Positioning Theory and the Essential Work of Positioning All Learners as Intellectually Creative and Capable

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)constructing Identities: Explorations of Identity Construction Across Varied Pedagogical Contexts (Table 12)

Abstract

For over fifty years, groups of interdisciplinary discourse analysts have been investigating communication and learning processes within diverse classrooms and subject areas, employing a range of methodological tools and approaches, with the aim of improving communication and learning opportunities among all. In centering the interpersonal transactions that constitute our sociocultural worlds, Positioning Theory (Davies & Harré, 1990) provides a broad framework capable of drawing these diverse research traditions into relationship (e.g., Green et al, 2020). Here, I draw on Positioning Theory with the aim of revealing and exploring alignments and contrasts between two bodies of such work: research on teacher talk moves (e.g., Michaels & O’Connor, 2015) and a specific tradition of teacher research (Ballenger, 1998, 2009; Ballenger, ed., 2004).

Author

• Susan Jean Mayer, Critical Exploration Press