Rights Analysis:: Studying Power Relations in an Academic Setting

Abstract To investigate how NNS students at a US college respond to institutional and professorial control, the author studied power relations in a paired EAP⧸psychology course. The study, a response to the exclusive focus on academic requirements of needs analysis, included rights analysis of the data. Rights analysis examines how power is exercised and resisted in various aspects of an academic situation, including the pedagogy and the curriculum. Presentation of the data includes discussion of how the psychology professor established control and how the students resisted his authority in various ways. The role of coverage of lecture and textbook material in regulating teaching and learning is discussed. Implications of an EAP teacher encouraging students to ask questions and make suggestions for pedagogical change are also discussed.

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