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While much of the work in language testing is concerned with constructing quality tests in order to measure language knowledge in reliable and valid ways, there has been a significant movement in language testing research that examines tests in the context of their use in education and society. This line of research exits from the notion that tests are not isolated events but rather powerful societal tools that are both driven by, and have impact on, ideology, politics, education, and economics. This power also emerges from the discourse of testing, where testers pose questions and assign tasks that the test takers are expected to react to by providing answers and engaging in performances that match these demands. It is this discourse of power that enables the delivery of messages about preferred languages and policies and delegitimacy and marginalization of others. This paper describes three such cases: (1) language tests for citizenship for adult immigrants; (2) national tests for measuring academic achievements of immigrants in schools; and (3) international comparative tests. In each of these widely used tests, language realities are being manipulated towards perpetuating language ideologies that stand in stark contrast to diversity multilingual identities and cultures in various contexts--regional, national, global, and transnational. The paper shows how test takers surrender to the demands of tests, accept the testing discourse as "the truth," and comply with it. Proposals are made for the adoption of different types of tests that better reflect multilingual realities.

Student body diversity is a key goal of Israeli higher education policy. While this goal aims to reduce inequality, a group-based national plan with differential guidelines for Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Jews of Ethiopian descent uncovers systemic stratifying mechanisms. This article examines why a policy intent on promoting equality does so through different paths for different groups. It employs discourse analysis of policy narratives arising from 75 policy documents and 54 interviews with national and institutional policymakers. The findings reveal that simultaneous equalizing and stratifying mechanisms are explained by an intersection of socioeconomic and ethnonational guiding logics. This is conceptualized through a threefold diversity policy model: (1) Universal, encouraging higher education participation as an inclusive civic and social right; (2) Socioeconomic, providing enhanced support based on needs and on perceived economic benefit; and (3) Ethnonational, with stratified recognition, allocation, and implementation mechanisms. This model clarifies how the policy is designed to reduce socioeconomic inequality while still allowing for ethnonational stratification. It contributes to the higher education policy literature by adding citizenship as an important construct of policy processes in diverse societies, to be considered in the pursuit of equity and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, following vigorous public debate, Israel established a centralized biometric database for storing its citizens' bodily information. This step, according to privacy advocates, signifies a critical phase in the development of Israel as a surveillance society. This study examines coverage of Israel's biometric project by three leading Israeli newspapers. Drawing on the intersection of media studies and surveillance studies, it employs discourse analysis to understand how the Israeli press constructs this project in various contexts, asking which narratives are promoted and how they coalesce into a consistent story about Israel's surveillance agenda. The analysis points to two competing sub-discourses – legitimizing and delegitimizing – each of which positions Israel differently, either as a vulnerable victim of external enemies or as an abusive state violating its citizens' rights. Surprisingly, Israeli coverage is more critical than supportive, offering a strong and challenging criticism of Israel's surveillance. I suggest two explanations for the difference between the Israeli case and other accounts, which tend to be supportive, poor, and superficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses the emergence and characteristics of Israeli Medical Association (IMA) discourse on health inequality in Israel during the years 1977–2010. The IMA addressed the issue of health inequality at a relatively late stage in time (2000), as compared to other OECD countries such as the UK, and did so in a relatively limited way, focusing primarily on professional or economic interests. The dominant discourses on health inequalities within the IMA are biomedical and behavioral, characterized by a focus on medical and/or cultural and behavioral differences, the predominant use of medical terminology, and an individualistic rather than a structural conceptualization of the social characteristics of health differences. Additionally, IMA discourses emphasize certain aspects of health inequality such as the geographical and material inequities, and in doing so overlook the role played by class, nationality and the unequal structure of citizenship. Paradoxically, by disregarding the latter, the IMA's discourse on health inequality has the potential to reinforce the structural causes of these inequities. Our research is based on a textual critical discourse analysis (CDA) of hundreds of documents from the IMA's scientific medical journal, the IMA's members journal and public IMA documents such as press-releases, Knesset protocols, publications, and public surveys. By providing knowledge on the different ways in which the IMA, a key stakeholder in the health field, de-codifies, understands, explains, and attempts to deal with health inequality, the article illuminates possible implications on health policy and seeks to evaluate the direct interventions carried out by the IMA, or by other actors influenced by it, pertaining to health inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]