In recent years, the use of technology in educational contexts including e-learning has become increasing ubiquitous. While it is commonly believed that technology use can facilitate the process of teaching and learning, it is of paramount importance to adopt a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) to address the needs of students who might experience difficulty because of cultural, linguistic and technological obstacles that might be inherent in the use of educational technology. With this consideration in mind, the present paper reports on the findings of a qualitative research involving three case studies based on structured interviews with three university professors who are experts in developing digital tools and applications for educational purposes. The participants recorded their responses to interview questions on Google Docs over a period of one month, and the data was analysed for significant themes. The data revealed that all participants believe that cultural, methodological and pedagogical barriers can significantly affect the use of educational technology in face-to-face and online classes and can consequently impact student learning. The emergent themes in the data indicate that a solid understanding of the local context in which the process of teaching and learning takes place, flexibility in terms of one’s methodological approaches to teaching and embracing differences in students’ knowledge and abilities can help ensure students succeed in their academic endeavours, they are uncritically accepted and treated in an equitable manner regardless of their competency level. All three participants in the study believe that while there are some cultural and linguistic barriers in e-learning contexts and in developing and using technological applications for students, through adopting the core principles of a culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), they have been successful in achieving the course learning outcomes for their students. They argue that by adapting the language used in applications to the linguistic level of students, using familiar and culturally relevant themes, and adopting a blended approach in which technology complements face-to-face instruction, a better dialogue is established between the teacher and the students, and learning is thus facilitated. The findings of this study reveal that becoming familiar with the local culture, the relevant prescriptions and proscriptions can furnish the education technology developers with the requisite knowledge for creating applications that are relevant to students’ lives and are thus more effectual. Similarly, the results show that educational applications should provide a suitable platform to create and maintain an ongoing intrapersonal and interpersonal dialogue for the students to help them engage in the process of learning in a regular and consistent manner. Implications for pedagogy and research will be discussed.

This study focusses on students’ appraisals of their language learning experiences at university. Forty students in the third and final academic English course at a university in the UAE participated in the study. The participants completed a written survey which was developed based on Scherer’s (1987, 2001, 2011, 2013) framework of appraisals, i.e. pleasantness, novelty, goal-conduciveness, coping potential and self-compatibility checks. The analysis of the qualitative data indicates that almost all of the participants evaluate their language learning experiences positively and consider the programme to be of great value in enabling them to achieve their academic and professional goals. On the other hand, some participants do not see much novelty in terms of the materials presented to them and believe this reduces the level of challenge and motivation for them. Almost all of the participants feel strongly about the use of their first language, i.e. Arabic and the fact that learning English should not affect their use of the first language negatively. One important pedagogical implication of the study is that students’ positive appraisals of the course are largely attributed to the teacher’s method of teaching. Another important pedagogical implication of the study is that correct placement of the students in an academic programme can create the proper level of challenge and hence motivation for the students.

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In this book, Shadiow focusses on the importance of stories as a key source of information in the lives of academics. The author believes our stories, as university teachers, can help develop a better understanding of events which include students within a university context. She likewise maintains that a close re-examination of our stories from our student days, and while teaching at university, can furnish us with multiple perspectives on how things could be done, or could have been done, in a more efficient and productive manner. Overall, Shadiow has accentuated the centrality of the concept of narrativisation of an academic's experiences and has offered a systematic approach to studying our experiences as told in our stories. The book is divided into eight chapters: the first four chapters focus on establishing the theoretical significance of stories in addition to specifying the most likely places in our biographies where we may be able to discover interesting and informative stories. Chapters 5-8 concentrate on developing an appropriate methodology to seek and analyse patterns in our stories in order to understand and develop meanings around events, based on a set of theoretical principles which will be briefly explored in this review.According to Shadiow, we are able to adjust or perhaps change our focus in teaching, if we begin to seek out and reflect on stories of noteworthy events or interactions with our students -stories that are more often than not forgotten or overlooked. She further states that we can also look for enlightening stories in our lives as students, and in our academic life -i.e. in our CVs, in the syllabi and memories of courses we have developed or taught, and in our professional writing: the journal articles we have written and the reviews we have received. The author also maintains that each one of these information sources may include some critical incidents or "breached norms" as Bruner (1996) refers to them, which we can analyse in order to discover the major themes that can inform and improve our approach to understanding our students and our own teaching practice. For example, she writes about her own experience of losing her work-study job during her undergraduate years at university, and subsequently of one occasion when she started teaching at university, when her students suggested a different plan from what she had originally suggested on the syllabus. The main proposition of the book is that our histories as students and academics, in particular the practice of teaching and learning at university itself, create a context rich with stories involving both educators and students. Accordingly, telling these stories can furnish us with valuable insights into, and multiple perspectives on, critical events in the stories. Drawing on Bruner's (1990) work, Shadiow also highlights the importance of our interdependent selves when narrating stories, i.e., self at the time the incident happened, self now, the telling self and the envisaged self, or possible selves in the future base...

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for online teaching and learning during a global crisis, such as the health crisis created by the COVID-19 Pandemic in the year 2020. The paper argues that adopting a combinatorial, ecological approach including five types of affordances, i.e. cultural, social, technological, cognitive and affective affordances can be instrumental in improving the process of teaching and learning in an online learning environment. The authors believe that through proper training, teachers can become more heedful of and knowledgeable about the five types of affordances that the online ecology of learning and teaching offers and can exploit them to deliver better lessons and develop and conduct more practical assessments. It is likewise suggested that students can enjoy better learning experiences, if through proper orientation and preparation, they gain the requisite knowledge about, and master the relevant skills in, identifying and using the relevant affordances in the online learning ecology. In addition, it is proposed that course-related surveys conducted throughout and at the end of each course can provide significant insights as to the availability and applicability of the affordances provided in the online learning environments. Finally, due to the distinctively complex nature of the online ecology of learning and teaching, the authors consider it of paramount importance to provide ongoing advising services for teachers and students alike in the five areas of affordances discussed in this paper.