"The lasting impression of Yandell’s study is that it empowers the classroom, reminding us that classrooms, and by extension formal schooling, should not only be seen as a place to acquire knowledge but to construct, negotiate and contest meaning in a social setting. It is certainly refreshing to see a researcher present a perspective of the classroom that takes into account its social context where learning is realistically seen not as an individual accomplishment but one that involves a teacher with a group of students with different backgrounds, cultures, characters and different ways of learning. With a compressive theory-based account of rich analysis of evidence from the classroom, Yandell’s book would be beneficial to teachers, educators and researchers interested in the teaching of English, the reading of literary texts and pedagogy in general." - Jia Wei Lim, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, Pedagogies: An International Journal, March 2015
"John Yandell’s book is remarkable in the way it uses ethnographic observation of classroom discourse to make an eloquent argument for students’ authentic, embodied engagement with and response to their reading… Reading Yandell’s book, one may feel frustrated, at certain points, that the learning he describes cannot be easily assessed by conventional means. Yet, in these classrooms, culture is constantly being remade." - John Hodgson, University of the West of England, UK, English in Education Vol.49 No.3 2015
"Yandell’s book is accessibly written, sharply argued, rooted in lived classroom experience and informed by an intellectual tradition which, though currently marginalised, continues to offer a rich educational vision. That tradition defends space vital for today’s English teachers, and offers ways to extend it. So does this book." - Patrick Yarker, University of East Anglia, The Literary London Journal, Volume 11 Number 1 (Spring 2014)
"John Yandell’s The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban Classrooms provides a powerful counterpoint to current policy discourse in education. By focusing on the social interactions that occur in the classrooms of two English teachers, Yandell shows how their pupils are able to explore dimensions of language and experience that far exceed the outcomes prescribed by official curriculum documents."- Brenton Doecke, School of Education, Deakin University, Changing English, June 2014
"The lasting impression of Yandell’s study is that it empowers the classroom, reminding us that classrooms, and by extension formal schooling, should not only be seen as a place to acquire knowledge but to construct, negotiate and contest meaning in a social setting. It is certainly refreshing to see a researcher present a perspective of the classroom that takes into account its social context where learning is realistically seen not as an individual accomplishment but one that involves a teacher with a group of students with different backgrounds, cultures, characters and different ways of learning. With a compressive theory-based account of rich analysis of evidence from the classroom, Yandell’s book would be beneficial to teachers, educators and researchers interested in the teaching of English, the reading of literary texts and pedagogy in general." - Jia Wei Lim, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, Pedagogies: An International Journal, March 2015
"John Yandell’s book is remarkable in the way it uses ethnographic observation of classroom discourse to make an eloquent argument for students’ authentic, embodied engagement with and response to their reading… Reading Yandell’s book, one may feel frustrated, at certain points, that the learning he describes cannot be easily assessed by conventional means. Yet, in these classrooms, culture is constantly being remade." - John Hodgson, University of the West of England, UK, English in Education Vol.49 No.3 2015
