encountered some resistance and sowed confusion before a business discourse ultimately took hold. The process of marketization became entangled with the power dynamics shaped by group members' positioning vis-à-vis one another; and furthermore, it required the group to negotiate the meaning of some key terms. Marketization was ultimately mediated by a cognitive device called the Business Model Canvas and it relied on some pre-existing neoliberal tendencies among the workshop's participants.

Background: This paper explores K-12 interdisciplinary learning in the humanities (IL-Humanities), an area that, until now, has seen limited research focus compared to its STEM counterparts. We asked: (1) What are the outcomes of IL-Humanities in terms of interdisciplinary competences? (2) How do learners in these environments engage in cross-disciplinary knowledge building and transdisciplinary identity work? Methods: We assessed the efficacy of IL-Humanities across ten Israeli middle schools through a pre-post intervention/comparison design, utilizing the novel Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment (ICA). Qualitative insights into the learning processes within classrooms were derived using discourse analysis methods. Findings: Students' interdisciplinary competences were found to increase following the IL-Humanities interventions. Qualitative analyses offered "thick descriptions" of the process: Students leveraged cross-disciplinary transfer of knowledge to deepen their understanding of complex phenomena and used personal narratives to engage in identity work. Contribution: This study enhances interdisciplinary education research by: (1) providing and operationalizing a model of interdisciplinary competences as an assessment tool; (2) demonstrating the effectiveness of IL-Humanities environments in developing these competences; and (3) advancing our understanding of learners' engagement with cross-disciplinary knowledge building and transdisciplinary identity work.

Test-based accountability (TBA) draws on a managerialist ideology that emphasises standards, constant measurement, and external motivation for improvement. It stands in sharp contrast to the idea of professional learning communities (PLCs) that aim to mobilise teachers' internal motivation and willingness to cooperate with peers to facilitate a joint, self-reflective inquiry process of pedagogical improvement. The Israeli education system has adopted TBA policies. To determine how this affects a professional learning programme focused on reflective inquiry, we analysed staff discussions recorded in 180 PLC meetings in 17 schools. The study suggests that TBA not only narrows the curriculum and the repertoire of pedagogical practices used by teachers but also constrains the ability of teacher professional learning to counterbalance these negative consequences.

The paper examines the visual and verbal representation of the Holocaust in Israeli schoolbooks. The relations between images and texts or captions are revealed through a multimodal discourse analysis. Most photographs were transposed to Israeli schoolbooks, unattributed and de-contextualized, from Nazi archives and amateur albums. These photographs have become the icons of the Holocaust, and even the Holocaust itself, or its simulacra, for post-memory generations. Therefore, the perpetrator’s perspective often comes through as objective and factual. Schoolbooks transform these photographs to educational resources, or to means by which the state educates its young to remember. The question is, how do these images construct what the students need to remember or rather, what meaning are students prompted to make of them? In the schoolbooks, the photographs illustrate the Zionist narrative “from Holocaust to resurrection” in which the state of Israel is presented as the alternative to another Holocaust. The annihilation is graphically described in detail, but the annihilated are not narrated. Most are presented only as icons of the “final solution” and specimens of categories. This representation attests to an interest to traumatize, not to inspire mourning or arouse empathy and reverence towards the victims “we don’t want to become again”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of psychological trauma has been taken up widely in popular culture and in diverse academic fields including social work. In this work of poststructuralist discourse analysis, we used methods of close reading to examine a random sample of thirty social work articles on trauma (published 2010–2020). Our aim was not to refute the salience of the concept nor to establish its true meaning and correct usage, but to critically examine its discursive functions; what does 'trauma' do in social work? In our analysis, the progressive aims of the discourses of trauma—to counter pathologisation and confer legitimacy to harms that have been marginalised—are unrealised. 'Trauma' is deployed in multiple, often contradictory ways and the slippages between intent and function work to construct the trauma-laden as non-normative, damaged subjects, and legitimate objects, thus, of social work scrutiny and intervention. Social work's discourses of trauma undermine their own efforts to centre a structural analysis. If 'to perceive the world as a safe place' is a signifier of normative, non-traumatised functioning, then what does 'trauma' do when applied to the racialised, gendered, colonised and marginalised, for whom the world is not a place of safety but of material and psychical violence? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combined ecological, environmental, nature-based, and epistemic interpretations of older adulthood to gain a previously unresearched look at how older adults feel that their relations with nature are treated by others. Sixty older adults were interviewed in-depth, and data was analyzed using the Eco-Appreciation framework and Thematic Content Analysis. The results indicate the concurrence of processes of withdrawal of older adults from spaces of nature and discourse about nature. These processes obstruct older adults' wellbeing; entail the infliction of existential epistemic injustices and "eco-ageism" toward them; and emphasize the crucial role social work can play in responding thereto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study analyzed online editorial cartoons depicting the Israel-Palestine conflict through visual, symbolic, metaphorical, and textual analysis. The study reveals a prevailing anti-war sentiment across editorial cartoons, with a notable inclination towards supporting Palestine. This support was prominent in cartoons originating from the Global South, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there was a scarcity of such cartoons within mainstream Western media. The study employs an in-depth approach, analyzing cartoons from both Western and non-Western media. It utilizes Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) and Multimodal Semiotics (MS) theories, focusing on symbolism and text to decode nuanced narratives within the cartoons. The cartoons depict complex narratives, using symbolism to explain how politicians and the main media are framing specific entities while undermining victimology. They reveal subjective perspectives that influence audience perceptions. They echo existing scholarly views on the influential power of editorial cartoons in communicating complex political concepts. The cartoons shape public understanding of the conflict, potentially influencing biases and perspectives. They present Hamas as both an aggressor and a victim, portraying multifaceted perceptions of the group. The findings are instrumental in depicting political identities, including major organizations like the UN. The boldness in depicting such entities provides a practical avenue for understanding the role of such organizations. The study adds to the existing literature by applying multimodal analysis to editorial cartoons, unveiling hidden narratives and perceptions. It suggests the need for a deeper analysis of the conflict's historical, geopolitical, and power structures. This research offers a multifaceted understanding of how editorial cartoons shape perceptions and interpretations of the Israel-Palestine conflict, emphasizing their complex and influential nature within media discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines digital discourses of and on the Palestinian movement, Hamas on Twitter. The data corpus contains tweets and retweets by Shehab News Agency (Hamas’s agency), and all tweets associated with the hashtag #hamas and produced by any tweeter. The data resources were extracted in January 2022. The paper uses Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996 & 2006) social semiotic approach and critical discourse tools to examine online, textual and visual features of tweets. The findings show that the word occupation االحتالل is the most frequent word in the tweets of Shehab News Agency, and it is associated with hashtags such as Hamas, Jerusalem, among other words. The result of world cloud shows that the hashtag #Hamas is associated with frequent words and hashtags, e.g., #gaza, #palestine, #israel, #terrorism, #terror, #hamasterrorists, ##thegazayoudontsee, #theykidnappedgaza. This discursive strategy leaves a negative representation on Hamas and legitimizes any actions conducted by Israel or any actors against Hamas. The analysis shows while Hamas’s discourses such as resistance of the Israeli occupation, Hamas is linked with terrorism as seen in tweets associated with the hashtag #hamas. In conclusion, as expected in party-loyal media, the digital discourse on twitter on and of Hamas is understood as a struggle between Hamas and Israel a fight between Hamas and Israel rather than a war against Palestinians who pay high prices. This is because Twitter blocks Hamas’s accounts and mostly remove Palestinians’ materials and contents that criticize Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a year‐long case study that documents the interactions between a teacher–research–mentor (TRM) and two 11th grade students working in their school laboratory on an extended inquiry project that is part of reformed mandatory requirements for advanced‐level matriculation in physics. Both the students (females) and the TRM (male) are Arab citizens of Israel, and the school is a public Arab school in Israel. Data were collected through videotaped participant observation of authentic working sessions and interviews with the TRM and the students. The analysis combines an ethnographic account with discourse analysis informed by a sociolinguistic approach that aims to answer the following research questions: (1) how are a teacher's identity‐narratives reified in teacher–student discourse in authentic sessions of mentoring students' inquiry? (2) how do they shape students' learning? and (3) how do they emerge from social–historical contexts? The findings problematize the challenges involved in engaging students from nondominant communities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning. The analysis articulates the complexity of this challenge by showing how teachers' identity narratives shape the social construction of student–teacher discourse, generate tensions that undermine successful implementations of reformed learning experiences, and how this vicious cycle is profoundly influenced by the embedding social and historical contexts. The implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persuasion knowledge is personal knowledge about persuasion attempts that has an effect on the way people respond to these attempts. Persuasion attempts are made to effectively handling the Covid-19 pandemic, which is dependent on high public compliance with vaccination programs. Drawing on the idea of persuasion knowledge, we aimed at elaborating the various categories of perceived information gaps experienced by vaccine hesitants during the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. At the beginning of 2021 we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with Israelis who had decided not to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Analysis of the interviews revealed three main categories of information gaps experienced by the interviewees: missing information, manipulated information, and discrepant information. We analyzed how these are associated with distrust and may impair the persuasion efforts of governments and health authorities. Perceived information gaps, as part of persuasion knowledge, may increase negative responses, and therefore constitute an important factor in persuasion campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, igniting the 2023 War in Israel and Palestine. As human rights atrocities unfold, the war has sparked contentious political debate and civil discourse. Given their positions of authority, university presidents and chancellors have weighed in on the conflict through their public statements, while seeking to support their campus community members in the process. This research employs thematic discourse analysis to evaluate presidential statements to (1) understand how leaders position their institutions amidst strife and (2) identify who university leaders support in the process. By reviewing the attributes and deficits embedded within presidential statements, this research attempts to provide strategies and recommendations for university leaders to exercise inclusive practices during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]