Contributors; Exploring Practices and the Construction of Identities in School: An Introduction; Schooling and Spaces for Learning: Cultural Dynamics and Student Participation and Agency; Boundary Crossing Events and Potential Appropriation Space in Philosophy, Literature and General Knowledge; Rethinking Ethnic Minority Young People’s Participation in Multiple Sociocultural Contexts and Its Impact on Their Cultural Identities; Making Sense of Homework: Parental Resources for Understanding Mathematical Homework in Multicultural Settings; Ethnic Cultural Legacies and Learning English as a Foreign Language: A Social-Cultural Study in Taiwan; Challenging Understandings of Bilingualism in the Language Sciences from the Lens of Research That Focuses Social Practices; Silence Is Silver, Talk Is Gold? Analysis of Classroom Talk in a Learner Centred Setting; Shaping Marginalized Identities and Indexing Deficient Behaviours in a Special Needs Unit; Beyond Teaching and Learning – Disciplining Boys in Remedial Classes during the 1960s in Sweden; The Effect of an Educational Electronic Book on the Emergent Literacy of Preschool Children At-Risk for Learning Disabilities; Video as a Potential Resource for Student Teachers’ AgencyWork; How Dynamic Patterns of Teacher-Child Interaction Can Provide Insight in the Learning Potential of Five Year Olds; Pre-Service Teachers’ Representations of School Mathematics and Immigrant Children; Learning, Social Interaction and Diversity – Future Challenges.

The main idea of the book is to contribute to a broader understanding of learning, identity and diversity by presenting actual research findings that were retrieved from classroom settings and related social practices. Learning is to a large extent an ongoing social process as both students and their teachers learn by being part of shared social practices through social interactions that facilitate learning gains. Sociocultural research shows that the organization of schooling promotes or restricts learning, and is a crucial factor to understand how children from a diversity of backgrounds profit from instruction. This is a first urgent issue to be considered by teachers and teacher education in our socio and culturally diverse society. A second issue is the on-going debate about learning as a process that involves the construction of identities in schools and classrooms, and in the transitions between school and home practices. Last but not least, since school practices can be addressed from the perspective of diversity and special educational needs an on-going discussion about optimizing pedagogical approaches is of main importance to allow maximum educational effectiveness. Our potential audience for this book are researchers, post-graduate students in education and psychology, teachers, teacher education, other academics and policy makers.