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One of the most intriguing questions in both stylistic and rhetorical analyses relates to determining textual effect on readers, aesthetic or otherwise. Whether the power of the text is directly associated with the role of the text producer and his or her intentions, the linguistic, paralinguistic, extralinguistic and situational context of the text, the background and socio-cognitive expectations of the reader, or a combination of some or all of these factors (or other factors) is a question that is still the subject of stylistic and rhetorical analysis today. This article is a further step in this direction. It attempts to investigate one dimension of textual effect, namely uniformity in reader reaction to an argumentative poem entitled Dinner with the Cannibal, by focusing on the roles that genre and metaphor play in ideologically positioning readers. It argues, on the one hand, that literature is the dominant genre in this hybrid literary-argumentative poem, channelling the readers' initial interpretations almost exclusively in the interest of more traditional literary interpretative approaches. On the other hand, and more importantly, it focuses on the role that metaphor, as a cognitive link between text producer and reader, plays in the construction of an extremely controlled, uniform interpretation of the argumentative dimension to the poem. The overall effect of the way genre and metaphor function in this argumentative poem, it is concluded, is highly ideological.

"New educational landscapes have emerged in large systems of schooling around the globe. While these formations are shaped by local conditions and develop regional characteristics, they also bear the marks of neo-liberalism and are responsive to its devices, such as intensified local markets competing for students and the pressure of privatization. Not surprisingly, schools in favourable contexts where there are strong resonances between home and school cultures are more able to accommodate and benefit from these conditions than are schools in challenging contexts where inequitable effects tend to be amplified and more deeply entrenched. This article interrogates the pressures on schools to change implicit in educational policy landscapes that have developed in Australia, and compares these with some examples of design processes that make up the mix of how schools in England and the United States have responded to similar pressures. Long-term reform efforts in two Australian public secondary schools are described in detail. These cases illustrate two commonly adopted designs for improving the pedagogical practice of teachers. The tension between what is rendered possible through locally available resources and what is needed in schools characterized by high levels of poverty and difference is explored in this article through a discussion of a selection of design processes and products, as well as two specific case studies."