Teaching and Learning as Connecting: Positioning Theory at Work in Five K–12 Classrooms

• In Event: Identifying and Disrupting Evasion Pedagogies

Abstract

Objectives. Building on the authors’ elucidation of evasion pedagogies (under review), this qualitative multiple case study analysis employs positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 1990) to critically examine the myriad discursive practices that comprise “teaching” and “learning” across five classroom contexts.

Theoretical framework. Positioning theory, with its roots in sociocultural theories of language, holds that every discursive interaction is a small-scale representation of the larger social order (Tirado & Gálvez, 2007). We use the term position to indicate the dynamic relationship between two or more individuals, inflected with the socially-assigned rights and obligations of all parties (Harré & Moghaddam, 2003; McVee, 2012). Positions are additionally psychological: they represent the discursive construction of individual sense-making narratives (Tirado & Gálvez, 2007; Van Langenhove & Harré, 1999). Positioning represents the fluctuating landscape in which two or more actors are positioned and seek to position one another (Davies & Harré, 1990). This analysis utilizes positioning theory in order to “reveal” these multifaceted storylines through the examination of the “implicit (sometimes explicit) ascriptions and resistances” in everyday discourse (Harré, 2012, p. 191).

Methods. We utilized a collective case study framework (Stake, 1995, 2003) guided by the research question, What do observations of teaching and learning reveal about what it means to teach and to learn? We conducted 60 total observations of five classrooms (one elementary; two middle level; and two high school) across two states during the spring 2019 semester, and conducted formal and informal interviews with our five teacher participants. We additionally drafted in-process memos after each observation.

Data sources. The fieldnotes, memos, and interview transcripts comprised the data corpus for this analysis. We used separate processes of open coding (Emerson, et al., 2011), and pattern coding (Saldaña, 2013) in order to identify relationships among discursive “episodes” (Tirado & Gálvez, 2007). The triangulation among multiple data sources, in addition to setting variation and adequate engagement in the settings, ensured data saturation (Merriam, 2009).
Results. Our analysis yielded three cross-cutting positionings across classroom contexts. Teaching as telling involved various positions (e.g., teachers preaching the importance of the content; declaring that “we’ll never get rid of racism”) which had in common an underpinning belief in learning as a unidirectional transmission. Secondly, we noted the theme of learning as reluctance, wherein we observed a range of student actions--sleeping, wandering, listening to music, talking with friends in multiple languages--as the complementary positioning to teaching as telling. Encouragingly, we observed rarer episodes in which teachers and students interacted more equitably. In this positioning, teaching and learning as connecting, we witnessed, for example, a high school science teacher inquiring into students’ knowledge of homeopathic remedies in their varied cultures.

Significance. In accepting our responsibilities as educators, these findings hold two major implications. First, positioning theory, which makes visible the ideological terrain upon which actors are positioned, can be used as a reflective tool for preservice teachers analyzing classroom dynamics. Secondly, though much of the teaching we observed forwarded evasion pedagogy, the moments of connection offer a foothold which assets-based professional development could leverage toward humanizing ends.

Authors

• Jessica Masterson, Washington State University - Vancouver

• Tricia Gray, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Kathryn J. Strom, California State University - East Bay

• Jessica Mitchell-McCollough, University of Nebraska - Lincoln