Professor James Albright

Director (Acting), CPLE

Professor, Education

Contact:
Email: James.Albright@newcastle.edu.au

How Professor James Albright conceptualises his research in English education, and pedagogy and schooling in general owes a debt to French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu. His research continues to clarify, broaden and deepen his use of Bourdieusian theories and methodologies, especially field analysis. A Bourdieusian stance can enable a powerful sociological and cultural analysis, enabling researchers, teachers and students to engage with and transform available capital, social fields, and systems of exchange.

Professor Albright is interested in how principled and practicable relations can be drawn from Bourdieusian concepts and models to help us understand the peculiar economy of texts and textual practices circulating in disciplinary fields—how texts are produced and how they are described, interpreted and explained. This interest has been at the heart of his most recent writing on multiliteracies and disciplinarity and has focused on his continuing research in literacy education, curriculum studies, professional development, school reform, and qualitative research.

Over the past few years Professor Albright has worked on innovations projects whose broad goals have been to improve our understanding of the impact of current pedagogical practices, institutional arrangements, and assessment regimes on student outcomes. His understanding of the relevant research suggests that this is best achieved through building teacher capacity through supporting schools as professional learning communities.

Professor Albright's recent research grants

Research Team	Duration (Years)	Funding Body/Client	Title	Grant type
Prof James Albright; A Kramer-Dahl	2008	Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice – Singapore	Evaluation of MOE's Niches of Excellence Programme	-
				S$50,000
Prof James Albright; M Dixon	2007 - 2008	Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice – Singapore	Teachers’ Espoused Beliefs: links to practice	-
				S$50,000
Prof James Albright; M Heng	2006 - 2008	Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice – Singapore	Building Teacher Capacity in Curriculum and Pedagogical Design in Normal Technical Classrooms	-
				S$450,000
Prof James Albright; A Kramer-Dahl	2006 - 2008	Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice – Singapore	Building Communities of Readers among Teachers and Students Innovation	-
				S$400,000

Professor Albright's recent publications

Books:

Albright, J. & Luke, A. (2008). (Eds.). Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education. London: Routledge.

 

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:

Albright. J. & Kramer-Dahl, A. (accepted). “The legacy of instrumentality in policy and pedagogy in the teaching of English: The case of Singapore.” Journal of Papers in Education.

 

Albright, J. (under review). “Contending with Underachievement in the Global City: Singapore's Normal Technical Stream.” Comparative Education Review.

 

Albright, J., Towndrow, P. & Silver, R. E. (under revision) “A response to ‘Educational innovation and the problem of scale,’ Cohen and Ball. (2007).” Journal of Educational Change.

 

Albright, J., Towndrow, P., Kwek, D. & Tan, A-L. (2008). “Identity and Agency in Science Education: Reflections from the far side of the world.” Cultural Studies if Science Education, 3, 1, 145-156.

 

Albright, J., Kwek, D. & Kramer-Dahl, A. (2007). “Contesting pedagogical instrumentality: Building teachers’ creative capabilities in Singapore’s English classrooms.” Literacy, 41, 2, 71–78.

 

Albright, J. (2006). "Literacy Education after Bourdieu,” The American Journal of Semiotics, 2006, 22, 1-4, 107-128.

 

Walsh, C. S. & Albright, J. (2006). “Re-envisioning teacher education in the new media age: multiliteracies, multimodality and internet communication technologies.” In J. Grey, (Ed.). Making Teaching Public: Reforms in teacher education—proceeding of the 2006 Australian Teacher Education Association National Conference, pp. 389-398. ATEA: Australia.

 

Albright, J. Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2006). “Hybridity, Globalization and Literacy Education in the Context of NYC’s Chinatown,” Pedagogies: An International Journal, 1, 4, 221-241.

 

Albright, J. Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2006). “Response to Bettina Fabos” with Christopher S. Walsh and Kiran Purohit. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 1, 4, 247-252.

 

Chapters in Peer-Reviewed Books:

Albright, J. & Luke, A. (2008). Introduction: renewing the cultural politics of literacy education. In Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education, J. Albright & A. Luke. (Eds.). pp 3-10.  London: Routledge.

 

Albright, J. (2008) “Problematics and Generative Possibilities.” In Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education, J. Albright & A. Luke. (Eds.). pp 11-32. London: Routledge.

 

Albright, J. (2008). “Learning from Our Failures.” In Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education. In J. Albright & A. Luke. pp 319-346. London: Routledge

 

Albright, J. Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2007). “Towards a Theory of Practice: Critical Transdisciplinary Multiliteracies.” In Research on Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning, 7, Standards in Education. pp 93-115. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.

 

Albright, J., Purohit, K. & Walsh, C. S. (2005). “Multimodal reading and design in a cross-disciplinary curriculum theorizing.” In .Bokhorst-Heng, W. D., Lee, K., & Osborne, M. (Eds.).  Redesigning pedagogy and reflection on theory and practice. pp 3-18.  Sense Publishers: Rotterdam/Taipei.

 

Reviews:

Albright, J. (in process). “Review essay of Literacies in Childhood: Changing views, challenging practice, (2nd Ed.) and Beyond the Reading Wars.” Journal of Language and Literacy

 

Albright, J. (2005). “Review of Dislocations/Relocations: Narratives of Displacement, edited by Mike Baynham and Anna De Fina. St. Jerome Publishing.” Multilingual Matters, pp. 261

 

Technical Reports:

Albright, J., Kramer-Dahl, A., Kwek, D. (2008). “Evaluation of MOE's Niches of Excellence Programme.” Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice: Singapore.

 

Albright, J., Heng, M., Harris, K, et al (2008). “Building Teacher Capacity in Curriculum and Pedagogical Design in Normal Technical Classrooms Intervention Project Technical Report.” Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice: Singapore.

 

Albright, J. & Dixon, M. (2008). “Teachers’ Espoused Beliefs: links to practice” Principal Investigator. Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice: Singapore.

 

Albright, J., Hogan, D., et al. (2008). “Report to the Ministry of Education (Singapore) on ‘Levelling Up’ Low-performing Students.” National Institute of Education: Singapore.

 

 

Other:

Albright, J. “Building Teacher Capacity in Curriculum and Pedagogical Design in Normal Technical Classroom.” Singteach. Retrieved May 24, 2007 form http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/content/view/203/160

 

Conference Papers:

Albright, J., Heng, M., et al. (2008). “Finding from the Building Teacher Capacity in Curriculum and Pedagogical Design in Normal Technical Classrooms Intervention Project.” CPDD-CRPP Research Seminar II. Singapore Polytechnic, October, 30, 2008.

 

Albright, J. & Walsh, C. S. (2008). “What is Disciplinary in Transdisciplinary.” Pedagogy, Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Language Symposium Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association, University of Sydney, December 8-10, 2008

 

Hogan, D. & Albright, J. (2008). “Researching disciplinarity in Singapore’s education system.” .” Pedagogy, Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Language Symposium, Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association, University of Sydney, December 8-10, 2008

 

Albright, J. (2008). “Struggling against pedagogical instrumentality: Awakening the literary imagination in Singapore’s secondary English classrooms.” AERA, New York.

 

Harris, K., Albright, J., & Natarajan, U. (2008). “What does understanding look like?: Performance and assessment in using an Understanding by Design framework for professional development” AERA, New York.

 

Albright, J. & Walsh, C. (2008). “Pedagogical Transdisciplinarity.” AERA, New York.

 

Albright, J. (2008). “Contenting with Educational Disadvantage in the Global City: Singapore’s Normal Technical Stream.” CIES, New York.

 

Albright, J., Kwek, D, & Tan, S. Y. (2007). “Building Communities of Readers among Teachers: A Reading Innovation Project for Singapore’s Secondary English Teachers.” Language, Education and Diversity Conference, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

 

Albright, J. (2007). “Symposium: Building capacity through in-service teaching interventions: Different means towards the same ends?” Redesigning pedagogy: Culture, Knowledge and Understanding Conference. National Institute of Education, Singapore.

 

Albright, J. (2007). “Symposium: Learning to Leverage: Issues of scalability and sustainability in working on Singaporean school innovation projects.” Redesigning pedagogy: Culture, Knowledge and Understanding Conference. National Institute of Education, Singapore.

 

Albright, J. (2007). “Symposium: Building Teacher Capacity in Curriculum and Pedagogical Design in Normal Technical Classrooms.” Redesigning pedagogy: Culture, Knowledge and Understanding Conference. National Institute of Education, Singapore.

 

Albright, J. (2007). “Symposium: Building Communities of Readers among Teachers and Students.” Redesigning pedagogy: Culture, Knowledge and Understanding Conference. National Institute of Education, Singapore.

 

Albright, J. & Ismail, M. (2006). “Issues facing Teacher Curricular and Pedagogical Capacity in Mature and Emerging Education Systems.” AARE, Adelaide.

 

Albright, J. & Walsh, C. S. (2006). “Re-envisioning Teacher Education in the New Media Age: Multiliteracies, Multimodality and Internet Communication Technologies.” AATE, Freemantle.

 

Albright, J. & Walsh, C. S. (2006). "Incorporating multimodal literacy across disciplines." ALEA/ATEA, Darwin.

 

Albright, J. (2006). “Building Teacher Capacity in Curriculum and Pedagogical Design in Normal Technical Classrooms;” Educational Research Association of Singapore Conference, Singapore.

 

Albright, J. (2006). “Skinning the textual cat: reading from multiple lenses in the secondary English classroom;” LangScape Confernce, Singapore;

 

Albright, J., Walsh, C. S. (2005). “Visual Literacy in School Subjects: Different Practices in Multimodality.”AARE; Parramatta, Australia.

 

Albright, J., Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2005). “Multimodal reading and design in a cross-disciplinary curriculum.” Redesigning Pedagogy and Research, Policy and Practice Conference, National Institute of Education, Singapore.

 

Albright, J., Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2005). “Chinatown: Globalization, hybridity, and literacy education.” Redesigning Pedagogy and Research, Policy and Practice Conference, NIE, Singapore.

 

Albright, J., Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2005) “Multiliteracies in teacher education: Attending to the multisemiotic landscape of disciplinary knowledge.” Redesigning Pedagogy and Research, Policy and Practice Conference, NIE, Singapore

 

Albright, J. , Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K. (2005). “E-Assessment: Mulitmedia semiotic analysis of student-authored hypertext.” With Christopher S. Walsh and Kiran Purohit, Redesigning Pedagogy and Research, Policy and Practice Conference, NIE, Singapore.

 

 Albright, J., Walsh, C. S. & Purohit, K.  (2005). “Hybridity, Globalization and Literacy Education in the Context of NYC’s Chinatown.” Session Title: Spacializing literacies: Studies of special, critical, and digital literacies across contexts, AERA. Montreal.

 

 Albright, J. & Walsh, C. S. (2005). “Visual Literacy in a Cross-disciplinary Curriculum.” AERA. Montreal.

 

Albright, J. & Walsh, C. S. (2005). “Multimodal discourse analysis of student authored hypermedia: Rethinking progressive workshop models.” AERA. Montreal.

 

Education:

The Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction

1996-1999

 

Mount Saint Vincent University,  MA. Ed., Literacy Education

1992-1996

 

Dalhousie University, B.Ed. 1973-1974

 

Trent University, BA., 1969-1972

 

Employment:

December 2008

Professor, School of Education, Newcastle University

 

September 2005 to December 2008

Associate Professor, National Institute of Education

Nanyang Technological University

 

August, 1999 to September, 2005                      

Assistant Professor, English Education/Teaching of English Program

Department of Arts and Humanities, Teachers College, Columbia University

 

2000, 1997-1998, 1995

Part-time lecturer, Mount Saint Vincent University

 

1996-1997, 1998-1999

Pre-doctoral Lecturer, Department of Curriculum Studies

The Pennsylvania State University

 

1974-1995, 1997-1998

Teacher, Halifax District School Board, Halifax, NS