Racism is traditionally studied from an individualistic perspective emphasising personality characteristics, motivations and basic cognitive processes. Some researchers have shifted their attention to the study of racist discourse. The present study tries to extend this work on discourse in two ways. First, by focusing on the everyday meaning of racism itself, rather than by defining racism and using this definition as the central analytical category. It is investigated how ethnic Dutch speakers when they talk and argue among themselves, reconcile racist (...) talk with their identity as a reasonable and moral person. Second, conversational interactions were studied in order to examine the effectiveness of constructions. Few studies investigate the question of consequences of varying constructions. It is argued that in order to show that constructions play an important role in shaping subjects’ understandings and actions it is necessary to go beyond textual deconstructions and to investigate conversations. (shrink)

Educational assessment and marking, in particular, give teachers considerable power over students and their future possibilities. Analysing a teachers' meeting discussing school reports in a secondary school showed that marking involves teachers' accountability to colleagues. An examination of the situated interpretations and explanations of unsatisfactory school marks also showed how various discursive devices were used for building a factual account. Confirmed expectations, extreme case formulations, introducing corroborating witnesses, the deployment of cited others, defining exceptional cases, detailed descriptions and narratives, and (...) the use of different accounts all served to emphasize the role of the students and hide the teachers from view. In addition, teachers' joint constructions had practical consequences for remedial interventions. Decisions for intervention were dependent on the accounts given. (shrink)