| Abstract: | The ways teachers engage children in discourse during teaching-learning activities have profound moral implications for children's learning and development. The goals of this article are (1) to explicate how teachers' control over classroom discourse patterns during teaching-learning activities influences the types of knowledge children create and acquire; (2) to examine the relationship between two types of teacher-child discourse commonly used in early childhood classrooms and the semiotic tools children appropriate through participation in each type of discourse; and (3) to outline the moral implications each has for children's learning and development. A framework for considering the moral implications of the ways teachers engage children in discourse during teaching-learning activities in early childhood classrooms is presented. |
