"No, You Are Obviously Wrong": Aggravated Disagreements in Teacher Team Meetings

• In Event: Teachers' Approaches to Shaping Professional Environments

Abstract

This study investigates disagreements about pedagogical issues in teacher team meetings. Combining quantitative and micro-ethnographic discourse analysis, the study explores the characteristics of teachers’ disagreements and their implications for socio-emotional dynamics and for teachers’ professional learning. We focus specifically on the circumstances and the conditions that lead to aggravated disagreements, and on their implications. We employed statistical analysis of 149 disagreements from 46 team meetings and microanalysis of six-select aggravated disagreements. The study highlights the tension between the potential value of aggravated disagreements for teacher learning on the one hand, and the threat such disagreements pose for socio-emotional dynamics on the other, specifically when associated with blame attribution.

Authors

• Rotem Trachtenberg, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Dana Vedder-Weiss, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Adam Lefstein, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev