Educational design as conversation: A conversation analytical perspective on teacher dialogue

The aim of this methodological paper is to expound on and demonstrate the value of conversation-analytical research in the area of (informal) teacher learning. The author discusses some methodological issues in current research on interaction in teacher learning and holds a plea for conversation-analytical research on interactional processes in teacher encounters. As an illustration, an analysis is presented of the way university lecturers manage intersubjective understanding in an inter-professional meeting. With a micro-analytical focus on the architecture of turns, turn taking and the sequential organization of the interaction, the analysis shows how intersubjectivity is reached interactionally by the participants.     

Post-qualitative line of flight and the confabulative conversation: a methodological ethnography

This paper is a methodological ethnography aiming to highlight the difficulties in using conventional methods in connection with an explorative philosophy; Deleuze and Guattari’s. Taking an empirical point of departure in conversations about the future with students in upper secondary school, the struggle to find a scientifically valid label through the focus group interview is outlined. However, combining the particular philosophy with a conventional qualitative method turned out to be an impossible aim since the ideals of the focus group interview departures in the image of stable subject simultaneously as the method is blemished by positivistic language and standards. By turning to post-qualitative research, which encourages new concepts and methods, the confabulative conversation was produced. Within these confabulative conversations, the aim has been to create a methodologically smooth space in order to enable movements beyond manifested knowledge in favor of the virtual and the not-yet-seen, and thus producing possibilities for something new.     

Continuing the conversation: British and Japanese progressivism

This paper offers an account of the historic and ongoing international interchange between Britain and Japan in the field of progressive education. Concentrating on the last half-century, it takes two reference points from Roy Lowe’s writings in 1977 and 2006. Eveline Lowe Primary was a newly built model progressive school when documented by him in a seminal work on school architecture, later becoming a key point of interest for Japanese educationists. The British educational policy context against which this exchange of ideas and practices occurred was later documented by Lowe in a major book. Contemporaneous debates and events within Japanese society and government meanwhile provided the impetus for networks of research and transmission of progressive practices. The most recent turn in the narrative presented here demonstrates Japanese support for independent progressive practice continuing in the UK. Responding to an extensive historical research literature on transnational migration of educational ideals and practices this paper constitutes a micro-study that draws on personal memory, oral testimony, records of classroom observation on site and by means of video-conferencing, in addition to more formal documentation of conference proceedings and policy-making.     

从中西教堂的发展看地域文化对建筑的影响

文章通过对中西部分教堂建筑的分析,就文化对建筑的影响进行研究.指出中西方地域文化的差异性是中西教堂建筑在历史发展过程中呈现不同面貌的原因.并就如何看待和处理这两者之间的差异性提出一些个人的看法.     

Everyday conversation as a context for professional learning and development

Because conversation is a constant in our personal and professional lives, we are not inclined to stop and think about it as a phenomenon. However, that is what I have found myself doing. In particular, I have become much more self‐conscious, and hopefully more thoughtful, about the conversations that constitute an inevitable aspect of my day to day work in an academic staff development role. Drawing on my own reflections and a body of related literature, I have thought about the features of conversation that may make it conducive for professional learning; how “valued” conversation is as a context for professional learning; the possible ingredients of a conversation and the extent to which they can be controlled or influenced without disturbing, or even destroying, the defining essence of conversation; and the competencies and sensitivities that may be required if conversation is to become an occasion for learning. In this article, I present the outcomes of my reflections and inquiry with the hope that they will prompt conversation about conversation as a context for professional learning and development.

Puisque la conversation est une constante dans nos vies personnelle et professionnelle, nous sommes peu enclins à nous arrêter et à y réfléchir en tant que phénomène. Cependant, c’est ce à quoi je me suis affairé. Plus particulièrement, je suis devenu davantage conscient et, je l’espère, davantage réfléchi, en ce qui a trait aux conversations qui constituent un aspect inévitable de mon travail quotidien en tant que conseiller pédagogique. Puisant dans mes réflexions et dans un ensemble de connaissances connexes, j’ai réfléchi aux aspects de la conversation qui la rendent propice à un apprentissage professionnel; dans quelle mesure la conversation constitue‐t‐elle un contexte valorisé d’apprentissage professionnel; les ingrédients possibles d’une conversation, ainsi que la mesure dans laquelle ceux‐ci peuvent être contrôlés ou influencés sans déranger, ou même détruire, l’essence même de la conversation; de même que les compétences et les habiletés pouvant être requises pour que la conversation constitue une occasion d’apprendre. Dans cet article, je présente le résultat de mes réflexions et interrogations dans l’espoir de susciter une conversation au sujet de la conversation en tant que contexte d’apprentissage et de développement professionnel.     

Community and conversation: tackling beginning teacher doubt and disillusion

Margaret Somerville has suggested that a new methodology of postmodern emergence might allow researchers to disrupt the taken-for-granted and provide fresh insight into familiar problems. One such familiar problem is the doubt and disillusion many early-career teachers experience, both during their teacher education and in their first years. Attrition rates are high. This paper, co-authored by two teacher educators and two early-career secondary teachers, draws on Somerville’s ideas by creating multiple modes of creative expression in order to allow fresh insight to emerge from the relationship between the multiple parts of the paper. Different readers will draw their own conclusions from the rich material presented, but for the authors the research reminds us of the regenerative potency of relationships and conversations in which doubts and disillusion can be expressed and heard. The implications for teacher education, at a time when direct face-to-face time with students is being eroded, are explored.