Opening and Sustaining Dialogic Space of Possibilities: Examining Talk in and Across International Classrooms

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Exploring possibilities for educational spaces free of racial injustice begs dialogic space. This session offers four presentations on dialogic space, that elusive shared space of possibilities -where differences are created and explored with uncertainty, multiplicity and potential such that ideas can be tried out, co-constructed, and realized; knowledge created, presented, and engaged in ways that support questioning; and interpretations of our realities are in conversation with those of others. Drawing on discourse analytic, micro-ethnographic data from elementary and secondary classrooms in England, Israel, Mexico, and the US, these four papers elucidate classroom conditions and language use facilitating and/or hindering the emergence of dialogic space. We discuss pedagogical challenges for creating and sustaining dialogic space.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Language and Social Processes

Chair

• Maureen P. Boyd, University at Buffalo - SUNY

Papers

• “When Anybody Speaks, We All Need to Be Involved”: Classroom Conditions That Support Dialogic Space - Maureen P. Boyd, University at Buffalo - SUNY; Christopher R. Vasquez, Buffalo Public Schools; Cara Monaco, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Opening, Deepening, and Widening Dialogic Space in Argument Classrooms - Min-Young Kim, University of Kansas

• Blurring the Boundaries: Opening and Sustaining Dialogic Spaces - Edith Bouton, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Adam Lefstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Aliza Segal, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Julia Snell, University of Leeds

Discussant

• Michael B. Sherry, University of South Florida