Silencing of Teachers

• In Event: 35.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.078-7 - Unions as Sites of Teacher Leadership and Organizing

Abstract

Power of school leaders can functions through linguistic expressions in relationships of superiority and subordination and as representations of discourse, i.e. linguistic and cognitive conventions that contribute to squeezing out certain subjects and opinions as being inappropriate. Further, the rhetorical effectiveness of propositions will depend on the linguistic perspectivizing in the propositions. This last- mentioned position can be teased out through rhetorical analysis of language use in a school where teachers over time were silenced. The focus is placed on communication between management and teachers. The central theoretical challenge is the question of what may be gained by evaluating the relevance of rhetoric as a heuristic in the understanding of communicative power.

Author

• Eyvind Elstad, University of Oslo