Reconstructive Discourse Analysis as a Methodological Tool for Exploring Practices of Emancipation and Humanization

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Moving Toward Justice Through Qualitative Inquiry (Table 34)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the affordances of reconstructive discourse analysis (RDA) as an analytic lens to study how individuals and communities discursively advance movements of justice. Conceptualizing RDA as an analytic gaze, the authors combine existing discourse analytic tools with social theories to examine how humanization and emancipation are built in and through language. Using RDA and theories of argumentation and positioning to analyze an OpEd arguing against so-called “divisive concepts” legislation, the authors first demonstrate how (1) the OpEd author contrasted the irrationality of the proposed bill with his rational stance, and (2) positioned himself as a knowledgeable educational leader with the authority to speak to the issue at hand.

Authors

• Melissa Schieble, Hunter College - CUNY

• Aris M. Clemons, University of Tennessee

• Cece Fleury-Feldberg, Graduate Center - CUNY

• Michiko Hikida, The Ohio State University

• Laura A Taylor, Rhodes College

• Amy Vetter, University of North Carolina - Greensboro