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In Genre Analysis Swales encouraged us to see genres in terms of the communities in which they are used and as a function of the choices and constraints acting on text producers. It is this sensitivity to community practices which make genre a rich source of insights into two key concepts of the social sciences – community and identity. In this paper I take up these themes to explore the relationships between community expectations and the individual writer. To do so I use a corpus approach to recover evidence for repeated patterns of language which encode disciplinary preferences for different points of view, argument styles, attitudes to knowledge, and relationships between individuals and between individuals and ideas. The paper attempts to show how genre can offer insights into the ways actors understand both the here-and now interaction (the context of situation) and the broader constraints of the wider community which influence that interaction (the context of culture), revealing something of actors' orientations to scholarly communities and the ways they stake out individual positions.

We present a qualitative study of Projecting Health, a public health project we deployed in rural Uttar Pradesh (India) to address persistently high maternal and infant mortality rates. This project is based on our model of Community-led Video Education (CVE), which leverages community resources for the generation, dissemination, and assimilation of visual media. We use the lens of information flows to examine how our instantiation of CVE enables the translation of globally approved health care norms to local household practices. We also demonstrate how CVE allows for integration with current community practices, existing state-supported health care infrastructure, social and patriarchal structures, and power dynamics within our target populations to drive community participation.

This essay investigates the multiple issues of feminism’s combat with the triple P’s, phallocentric disposition, patriarchal authority, and the paterfamilias. Researchers propose to apply the Theory of Community of Practice to the feminism writings by selecting three short stories of female writers. Researcher’s primary text includes Banana Yoshimoto’s Newlywed from Japan; Ding Ling’s When I was in Xia village from China and Krys Lee’s Temporary Marriage from Korea. After analyzing the domain of language, power and gender and also exploring the community of practice theory, Researcher dig out that the three aspects in researcher research area overlap and complement each other. The gender or the community in general contributes the other gender to accept its practices. The negligence, rebel or protest result in personal isolation and rebuke from society in general. But, exceptions do arise and mark themselves according to their capacity. A remedy is possible when all the lingering threads of language, power and gender and community practices are knitted in a harmonized pattern of social and linguistic applications. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n2p223

In this chapter, we use the work of Hardt and Negri (2000, 2004, 2009) to explore experiences of labour as embedded in networks. First, we outline the project briefly. Secondly, we highlight Hardt and Negri’s theoretical concepts. Thirdly, we present excerpts from the data, which illustrate the networked nature of the workers. We argue that analysis needs to look beyond seeing workers as vulnerable and individualised units. Families are central to ways in which workers enact work decisions and community practices. The data we present here are based on qualitative interviews with Chinese workers. There is much debate about the status and definitions ascribed to this group of workers, and our sample contained undocumented, ‘unauthorised’ workers, including student visa and work permit overstayers. The methodology and partnership between the university and the social enterprise Wai Yin, who helped to define the research and carry out the work, are reported elsewhere (Kagan et al., 2011). Our partnership approach, working with a social enterprise, is seemingly in line with the position of the intellectual as advocated by Hardt and Negri: The intellectual is and only can be a militant, engaged as a singularity among others, embarked on the project of co-research aimed at making the multitude. The intellectual is thus not ‘out in front’ to determine the movements of history or ‘on the sidelines’ to critique them but rather completely ‘inside’. (2004: 118)

This article reports on my doctoral research around community organizations in the inner city of Sydney, Australia. The neighbourhood centres (NCs) provide a case study of sites where discourses of feminism, multiculturalism and urban environmentalism have been activated within a social justice framework. The research participants were activists involved in the establishment of the organizations and community workers employed by the organizations in the past. These activists and community workers have an interest in structural theories of social change; however, the introduction of theories from post-structural and post-modern perspectives into the research conversations provided a way to talk through dilemmas identified in community organization practice. This points towards a productive use of ‘post’ theories in examining community practices and also opened up some surprising directions in the research. For example, the language of political subjectivity and pos itioning provided additional tools for th...

This paper investigates the possibility of community under modern conditions of “worldlessness,” displacement, and disburdenment, conditions recently materialized in, and accelerated by, digital information and communication technologies. The paper engineers an encounter between two literatures: the body of philosophical writing that locates the phenomenon of worldlessness in the progress of modern technology generally; and the growing social science literature examining the character and dynamics of digitally-mediated community practices and forms. The paper begins with a theoretical exegesis of aspects of the work of three thinkers—Harold Innis, Hannah Arendt, and Albert Borgmann—who have made thoughtful contributions to our understand of the technological phenomenon gathered here as worldlessness. It then proceeds to reflect upon recent empirical accounts of digitally-mediated community, in light of the philosophical questions raised by these thinkers. The paper concludes by arguing that digital technology, as it is elaborated in the context of contemporary liberal capitalism, provides a material setting in which community is likely to thrive only in a particular, truncated form: as an infrastructure of convenience for instrumental communication between networked individuals.

Three approaches to the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) are identified, the Critical approach, the Pragmatic approach, and the Critical Pragmatic approach. Critical EAP is appealing pedagogically because of its restive questioning of discourse norms, although it can seem reactionary at times. By focusing on the acquisition of the same dominant norms, Pragmatic EAP has a clear goal, but it often fails to acknowledge difference in community practices. Critical Pragmatism fuses Critical EAP's focus on difference in the academy with Pragmatic EAP's focus on access to the academy. The Critical Pragmatic approach is illustrated by activities for postgraduate and research students which centre on the use of personal pronouns and possessive adjectives.

Cultural studies, as a cultural and political re-articulation of common sense, knowledge and community practices, aims at opening up new cultural space for criticisms, reflections and action. Originating from the women' movement and later flourishing in the academy as well, feminism espouses similar aims to cultural studies. Both cultural studies and feminist/gender studies have a strong sense of intervening into everyday life politics. This paper is an attempt to discuss how feminism and cultural studies interface with each other, largely based on examples of gender-related everyday life politics taken from the feminist movement in Hong Kong. It will examine issues concerning the conflict of consumption and female subjectivities, the reconceptualization of home and housewives, and the representation of everyday life for women and history writing. It is argued that by blurring, negotiating or deconstructing the boundary or division between positions, identities and domains–such as subject and object, hous...

The National University of Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina, called for the incorporation of Socio-Community Practices (PSC) as part of the curriculum in Higher Education. Within the framework of this innovation, the "Socio-Community Practice as a tool for articulation with the initial level at the Jorge Newbery School" was developed within the Agronomic Engineering career. This practice of socio-educational application promotes and makes possible the establishment of social networks and of more inclusive and integrating communities as pedagogical instances of university formation in contexts of solidarity. The objectives were to develop in university students socio-critical attitudes of solidarity, in an interdisciplinary framework with social actors not belonging to their academic environment and at the same time promote in children of the primary school level an ecological conscience, the consumption of healthy foods and organic products from the self-production of vegetables. In different meetings with the children of the Jorge Newbery School, the students of the Agronomic Engineering career developed thematic axes coordinated by a team of interdisciplinary teachers and professionals from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology. This experience generated networks of exchange and enriching instances of the teaching-learning process between students and teachers of differents levels.

VET research community. Practices 'out there' are based on assumptions and have seldom been underpinned by research, and no adequate theories have been developed to give a general sense of direction and coherence to the field. This article presents the main conclusions of research undertaken to 'capture' this new and largely uncharted area. For this purpose, a three-pronged approach has been adopted. The first consists in delineating its contours through the collection and analysis of empirical data. The second is a conceptual exercise, trying to construct an adequate theoretical framework, mainly by combining and adapting theories from neighbouring fields. The final line of the work has as its aim, by combining the outcomes from the first and second phases, to try and trace pathways towards a proper pedagogy for the activity of 'transnational mobility' in a VET context. Due to the complexity of the field and the paucity of prior research and development activities, much of the exercise has been a heuristic one, with empirical and theoretical work undertaken concurrently. The overriding aim has been to identify and capture strategic points, leaving behind many pockets of resistance for a later stage. The research started in 1999 and is ongoing. The term 'transnational mobility' has been used throughout the article to describe a phenomenon which is, basically, a period of work experience (or workbased learning) undertaken in another country. The term 'transnational' is not wholly satisfactory, since it may be said to represent a piece of political wishful thinking rather than being a neutral descriptor of the activity. The term indicates the creation of a space that lies over and beyond the confines of individual nations or Member States and is truly 'European' in a sense that is yet to be achieved. Likewise with the term 'mobility' which denotes an ability (namely the ability to be mobile, which carries positive connotations) rather than the actual movement itself. Through its use in European Commission contexts, the term has gained

How do emotions move and how do emotions move us? How are feelings and recognitions distributed socio-materially? Based on a multi-site ethnographic study of a ëromanticí correspondance system, this article explores the themes of love, privacy, identity and public displays. Informed by ethnomethodology and actor- network theory its investigations into these ëinformalí affairs are somewhat unusual in that much of the research carried out by those bodies of work concentrates on ëinstitutionalí settings such as laboratories, offices and courtrooms. In common with ethnomethodology it attempts to re-specify some topics of interest in the social sciences and humanities; in this case, documents and practices of writing and reading those documents. A key element of the approach taken is restoring to reading and writing their situated nature as observable, knowable, distributed community practices. Re- specifying topics for the social sciences involves the detailed description of several situated ways in which the ëromanticí correspondence system is used. Detailing the translations, transformations and transportations of documents as ‘quasi- objects’ through several orderings, the article suggests that documents have no essential meaning and that making them meaningful is part of the work of those settings.

This research report examines self-continuity and its role as a protective factor against suicide. First, we review the notions of personal and cultural continuity and their relevance to understanding suicide among First Nations youth. The central theoretical idea developed here is that, because it is constitutive of what it means to have or be a self to somehow count oneself as continuous in time, anyone whose identity is undermined by radical personal and cultural change is put at special risk of suicide for the reason that they lose those future commitments that are necessary to guarantee appropriate care and concern for their own well-being. It is for just such reasons that adolescents and young adults - who are living through moments of especially dramatic change - constitute such a high-risk group. This generalized period of increased risk during adolescence can be made even more acute within communities that lack a concomitant sense of cultural continuity which might otherwise support the efforts of young persons to develop more adequate self-continuity-warranting practices. We present data to demonstrate that, while certain indigenous or First Nations groups do in fact suffer dramatically elevated suicide rates, such rates vary widely across British Columbia's nearly 200 aboriginal groups: some communities show rates 800 times the national average, while in others suicide is essentially unknown. Finally, we demonstrate that these variable incidence rates are strongly associated with the degree to which British Columbia's 196 bands are engaged in community practices that are employed as markers of a collective effort to rehabilitate and vouchsafe the cultural continuity of these groups. Communities that have taken active steps to preserve and rehabilitate their own cultures are shown to be those in which youth suicide rates are dramatically lower.

The Banjaras were a mobile community of central India. Portage of goods and services was their primary occupation. This brought them in contact with a whole spectrum of population from the plains to the hills. It also generated tremendous diversity within the Banjara society in terms of language, customs, beliefs and practices. It developed in them a rather casual, unorthodox and open attitude towards religion, family, and women. Many of the practices which were prohibited in the mainstream orthodox Hindu and Muslim society were freely practised in the Banjara Community. Practices such as courtship and pre‐marital sex; late marriage; widow re‐marriage and so on, were common social practices much to the suspicion of religious orthodoxy and the colonial state. Since the colonial state was ever suspicious and fearful of the moving people, the Banjaras became the target of colonial wrath. The main aim of the colonial state was to coerce the Banjaras to sedentirise into settled agriculture. The entire colonial...

In other words, Scott recognized that our individual felt sense of rhetoric participates in larger group and community practices, which give our sense of rhetoric both a purpose and a justification. Scott uses two key examples to illustrate his point. One of them concerns the way in which Huey Newton, the Black revolutionary of the 60s, confronts an unspecified number of policemen with a gun in his hand. Bobby Seale, Newton's colleague in the Black Panther Party, reports that these policemen were "checking out" some people hanging around the party office when Newton intervened

This paper examines the interaction between Chongqing’s Red culture programme (2008-2012) and the practices of Singing Red by retiree participants during the campaign. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during fieldwork in Chongqing, this paper argues that the community practices of retirees constitute a distinctive structure that is less powerful but more durable than that of the official Red culture programme. The practice of Singing Red by the retirees in their daily life did not subvert, but exercised tactical effect on the official programme.

French governmental policymaking operates by top-down processes of decision-making, jeopardizing all forms of power transfer and social transformation. The technocratic structure of public health promotes cost-effective, evidence-based curative and preventive strategies, focusing on individuals rather than on contexts. On the other hand, field workers, whose theoretical orientation is based mainly on psychoanalysis and individual clinical practices, are as reluctant as policymakers to move towards community practices and power sharing processes. This paper is based on our work as a community psychologist, working in a French governmental agency, and as a sociologist of mental health studying the processes of political decision-making in regard to preventive public health policies. The objective is first to reflect on the distinctive aspects of governmental policymaking in our country, and second, to underline the obstacles to and facilitators of success in our social policy-related work. In our context, we propose that community psychologists act in order to (1) apply social science knowledge and contextualize actions, with the intention to help political decision-making by including environmental, social and community variables in the definition of human processes and behaviors; 2) criticize the top-down decision-making process and the focus on the individual, by developing an interactionist model of knowledge evaluation, which would allow vertical understanding and decision-making to tilt horizontally, and 3) support people to create legitimate knowledge from their contexts rather than empowering them through psychological interventions.

Using the highly anticipated release of the film version of "The Hunger Games" series as a case study, this study explores online fan community practices that employ the technological affordances of Twitter. We examine roleplaying practices that extend the Hunger Games story for roleplayers and fans. We conducted a discourse analysis examining the practices of active roleplayers, who interact with thousands of other fans and fellow players to continue their experience of the story, and engage in what we term Twitter play. Our findings illustrate how roleplayers are able to use Twitter to expand their experience of media and story. By examining roleplayers' use of Twitter affordances, we find that these performers not only exhibit deep knowledge of their characters and the narrative, but also of Twitter, demonstrated by expanding the uses of the service's affordances to playfully connect the story with popular culture and current events.

When our colleagues and I (Morelli) wrote about the cultural nature of psychology’s most influential theory of relatedness in 2000, we did so in the hope of a rapprochement with theorists wedded to a more universalistic view of attachment (Rothbaum et al. 2000). We questioned the key tenets of sensitive parenting, secure base, and child competency and brought to bear what we knew about other community practices to make clear the ideological underpinnings of this theory—as others had done before us (e.g., Fiske et al. 1998; Harwood et al. 1995; LeVine and Miller 1990; Takahashi 1990). We spoke of the value of including communities with different traditions to learn what mattered to them about relationships to refine our thinking about attachment theory—not to dismantle it. We ended our essay noting: Opening the door to human diversity could greatly enrich the understanding of the myriad ways in which human relationships take shape, go awry, and undergo repair in social contexts around the world. Expanding the research agenda in this way may, in fact, reveal what an intellectual treasure chest attachment theory truly is. (1102)

This chapter presents and illustrates the theoretical position that as people participate in sociocultural activities, they contribute to the development of community practices that simultaneously contribute to the individuals' own development.

It is important to neither over-emphasise nor understate the importance of productive post-school transitions. However, for students who are at risk of unsuccessful transitions, there are potential and long-lasting risks. Consequently, there is a need to understand more about post-school transitions and the ways in which policy settings, and school and community practices as well as students themselves can assist the transition process in contemporary and future times. Indeed, the imperatives for productive transitions come from governments. Their concern that education systems prepare and support young people’s post-school transitions leading to productive outcomes in terms of employment or further education and avoiding drifts to unemployment and disengagement from productive economic and societal roles is evident in policy. Parent and communities may well similarly look to the schooling provision to achieve productive outcomes of these kinds for young people, and industry for related but different purposes. In many ways, these transitions are seen as tangible measures of schools’ and the schooling system’s performance. Yet, factors beyond the school itself also shape the kinds of provisions offered to school students and, importantly, how these students engage with such provisions. Hence, to understand transitions and how they might progress productively requires a consideration of the range of contributing factors and also how students take them up: affordances and engagements. This chapter provides an overview of how combinations of affordances and engagements are enacted through the perspectives, approaches and practices articulated through the contributions to this book from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Switzerland and Australia. These contributions range from the articulation of practices, policies and implementation issues across a range of nation states, through to comparisons of how such factors play out in schools across a single educational jurisdiction. In all, they emphasise that post-school transitions are events shaped by more than school policies and practices alone and their worth, enactment and intents are subject to the actions and appraisals of those who participate in them directly or indirectly.

In this chapter, we focus on the importance of groups in the language learning process and consider how several of the constructs addressed in other chapters of this book function together in group contexts. The general tendency within research in both educational psychology and second language education has been to regard the individual as the principal unit of investigation, but here we hope to make the case for a complementary recognition of the role of groups in understanding behaviour and learning. In order to do this we first consider some of the literature relating to the concept of group dynamics. In this chapter, we take an intentionally broad view of this concept, which we use as an umbrella term to include, what have been called in the literature, community practices, cooperative practices, and collaborative practices. We then support this discussion of the literature by presenting a research study that we believe offers a pedagogically accessible framework for both teachers and researchers to understand language learning groups.

C. Vidal—"African Solidarity": Reexamining a Myth. ; Whether presented in populist terms or from a pessimistic perspective, the "solida-rism" thesis does not take account of actual community practices. Without any critical perspective, it adopts commonsense discourse about "African solidarity".

SUMMARY Communities in health literature are often treated as homogeneous entities, in which community members are believed to share needs, goals, resources and social and cultural values. This perception of community is too narrow to grasp the complexity and dynamics of community life and neglect the different ways community members use, perceive and interact in their community. In this study, we outline a theoretical approach that embraces community diversity, by focusing on how community life is being practiced by its members and how they interact with each other. Adopting this theoretical approach, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in a multi-ethnic and socially deprived neighbourhood in Denmark, which had undergone a long process of community building. We found five major ways of community practices based on interactions (i) in specific community spaces, (ii) related to specific activities, (iii) in sharing experiences of community history, (iv) on loyalty within one’s social networks and (v) on sharing ethnicity. Distinguishing between different modes of interacting in community, offers a holistic perspective that includes those ‘invisible’ community members who usually do not participate in community development programmes. We argue that working with a more thorough understanding of the contrasting realities of community life is particularly useful for health professionals who are engaged in community organizing and in encouraging members to participate in building healthy communities.

The report by Piat, "The NIMBY Phenomenon: Listening to Community Residents' Concerns about Developing Housing for Deinstitutionalized People," is a very stimulating and challenging piece of qualitative research. It is not only written well, but also deals with a unique and important topic, the NIMBY ("not in my back yard") phenomenon, that many social workers need to deal with in their community practices. Using a naturalistic paradigm, the author reports interesting findings from the well-designed study based on actual cases of community opposition toward group homes in three Canadian communities. Although the NIMBY is as old and common a phenomenon as the history of most treatment and rehabilitation facilities in residential areas, the strength of this study is that it primarily focuses on community residents' viewpoints and perspectives. The study findings suggest several important implications for social work practitioners and social planners in the health care services field. The underlying tenet of this study appears to be the value issues behind community reactions, particularly of the opposition side. Social work is a helping profession with specific values. In the case of the United States, the NASW Code of Ethics (as revised, 1997) sets forth values, ethical principles, and professional standards to which all social workers aspire and by which they can be judged. The Code delineates six values as key to social work and prescribes ethical principles based on these values. Among these six, the first four seem to be particularly related to the NIMBY problem: (1) Social workers' primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems; (2) social workers challenge social injustice; (3) social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person; (4) social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships. All of these values prescribe certain ethical standards that concern social workers' responsibilities to clients, in practice settings, and to broader society as well as to colleagues, as professionals, and to the profession. This study as field research properly addresses the first three constituents very well with a keen perception and balanced assessment. In this study, the research design, data gathering technique, analytical and reconstructive scheme are extremely well done. However, there seems to be a lack of clarity in the case selection process. "Maximum variation sampling" may be fine for a small qualitative study, with those five selection variables. However, one (perhaps the most important) criteria was not included or specified--timing. The author stated that "Incidents of community opposition to the group homes had occurred during a two-year period at the time of study" (p. 129), and "the group homes had been in operation between four months and one year" at the time of the study (p. 130). The NIMBY, like any other social phenomenon or movement, is time-sensitive. Many problem-focused social activities and phenomenon gradually or even suddenly retard as time passes or as momentum is lost. Thus, exactly when this study took place vis-[grave{e}]-vis the stage of each group home development would very much determine the extent and intensity of communi ty reaction to the arrival of such group homes--during the planning stage, at the beginning, within three months, six months, or a year later. At what point of development or operation the data was collected needs to be specified for each case, because that can be an important control variable. The sampling of community residents (n = 13) was based on the purposive method (names "taken from press clippings") and then the snowball method (their suggestions). This approach, although useful and popular, may highly skew the findings to the most outspoken voices in each community, let alone nonrepresentative reactions of each community. An active vocal minority, even though powerful and influential, does not necessarily reflect the true reactions of the community majority. …

Kathryn L. Morgan (1919-2010)Debora Kodish and Marilyn White Philadelphia Folklore Project and Kean UniversityKathryn Morgan's groundbreaking book, Children of Strangers (1980), was the first work of African American family folklore by a folklorist. What a voice, and what stories. If she hadn't known about Caddy Gordon, her great-greatgrandmother, whose legacy is recounted in the volume, she would have had to invent her, Morgan said. Read the book.1 From the first sentence, this is anti-racist work. Work that builds strength and power in the face of fear and all that is ugly. In her writing, and in her life, Morgan showed how to be courageous and righteous, true to enduring values, accountable to the beloved community who makes us who we hope to be.M organ took folklore seriously. She simply refused to countenance the idea that there was any second-class status to the training she had received from her own family and community, or to the inherited stories that proved sturdy antidotes to racism and other toxins. She refused to accept that African American folklore could be defined by white scholars with suspect intentions, focused only on "street" genres, or defined by lack or pathology. She rejected the notion that history could be defined without reference to the oral traditions that people shaped and shared themselves.K athryn Morgan grounded herself in a history of Black self-determination, valuing community practices that build power, dignity, and cultural health. Her Afrocentrism embraced "children of strangers": people who defined their status and humanity by actions, by choosing to identify with (and be accountable to) communities of choice. She acted out of love and expansively: in scholarship, poetry, and creative work, in holding forth. And she refused to be silent in the face of racism, injustice, or stupidity. In her writing (and her life and being), she insisted on the power of folklore in exposing lies. The family stories she studied and encouraged others to study exemplify a way to be in the world.B orn and raised in Philadelphia, Morgan earned an MA from Howard University (1952) and an MA (1968) and PhD (1970) from the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1970s she held visiting teaching positions at Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, the University of Delaware, and the University of California at Berkeley. Other professional affiliations included the National Council of Black Studies, the Association of African and African American Folklorists, the National Afrocentric Institute, and the Philadelphia Folklore Project, upon whose board she sat in the early 1990s. She taught and spoke widely on African American folklore, history, and culture.The first African American woman to earn the PhD in folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, the first African American professor (and first folklorist in the History Department) in 1970 at Swarthmore College, the first African American on the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society in 1991, Morgan unerringly spoke truth to power. As the first in many places unaccustomed to the presence of a strong Black woman who knew who she was, Morgan faced and surmounted challenges with grace and humor."I learned at 10 years old to disturb the peace of racism, and I will continue doing so for as long as I live," she said in 2000, in an interview with a former Swarthmore student, Laura Markowitz. Markowitz shares Morgan's account of how, in 1976, she was denied tenure at Swarthmore. Her history colleagues didn't consider folklore a valid form of investigation. …

As the chief executive officer, the superintendent must demonstrate high quality performance at every level in order to impact student achievement. In order to be an effective superintendent, the individual must have knowledge and skills in educational leadership and be able to articulate information clearly and precisely about the school district, state and federal accountability systems, policy related to student achievement and personnel practices. The American Association of School Administrators states that the superintendent must know policy for collective bargaining processes for the state/local schools, school district policy and administrative regulations, district finances and budget matters, model the use of technology for instruction and management and should know the role of the Board of Education (AASA, 2011). Superintendents do not work alone, but work in collaboration with school personnel, leadership teams, broader communities and the Board of Education to ensure a productive school system. The responsibilities of the superintendent are many. The superintendent has the task to supervise the general conduct of district schools, instructional curriculum, handle school district management affairs, hiring appropriate personnel and dismissal of personnel based on state policy through the human resources management office. For the local schools, the superintendent should seek ways to encourage the practices of learning communities within the school district for the purpose of working together to improve teaching instructional skills based on the needs of students and if effective will promote higher student learning (Stoll, 2006). This study will focus on skills and knowledge needed for superintendents, what parents want, value of data, strategic planning, effective communication, learning community practices of ethics and morals, technology as a resource, and the characteristics of high performing schools.

La presente investigación se desarrolló en el telecentro provincial “Telecubanacán”, del Sistema de la Televisión Cubana, con el objetivo de proponer el diseño de su identidad visual a partir de identificar los elementos que contribuyan a formar la imagen deseada. El estudio se abordó desde la metodología cualitativa y el método investigación-acción, desde abril de 2009 a mayo de 2010. Las técnicas de investigación empleadas fueron: análisis de documentos, observaciones participantes, entrevistas semiestructuradas, sesiones grupales y briefing operativo. Consejo de Dirección, fundadores, promociones recientes de la Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de la Villas en el telecentro y expertos fueron las unidades de análisis. Se expusieron puntos de vista en torno a la identidad visual corporativa y su integración a las acciones de comunicación como verdadero valor añadido, distinguiendo elementos básicos del diseño para el caso particular de la televisión. Inicialmente, fue caracterizada la identidad visual de Telecubanacán. Para la propuesta de diseño se precisaron los elementos de identidad visual necesarios, a partir de la imagen deseada de ser un telecentro de proximidad, cercano a las prácticas comunitarias y elevar su status e indicadores de prestigio, reconociéndose como un colectivo profesional. Se propuso la aplicación de la nueva identidad visual en los distintos espacios de emisión y la disposición de sus aplicaciones en la arquitectura de la organización. Ello devino un elemento integrador que los hace singulares, comunes, sinérgicos y coherentes en aras de una emisión integrada de comunicación. The present investigation was developed in the provincial channel "Telecubanacán", Sistem of Cuban Television, with the objective of proposing the design of its visual identity starting from identifying the elements that contribute to form the desired image. The study was approached from the qualitative methodology and the method investigation-action. It was carried out from April 2009 to May 2010. The research techniques used were: analysis of bibliography, participant´s observation, semi-structured interviews, groupal sessions and operative briefing. The leading staff, founders, recent promotions of the Central University "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas in the channel and experts were the analysis units. Points of view about the corporative visual identity and their integration to the communication actions were exposed as a true added value, distinguishing basic elements of the design for the specific case of television. At first, the visual identity of Telecubanacán was characterized. For the design proposal the necessary elements of visual identity were determined, starting from the desired image of being a TV channel close to the community practices to elevate its status and indicators of prestige, recognizing it as a professional staff. The application of the new visual identity was proposed in the different broadcasting spaces and the disposition of its applications in the architecture of the organization was also proposed. The new visual identity became in integrative element that makes the channel singular, common, and coherent for the sake of an integrated broadcast of communication.

Although the social theory behind sociolinguistics is in need of explicit formulation and critique, basic insights from the field can be of considerable value in addressing current debates concerning social reproduction. Using sociolinguistic concepts of status and solidarity and empirical evidence from Catalonia and other community studies, this paper argues that the emphasis by reproduction theorists on formal institutions such as the school is misplaced, and that the structuralist representation of dominant, hegemonic ideologies as impenetrable does not capture the reality of working-class and minority community practices. Attention to sociolinguistic evidence by social theorists could advance the understanding of hegemonic and oppositional cultural practices in the maintenance of social inequality. [Spain, language variation, sociolinguistic theory, cultural hegemony, social reproduction]