Social Identities and Social Relationships Constructed During High School Writing Instruction

• In Event: Negotiating Identities, Cultures, and Discourses in Educational Settings

Abstract

This paper traces the participation of two students during one instructional unit during the teaching and learning of argumentation and argumentative writing. The data is drawn from an ethnographically informed study in a 9th and 10th grade English language arts class within a humanities course, and the focus is on the talk between the two focal students and their peers during one specific work session. Using a micro-ethnographic discourse analysis, the researcher analyzed dialogue within typical events and triangulated with students’ written products and student and teacher interviews. The findings help complicate argumentation as a social and relational process as well as the role of studying classroom discourse.

Author

• Allison S. Wynhoff Olsen, Montana State University