“With My Own Words and in My Own Ways”: Roma Volunteers’ Guidance of Dialogic Learning

• In Event: Interactive Groups: Interactive Classroom Learning Environments Improving Learning for All

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
This paper discusses the role of non-expert adult volunteers in guiding children’s dialogic construction of knowledge. In particular, it explores how Roma volunteers create the conditions for dialogic learning in Interactive Groups.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Vygotsky (1978) pointed out the importance of adult guidance to move children toward higher levels of development. Thus, studies of dialogic learning have explored interactions between teachers and students, detailing how teachers can enhance dialogic discourse in the classroom (Mercer, 2000; Wells & Mejía-Arauz, 2006). Other studies have examined the cultural dimension of the adult guidance and have provided more evidence on why diversity of adults support children’s learning (Rogoff et al, 2001; Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005). These studies have supported instruction that draws on the cultural knowledge associated with ethnic/racial identities to increase student engagement and learning (Lee, 1995) and have claimed for consistent culturally relevant teaching (Mehan, Hubbard & Villanueva, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1995). However, it has remained quiet unexplored the potentiality of the cultural intelligence of minority adults (Flecha, 2000) to support dialogic meaning making during group work situations (Barron, 2003).

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
An instrumental case study (Stake, 2000) was conducted of interactive groups in a second-grade classroom in a school located in a poor Romani neighborhood in Spain.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Data collection involved video recording of interactions between students and volunteers while solving problems in interactive groups for a total of thirty hours. This was complemented with in-depth interviews with volunteers and teachers, and focus groups with students. Most participants were Roma, but not the teacher. The video data was analyzed through communicative interaction analysis of video clips and discourse analysis (Gee, 2005). All data was coded according to a coding scheme informed by the theory of dialogic learning (Flecha, 2000) and which was refined along the data collection and analysis.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
The analysis of the data informed that non-expert Roma volunteers supported children’s dialogic learning in interactive groups successfully. Roma mothers and fathers created opportunities for children in the groups to ask questions, think aloud, build upon a peer’s contribution, listen to each other, justify their answers, etc. (Barron, 2003). This promoted moving from IRE interaction patterns to dialogic inquiry (Cazden, 2001; Wells, 1999). Importantly, the volunteers achieved this by using their cultural intelligence (Flecha, 2000), manifested in cultural “ways with words” (Brice-Heath, 1983) and clues in their verbal and non-verbal interactions with children.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This study indicates that the cultural knowledge and identities of adults from ethnic and cultural minorities, such as the Roma, in the context of interactive groups supports dialogic learning conditions. This challenges the “deficit thinking” (Valencia, 2010) historically applied to vulnerable populations. Regarding implications for the design of interactive learning environments, this study points to the benefits of involving diverse adults as guides of student dialogic learning.

Authors

• Sandra Racionero-Plaza, Loyola University Andalusia

• Itxaso Tellado, University of Vic

• Pilar Alvarez, Universitat de Barcelona