"You Can't Capture the Sparks": Discourses and Tensions in Teacher Understandings of Student-Led Groups

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine
  In Roundtable Session: Dominant School Narratives, Storied Truths, and Capturing the Spark (Table 12)

Abstract

This paper examines how upper elementary ELA teachers understand, interpret, and adjust support of student-led groups. Through Critical Discourse Analysis of three-phase interviews, it traces Discourses (Gee, 2014) that surface in teachers’ meaning and decision making. It considers evident tensions between these Discourses which interact with and influence teachers’ understanding of student-led groups, instructional decision-making, and self-efficacy. Teachers are shown to reductively typify students and plan procedural adjustments at odds with their more expansive goals. These findings help explain why teachers may not adjust supports for student led groups in keeping with curricular recommendations or their own stated goals. Further research is suggested into how teachers can be supported to navigate these tensions and enable expansive participation in these groups.

Author

• Michael Samuel Havazelet, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author