Learning as Social Interaction:

Interdiscursivity in a Teacher and Researcher Study

Group

A companion to Chapter 7 by

Cynthia Lewis and Jean Ketter

From the companion website for Rogers, R. (2011). An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, 2nd edition. New York: Taylor and Francis at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415874298

Using Critical Discourse Analysis

Research Question: How do book group participants interact around texts to interrupt or sustain “fixed”/stable discourse of liberal humanism?

Examined discussions of a teacher book group focusing on young adult texts by people of color over a four-year period.

Participant Observation role for researchers.

Fixed Discourse

A dominant discourse in our discussions was Liberal Humanism (Color Blindness and Meritocracy)

– Whiteness is not a race; or whiteness is the normative by which “others” are defined.

– Individual Effort Trumps Social Forces (Williamson, 2004).

This discourse is stable because it “reproduces the dominant cultural ideology” (Williamson, 2004).

Discourses of Critical Multiculturalism

Critical Multiculturalism counters the dominant discourse:

– Social Forces/Institutional structures interfere with individual choice and opportunity.

– Race is a social construction that “matters.”

– Whiteness is a race.

The researchers often brought this discourse into the discussion.

Interdiscursivity and Learning

Fairclough’s theory:

Interdiscursivity leads to dialogue that can destabilize a fixed discourse.

True dialogue has potential to create dynamic rearticulations of otherwise stable discourses, i.e. learning.

Hybridity in the Book Group

The book group in which we were participant observers was a “hybrid” group.

Part book group, seminar, and professional development.

Our theory: The hybridity had potential to create destabilizing dialogic interchanges that could lead to learning.

Sociocultural theories of learning: Define learning as always occurring in a social context dependent on interaction and dialogue.

• Critical multiculturalism: Focus on institutional and social practices that normalize whiteness and disguise privilege as merit.

• Critical Theories of Language: Examine all participants’ use of language to position themselves as good teachers and to justify uses of multicultural literature.

Theoretical Framing

We analyzed episodes that share themes at three levels:

Discourse: Systematic cluster of themes, statements, or ideologies that come into play in a text.

Genre: Language tied to a particular activity.

Voice: The way language is used to present oneself in relation to others or a text.

Critical Discourse AnalysisFairclough (1989, 1992); Chouliaraki & Fairclough (1999)

CDA: Discourse

Identified thematically related episodes for the recurring “fixed” discourses that we had identified through earlier research.

Examined same episodes for interdiscursivity where fixed discourses were interrupted.

CDA: Genre

We cross-coded these episodes for generic norms for interactions for the hybrid community of practice—part book group, part academic class, and part professional development.

This hybridity brought with it conflicting

expectations for turn taking, challenging

others, evaluating texts for their appropriateness, etc.

CDA: Voice We looked closely at the language each participant used in reference to her identity and her position within the group.

We examined how pronoun use, qualifiers, passive voice, and register, for example, could signal the speaker’s affiliation with others in the group and her confidence in a claim.

Example of Analysis:

Discourse (blue); Genre (red); Voice

(green)

Cynthia: It’s interesting what you said about the universality of it,

too, because I think that is so much there, and that’s why it’s such

a good book to use with kids. At the same time, it’s called “An

Island like You” and I know that’s a reference to the grandparents,

but I think it’s also sort of a claustrophobic sense of being apart

from the rest of the world that so many of the characters feel. The

barrio is sort of a part of the rest of the world … There’s this

universality, but there’s also this incredible difference.

Example of Analysis:

Discourse (blue); Genre (red); Voice

(green)

Denise: And the poem at the beginning says “alone

in a crowd.” And, you know, I think that’s something

kind of like an island, I mean you’re the only one who

feels that way or the only one that thinks that way or

the only one who’s had that experience, and you don’t

connect with people.

Discourse: Systematic cluster of themes, statements, ideologies that come into play in a text

Two themes in conflict:

Fixed Discourse: Whiteness is the universal “norm;” race does not matter. Denise is arguing that the characters in the book represent the universality of the human experience (of feeling that you’re the only person having an experience when, in actuality, all human beings have had the same experience.)

Challenging Discourse: Race, although a social construction, does matter. Cynthia is arguing that the Puerto Rican people in the barrio have an experience that is qualitatively different from the experience of white people (the experience of being “other” and that is determined by race and social class).

Genre: The language tied to a particular activity (in this case, a book group)

The book group genre requires politeness andprecludes an open challenge or argument.

Cynthia politely begins her turn with the “It’s interesting …” to show engagement.

To eschew authority, Cynthia introduces her disagreement with “at the same time,” suggesting that the two discourses do not conflict when they do.

Denise begins her turn “and” to imply agreement but is politely countering Cynthia’s claim of difference.

Voice: The way we use language to present ourselves in relation to a group or text

A focus on pronouns and repetition reveals how the participants use language to position themselves as allied with the others or separate from them.

• Cynthia uses “you” in her turn to signal disagreement with Denise’s point about universality. She is separating herself from the comment.

• Denise used “you” to persuade her listeners to identify with the lone individual as she herself does (“you’re the only one,” “you don’t connect”).

• Denise repeats “only one” to emphasize the experience of “universal” loneliness.

Implications for Practice

CDA allowed us to analyze teacher talk in ways that foregrounded the complexity of our social interactions around the texts.

CDA also helped us resist binaries. Even though we perceived these discourses as in opposition, they were continually recycled, re-appropriated and transformed in our discussions.

Rather than seeing the teachers as either racist or enlightened, or resistant or open, we came to see them (and ourselves) as complicated beings who could be both simultaneously.

Suggested ReadingsHall, S. (Ed.). (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage.

Kanpol, B., & McLaren, P. (1995). Critical multiculturalism: Uncommon voices in a common struggle. Westport: Bergin & Garvey. May, S., & Sleeter, C. (Eds.). (2010). Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis. New York: Routledge.

Shi-xu (1997). Cultural representations: Analyzing the discourse about the Other. New York: Peter Lang Press.

Shi-xu (2005). A cultural approach to discourse. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Solorzano, D., & Yosso, T. (2001). From racial stereotyping and deficit discourse toward a critical race theory in teacher education. Multicultural Education, 9(1), 2–8.