Showing papers in "Research in The Teaching of English in 2001"

Taking Risks, Negotiating Relationships: One Teacher's Transition toward a Dialogic Classroom.

Abstract: Building on previous work that showed the importance of discussion for teaching literature and that discussion in low-achieving high school English classes is particularly infrequent (Nystrand, 1997), this study investigated a low-achieving class that featured regular discussions to gain insights into how dialogically organized instruction emerged within the context of a traditional recitation instructional setting, further complicated by poverty and linguistic diversity. Using a combination of grounded theory (Strauss, 1987) and conversation analysis, for 18 weeks the researchers observed a ninth-grade English class in a Midwestern inner-city high school, the majority of whose students were Hispanic. Though the profile of classroom discourse was typical of that found in most American high schools using a dominant IRE (Initiation--Response--Evaluation) pattern, the teacher sought to open up her classroom; she characterized herself as a teacher in transition. To investigate the dimensions of this transition, the researchers conducted 51 observations during the spring semester, observing 14 discussions, or instructional conversations (Tharp and Gallimore, 1988). The study documents three key strategies that the teacher used in her efforts to make such discussions possible: developing an ethos of involvement and respect, using scaffolding and specific ways of phrasing questions to encourage (and discourage) discussion, and, most importantly, acknowledging and making space for the presence of students' interpersonal relationships. This study shows that dialogic discourse can happen when teachers are adept at linking--and enabling links between--academic objectives and student concerns that often originate beyond both the classroom and the school. (Contains 46 references, a figure, and 3 notes. Appendixes contain Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. definitions of key variables, details of discussions analyzed, and transcription conventions.) (Author/RS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. CELA RESEARCH REPORT TAKING RISKS, NEGOTIATING RELATIONSHIPS: ONE TEACHER'S TRANSITION TOWARDS A DIALOGIC CLASSROOM JULIE NELSON CHRISTOPH MARTIN NYSTRAND CELA RESEARCH REPORT NUMBER 14003 NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER ON ENGLISH LEARNING &ACHIEVEMENT THE UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

It makes you realize, really, just how deep your subtext is : Literature, subjectivity and curriculum change

Abstract: This paper draws on the notion of discourse to explore complex relationships between teachers and curriculum change. It uses poststructuralist views of discourse to explore ways in which school subjects, such as Literature, are discursively constructed across time, while teachers too are positioned within discourses that shape the ways they understand the subject and themselves as teachers of it. This paper reports on the experience of a small group of teachers of a new literature course in the Australian state of Victoria. Nine teachers were interviewed over 3 years, and the interview transcripts read for traces of discourses formative in shaping their response to the new course. I identified three discourses: Leavisite and New Critical formations of the subject Literature; charismatic pedagogy; and critical theory, which was embodied in the new subject's study design. These 3 discourses, together with the traditions and culture of the school, form the framework for analysis of the interviews. The paper explores ways in which the teachers' positioning within this mix of discourses and settings variously supported or undermined their preparedness to accept new configurations of the subject Literature as well as the implications of curriculum change not just for constructions of the subject but also for teacher subjectivity.