scholarly journals ICT Capacity Building: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Rwandan Policies from Higher Education Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Claude Byungura ◽  
Henrik Hansson ◽  
Kamuzinzi Masengesho ◽  
Thashmee Karunaratne
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
National Level ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Ict Infrastructure ◽  
Implementation Level

Abstract With the development of technology in the 21st Century, education systems attempt to integrate technology-based tools to improve experiences in pedagogy and administration. It is becoming increasingly prominent to build human and ICT infrastructure capacities at universities from policy to implementation level. Using a critical discourse analysis, this study investigates the articulation of ICT capacity building strategies from both national and institutional ICT policies in Rwanda, focusing on the higher education. Eleven policy documents were collected and deeply analyzed to understand which claims of ICT capacity building are made. The analysis shows that strategies for building ICT capacities are evidently observed from national level policies and only in two institutional policies (KIST and NUR). Among 25 components of ICT capacity building used, the ones related to human capacity are not plainly described. Additionally, neither national nor institutional policy documents include the creation of financial schemes for students to acquire ICT tools whilst learners are key stakeholders. Although there is some translation of ICT capacity building strategies from national to some institutional policies, planning for motivation and provision of incentives to innovators is not stated in any of the institutional policies and this is a key to effective technology integration.

scholarly journals The New CAAT: (Dis)illusions of Freedom and the New College Charter in Ontario

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-120
Author(s):  
Anita Arvast
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
New Era ◽  
Post Secondary

In 2002 a new Ontario college charter signaled a new era for higher education in Ontario. The charter was presumed to usher in a new way of doing higher education, one that provided greater freedom for Ontario colleges and presumably greater access for communities to higher education. Coupled with the Post-Secondary Choice and Excellence Act of 2000, which provided colleges the opportunity to offer degrees, the colleges appeared well set for the freedom they sought. With the decentralization of approval for curriculum comes an appearance of greater autonomy and authority at the local level; however, with steering mechanisms of funding, performance indicators, and discourses of the marketplace, globalization and performativity permeating curriculum processes, “freedom” remains strongly tempered. This paper uses Foucauldian and critical discourse analysis as a means of considering power and higher education in Ontario, and the limitations and opportunities for “freedom” within our existing discourses.  

Dueling discourses, power, and the construction of the recovering addict: When social assistance confronts addiction in Toronto, Canada

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber Gazso
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Work First ◽  
Depth Interviews

In this article, I undertake a critical discourse analysis of policy documents and in-depth interviews with seven caseworkers and 28 benefit recipients to explore how two discourses, ‘work first’ and ‘distance from the labour market,’ inform how persons living with addiction access and then experience social assistance in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Drawing in Foucauldian insights on power, I reveal the conceptualisation of benefit recipients’ eligibility for Ontario Works through these two discourses and how this is replete with ideological assumptions and disciplining power relations, constitutive of a subject position of ‘the recovering addict’, and suggestive of social control implications. I argue that the coercion and regulation of benefit recipients’ lives on Ontario Works has not disappeared but transmuted for Torontonians living with addiction, and conclude by considering the governance of this population as biopower.

The American gaze east

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Trentman ◽  
Wenhao Diao
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Intercultural Learning ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Studying Abroad

Abstract The 21st century has seen an emphasis in US media and policy documents on increasing the numbers of US students studying abroad and also the amount of US students studying ‘critical’ languages. This paper examines the intersection of these discourses, or the experiences of critical language learners abroad. We analyze this intersection by using critical discourse analysis to examine US media and policy documents and data from students studying Arabic in Egypt and Mandarin in China. This analysis reveals considerable discrepancies between rhetoric and experience in terms of language and intercultural learning. We argue that a critical examination of current discourses of study abroad (SA) reveals that they in fact recreate the colonial map, mask global inequalities, and create a new global elite. We conclude that language and intercultural learning abroad will remain a source of tension until SA students and programs critically engage with these discourses.

scholarly journals Settlers, Sell-outs and Sons of the Soil: The Creation of Aliens in Zimbabwe and the Challenge for Higher Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Munyaradzi Hwami
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Great Zimbabwe ◽  
To Come

The contemporary colonial world is witnessing struggles for domination and existence that have led to exclusion of some groups on the basis of parameters defined by the powerful. This contribution observes practices and policies of belonging and exclusion developing in Zimbabwe and argues that higher education should take the lead in discussing and proposing citizenship education that would produce cosmopolitan patriots, responsible and tolerant citizens. The discussion is a critical discourse analysis of dominant colonial forces of authoritarian nationalism and neoliberalism supplemented by personal experience and engagement with students and faculty at the Great Zimbabwe University. What has been observed is the failure of civil society and state led programmes in this endeavour and the honours rests with higher education institutions to develop citizenship education rooted in ideals that critique hegemonic discourses. This demands a change in perspectival foci and this study advances the adoption of anti-colonial liberationist perspectives as one of the options if an end to classification of citizens as aliens and patriots is to come to an end.

scholarly journals International Students as Lucrative Markets or Vulnerable Populations: A Critical Discourse Analysis of National and Institutional Events in Four Nations

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Karram
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Current Events

The migration of post-secondary students is an increasingly debated phenomenon as the number of students living outside of their home country has risen to more than three million in the past decade. Governments, regions and institutions have developed new structures and strategies to facilitate and benefit from this worldwide student movement. This research article uses Fairclough’s (1993) notion of critical discourse analysis to explore the relationship between two distinct discourses on foreign students: national-level economic competitiveness and institutional-level student success. A comparative approach examines these discursive events in the four leading, Anglophone destination countries: Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States. The findings suggest that foreign students are objectified as tradable units in the market-driven discourse of economic development with student support literature providing a buffer that limits the critique of the economic discourse. At the same time, potential exists for current events to highlight the tension surrounding the two discourses and provide new opportunities for dialogue.

scholarly journals Criticality in international higher education research: a critical discourse analysis of higher education journals

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 1091-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrystal A. George Mwangi ◽  
Sadaf Latafat ◽  
Shane Hammond ◽  
Suzan Kommers ◽  
Hanni S. Thoma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
International Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Research ◽  
Higher Education Journals

scholarly journals Are STEM Syllabi Gendered? A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Parson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research University ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Higher Education Institution ◽  
Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
And Gender

This study explored the gendered nature of STEM higher education institution through a feminist critical discourse analysis of STEM course syllabi from a Midwest research university. I explored STEM syllabi to understand how linguistic features such as stance and interdiscursivity are used in the syllabus and how language and discourses used in the syllabus replicate the masculine nature of STEM education. Findings suggest that the discourses identified in the syllabi reinforce traditional STEM academic roles, and that power and gender in the STEM syllabi are revealed through exploration of the themes of knowledge, learning, and the teaching and learning environment created by the language used in the syllabus. These findings inform and extend understanding of the STEM syllabus and the STEM higher education institution and lead to recommendations about how to make the STEM syllabus more inclusive for women.

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