Abstracts - Earli

questions, methodology and methods, stance regarding the research population, and contribution toknowledge and meaning. This paper reports on research conducted with a small number of PhDand MA women’s studies students from 2004-6. It links developing theories of threshold concepts(Meyer & Land, 2003) with those concerning feminist research (Wisker, 2005; Leonard, 2001),where the involvement in feminist research is seen as the threshold concept, particularly in relationto its vision, approaches and strategies. It leads to a consideration of how in challenging researchorthodoxies ‘becoming’ feminist researchers develop both voice and identity.Studying doctoral education: Using Activity Theory as a methodological toolCathy Beauchamp, Bishop’s University, CanadaLynn McAlpine, McGill University, CanadaMarian Jazvac-Martek, McGill University, CanadaIn the progress toward their goal of completing a Ph.D. and establishing an academic identity,doctoral candidates participate in multiple contexts. Our project has focused on the study of thesecontexts, or activity systems, with a view to understanding the dynamics and tensions of thedoctoral experience in education. To do so, we have used Activity Theory (AT) as amethodological tool in the construction of protocols for investigating the nature of doctoralcandidates’ participation in a variety of activities, in keeping with the idea that AT may bevaluable as an analytical lens for studying and modifying practice (Daniels, 2004). We report hereon the methodology used to develop one such protocol using key concepts of AT as a basis forformulating questions for doctoral candidates. Our preliminary findings (e.g., range of interactionsacross the academic community and beyond that influence ‘feeling like an academic’) indicate thatAT can be a powerful analytic tool for accessing the complex interactions in which doctoralcandidates engage and for developing a richer understanding of their development of identitywithin the dynamics of the academy. Furthermore, the results suggest that AT may have a broadervalue in the study of educational contexts in general.G 1030 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 0.99SymposiumDevelopment and determinants of reading literacy and language skillsin immigrant studentsChair: Andrea G. Müller, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, GermanyOrganiser: Andrea G. Müller, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, GermanyOrganiser: Nele McElvany, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, GermanyDiscussant: Petra Stanat, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, GermanyInternational student assessments have shown that immigrant students are systematicallyoutperformed by non-immigrant students in most western countries (OECD, 2001, 2004; Stanat &Christensen, 2006). Language skills and reading literacy are important conditions for educationalsuccess. This symposium brings together international researchers to investigate – in depth anddrawing on several sets of longitudinal data – the levels and development of reading literacy andlanguage skills in immigrant children. Nonie K. Lesaux (Harvard School of Education, USA) will– 387 –