Production and reception formats: an alternative participation framework for analysis of classroom discourse?

This article aims to offer an alternative to traditional participation frameworks used to analyse teacher/pupil talk in the classroom. Within curricular areas where learners are encouraged to articulate their own meaning and be creative in their use of language, a traditional participation framework, such as Intitation, Response, Follow‐up, may not be appropriate to capture the interaction that takes place between teachers and learners, nor how the learners' developing understanding may be tracked effectively. Examples from the modern languages classroom are used to illustrate the way Goffman's production format and Wadensjö's reception format can be employed effectively in the analysis of classroom discourse to track the way teachers scaffold pupils' learning through interactive processes leading to successful expression of understanding.     

Classroom organisation and interactions of pupils with moderate learning difficulties in mainstream and special schools

Abstract

This paper reports a research study which used the technique of systematic classroom observation to describe pupil behaviour and pupil‐teacher and pupil‐pupil interaction in four classrooms in schools for children with moderate learning difficulties. The results are compared with those of a previously published study in mainstream junior‐age classrooms. The results show that a predominantly individualised mode of working with children prevails both in the mainstream and the special school classrooms and also that, despite the smaller class sizes, teachers in the special school classes are even less likely to use whole‐class approaches than those in the mainstream. Conversly they are more likely to use group work. Children in the special school classes receive considerably more individual attention from the teacher than those in the mainstream. Overall levels of pupil‐pupil interaction are similar but in special school classrooms this is less likely to involve more than two children at once.     

Keeping them in line: choreographing classroom spaces

This paper provides teachers with an opportunity for thinking about the kinds of ‘people’ constructed in their classes, the kinds of ‘dances’ choreographed and the ways space is organised for learning. We argue that this is essential for teachers to think about if they are to enact socially just professional practices. In this study, we explore the ways in which students learn to be particular kinds of people. We understand this as happening through their participation in communities of practice. Becoming a member of a community of practice, of a classroom and of a school is a process of developing a particular identity, modes of behaviour and ways of knowing. It is through these ‘normalising’ practices that power is constituted, boundaries constructed and certain ‘kinds of people’ are recognised, represented and constituted, whilst others are not. All individuals are implicated in these processes and active in the construction of their own as well as others’ identities. This paper locates this discussion using social relations of gender and ethnicity, and considers how diversity and difference are actively constituted and play out in one primary school classroom. How students participate in the spatial practices and the construction of pedagogical spaces, what identities are available to them in these spaces and which they take up, is explored. The metaphor of dance is used to analyse these spaces, a metaphor which helps us to understand the complexity of classroom relationships and the way macro‐social practices are both reflected and reconstituted in classroom practices. We argue that the ways teachers think about how they place students, space students and construct students are crucial for student and teacher learning.     

School exclusions and masculine,working‐class identities

In this paper attention will be paid to issues arising from school‐based research into the experience of working‐class boys who are excluded. National and local school exclusion statistics indicate an overall gender imbalance: in the secondary school sector, for every four boys who are excluded only one girl is excluded. Furthermore, statistics show that other groups such as pupils living in poverty (as indicated by receipt of free school meals) have an increased likelihood of being excluded from school. Explanations for the disproportionate exclusion of working‐class boys are considered here in relation to three pupil case studies drawn from a group of 20 case studies gathered in four secondary schools. There are indications that the processes by which some working‐class boys actively negotiate their masculinities are the same processes that lead to their exclusion from school. This paper uses empirical data from interviews and classroom observation to analyse these twin processes, considering how and why certain masculine identities are marginalized in school settings.     

Constants and Contexts in Pupil Experience of Learning and Schooling: Comparing learners in England,France and Denmark

The article reports on some key findings of a major research project which examines the relationship between national educational values as these are mediated by the school context, teacher beliefs and classroom processes, and eventually translated into pupil perspectives on learning and schooling. These findings are drawn from questionnaires to 1,800 secondary school pupils in England, France and Denmark, and from individual and group interviews with a smaller sample of pupils in each country. Through an examination of pupil perspectives on the purposes of schooling and on themselves as learners, the article explores the significance of the cultural context in which learning occurs. It considers the extent to which there are significant differences related to the national context, or whether pupils' experience of schooling is becoming more similar as they try to construct their identities as learners and as adolescents and to negotiate pathways which lead to success on the dimensions of academic achievement, peer status and social conformity. 'Constants' and 'contexts' of pupil experience in the three countries are identified, together with some of the factors which influence the development of a learner identity.     

Contesting knowledge,constructing legitimacy: knowledge making in mother-tongue education schools in Nepal

Scholars in education have drawn our attention to the ways in which social power and control manifests in the process of knowledge production in education institutions especially through school curriculum. In this paper, I analyse school textbooks along with classroom instruction events and everyday practices in a mother-tongue school in Nepal. Drawing on the concept of ‘legitimate knowledge’, this paper discusses mother-tongue education as a struggle over symbolic resources, whereby familiarity with ‘daily life in the locality’ is discursively drawn upon to articulate mother tongue as an effective pedagogy and legitimate knowledge. The paper argues that the introduction of mother tongue in the school curriculum is, therefore, more than an addition of new language. It is a process of negotiating what it means to ‘know’ things in school. In doing so, this paper illustrates a dynamic process of re-signification of local languages, knowledge and identities that is underway.     

“Thank You for Being Republican”: Negotiating Science and Political Identities in Climate Change Learning

When engaging with socioscientific issues, learners act at the intersection of scientific, school, and other societal communities, drawing on knowledge, practices, and identities from both in and out of the classroom to address problems as national or global citizens. We present three case studies of high school students whose classroom participation in a unit on the politically polarizing topic of climate change was informed by their political identities and how they situated themselves in climate change’s sociocultural, historical, and geologic context. We describe how these students, including two who initially rejected human-influenced climate change but revised their understandings, negotiating dissonant identities in the classroom through repeated engagement with conflicting political and scientific values, knowledge, and beliefs. These case studies problematize building bridges between formal and informal learning experiences and suggest that it may be necessary to leverage disconnections in addition to building connections across settings to promote productive identity work. The results further suggest that supporting climate change learning includes attending to identity construction across ecosocial timescales, including geologic time.     

‘Doing’ gender in a rural Scottish secondary school: an ethnographic study of classroom interactions

This article draws on data from an ethnographic case study that examined how pupils’ gendered identities are constructed in one rural secondary school in Scotland. We utilise the work of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler to provide theoretical insight into how and why pupils take up particular gendered positions in school, focusing on the influence of teacher–pupil interactions. The findings suggest that some teachers reinforce traditional constructs of masculinities and femininities, and fail to disrupt boys’ views of girls as objects of desire. Teachers are also seen to reinforce gender stereotypes in their understandings of the rural landscape as an exclusive site for constructing masculine identities. We claim that this potentially limits pupils’ educational experiences. We conclude by suggesting that there is a need for teachers to develop deeper, more sophisticated understandings of gender, an area currently neglected in Scottish educational policy and teacher education programmes.     

Pedagogical renewal: Improving the quality of classroom interaction in Nigerian primary schools

This study reports on an investigation of classroom interaction and discourse practices in Nigerian primary schools. Its purpose was to identify key issues affecting patterns of teacher–pupil interaction and discourse as research suggests managing the quality of classroom interaction will play a central role in improving the quality of teaching and learning, particularly in contexts where learning resources and teacher training are limited. The study was based on the interaction and discourse analysis of video recordings of 42 lessons and 59 teacher questionnaires from 10 States, drawn mainly from the north of Nigeria. The findings revealed the prevalence of teacher explanation, recitation and rote in the classroom discourse with little attention being paid to securing pupil understanding. The wider implications of the findings for improving the quality of classroom interaction in Nigerian primary schools through more effective school-based training are considered.     

The development of student teachers' views on pupil misbehaviour during an initial teacher training programme in England and Norway

A group of postgraduate (secondary school) student teachers attending a teacher training course in York (England) and Stavanger (Norway) completed a questionnaire at the start (N = 174) and at the end (N = 128) of their course which explored their views regarding the factors accounting for pupil misbehaviour, the frequency of pupil misbehaviour, the strategies for dealing with pupil misbehaviour, and their confidence that as a full‐time teacher they will have the skills needed to keep pupils engaged in their work and to deal with pupil misbehaviour that occurs. Overall, the major factor accounting for pupil misbehaviour was reported to be ‘parents who do not instil pro‐school values in their children’; the most frequent pupil misbehaviour reported was ‘talking out of turn (e.g. calling out, interrupting, inappropriate remarks or distracting chatter during the lesson)’; and the strategy rated most positively was ‘establish clear and consistent school and classroom rules about the behaviours that are acceptable and that are unacceptable’. Both the York and Stavanger students grew in confidence over the year. The study also highlights areas where there appear to be shifts in students' views over the course of their training year and differences between the students across the two settings (York and Stavanger).     

Does Support for Home–School Behaviour Plans Exist Within Teacher and Pupil Cultures?

Recent legislation by the Department for Education and Employment requires schools to produce written home-school agreements, which should be signed by teachers and parents. Among the benefits expected from this initiative is the creation of a greater sense of partnership between home and school, especially with regard to difficult pupil behaviour. However, research has shown that teachers view parents as being the major cause of pupil misbehaviour, thus creating a potential barrier to a genuine partnership around agreed strategies involving home and school. There is also a belief among teachers that strategies devised for one pupil will lead to negative reactions on the part of classmates. This study examines various aspects of the classroom culture (the belief systems of teachers and pupils) concerning interventions with individual pupils, their teachers and parents. A vignette incorporating elements from two real and successful home-school interventions set up with, and mediated by, educational psychologists, was presented to 206 10 and 11-year-old pupils, and 30 teachers. Analysis of accompanying questionnaire responses allows for the mapping of a range of significant classroom beliefs and expectations, and indicates grounds for some optimism, although careful attention to these 'ecological' features will be necessary before joint home-school strategies can achieve their potential.     

Teacher management behaviors and pupil task involvement during small group laboratory activities

A major concern of many beginning and experienced teachers is that of classroom management and control. This article describes recent research into defining classroom management procedures that are used by high school science teachers and their relationship to pupil ontaskness. The classroom is conceptualized as a manipulable behavioral system. This construct arises directly from Barker's (1968) ecological psychology, the classroom and its occupants being conceptualized as a behavior setting. The behaviors of the teacher and the pupils are an integral part of the unit (behavior setting), which in turn coerces certain behaviors from its participants. Thus settings, and, in particular, subsettings, are seen as more important determiners of social behavior than the personality of individual teacher or pupil. The methodology employed in this research has involved the extensive use of video in naturalistic science classrooms. Tapes of both teacher and pupil behaviors were continuously and independently recorded. Intensive analysis using electronic recording instruments interfaced with the computer has allowed the collection and sophisticated analysis of the observational data. Data relating to teacher management behavior in small group settings have been analyzed and the relationships to pupil task involvement have been explored.     

Private Girls and Public Worlds: Producing femininities in the primary school

This article draws upon data gathered from a research project entitled 'Children's Relationship Cultures in Years 5 and 6'. The project aims to explore the ways in which primary school age children understand emotional, caring and family relationships. This paper will focus upon the role of friendship in the cultures of girls, aged 9-10, in a primary school classroom. An ethnographic approach is adopted to illustrate the variety of interactions in which friendship is spoken, displayed and enacted within pupil cultures. Analysis of these exchanges suggests that notions of friendship and patterns of friendship are constitutive of sexual-gender identities. The paper argues that being friends/breaking friends is a technique utilised for the regulation and negotiation of femininities and the production of differentiated sex-gender hierarchies. The paper will focus upon the activities of the 'diary group'--a self-styled network of eight girls who met in the school playground to discuss issues that interested and excited them. Recurrent themes in diary group discussions are identified as: puberty/periods; erotic attachments; and imagined futures. The paper suggests that the diary group can be seen as a site for identity production and asks the question: what kind of identities are being produced when these girls meet and talk? Finally, the paper seeks to explore the ways in which members of the diary group create a 'private' space within the public domain of the school and, through talk, produce themselves as feminine subjects.     

When Classrooms Matter: implications of between‐classroom variability for educational policy in Israel

This study assesses several policy implications of within‐school, between‐classroom variability in pupil achievement. It diverges from current school effect studies by directly modelling pupil achievement in the Jerusalem public primary school system. This three‐level study includes pupils, classrooms and schools, thus allowing an appropriate estimate of the variations between these three levels. The findings show that between‐classroom variability is consistently greater than the estimated variation between schools. These findings contrast with traditional school‐level analyses that usually ignore within‐school variability. In the light of these findings we address three educational and policy issues. First, we probe into the moral consequences of between‐classroom, within‐school variability, specifically focusing on issues of choice and commitment. Second, we scrutinize the administrative policy of ‘social integration’ and reflect on some educational consequences that result from our findings. Third, we assess the Israeli version of ‘school league tables’ and discuss their usefulness as a means of resource allocation     

National Context,Educational Goals and Pupil Experience of Schooling and Learning in Three European Countries

The paper reports on the findings of a major research project which examines the relationship between the national context and national educational values as these are translated into the school context, teacher beliefs, classroom processes and pupil perspectives on learning and schooling. The theoretical rationale for such research is examined and evidence is drawn from questionnaires administered to approximately 1,800 pupils in secondary schools in England, France and Denmark, individual and group interviews with pupils, discussions with teachers and headteachers, and classroom observation. The paper explores the significance of the cultural context in which learning occurs by examining pupil perspectives on the purposes of schooling and on the teaching they receive. Our findings suggest that although pupils in different European countries share many common concerns, they also come to school with significantly different attitudes towards themselves as learners, towards school and towards achievement. As a result their expectations of themselves and of their teachers are also different.     

Comparison of teacher and pupil perceptions of the learning environment in mathematics classes

Comparisons were made between teacher and pupil perceptions of eight facets of the mathematics classroom environment: difficulty, speed, inquiry, diversity, satisfaction, competitiveness, formality, and goal-direction. Questionnaires measuring classroom environment were administered in 60 junior high school mathematics classes to 1338 pupils and their teachers. Teacher perceptions tended to differ from pupil perceptions although not always in the hypothesized direction. Teacher gender and pupil sex ratio were somewhat related to teacher-pupil differences, while grade level and ability level were less consistently associated with differences.This is an extended version of a paper presented at the 13th International Conference of the Psychology of Mathematics Education held in Paris, France, 9–13 July 1989.     

‘We have our own religion’: a pupil perspective on minority religion and ethics instruction in Finland

The Finnish system of religious education offers instruction in the pupil’s own religion or in ethics throughout comprehensive school. By taking the pupil’s background as a basis for instruction, this system aims at promoting equality and integration with respect to religion and one’s worldview. However, there has been little knowledge about how the system of instruction is experienced by pupils themselves and how it affects pupil’s identities at school. This study illuminates through a participant observation study in grades 1–6 how pupils in five minority instruction groups experience their classes and perceive themselves in relation to other pupils in school. The study shows how working in small groups represents an important element in pupils’ experiences. Pupils generally experienced participation in instruction as positive and fun, but age integration, organisation of schedules and classrooms were also important concerns. Even if pupils were content about having their own instruction group, feelings of otherness and a negative sense of difference in relation to the majority of pupils were found particularly among pupils of religion.     

My house of value: school intervention programme investigating aspects of self-knowing,knowing of the other,identity, diversity and interaction

The project My house of value was implemented at a fourth grade primary school classroom for 10-year-old students in Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of the project was to examine how pupils realise identity and diversity in their broad sense, how they deal with stereotypical thoughts and how they understand interaction in both positive and negative ways. This was achieved through certain activities during the art lesson, which gave them the opportunity to express themselves in various ways. The method included observation and discussion in classroom, analysis of teachers' diaries and students' works and interviews with students reflecting on the various activities of the project. The final results showed that many pupils could realise that the diversities between identities are more than similarities, but this fact was not necessarily negative. They also became aware of stereotypical thinking concerning the self and the other. They also realised the complication of human intercultural encounters since emotions and experiences are involved. Finally, they concluded that the different ways of knowing the other include different means of communication. The implementation of the project showed that such activities can have a positive impact on pupils especially if they are incorporated in everyday curriculum and classroom practice.