Applying a Critical Discourse Analysis to Reimagine Classroom Participation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 3:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Language Ideologies, Power, Resistance in Educational Spaces

Abstract

This analysis applies a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to explore how whiteness shapes classroom participation. I examine how teachers’ implementation of three-turn sequences and discursive floors reinforce white norms that further marginalize Students of Color. By focusing on minute classroom moments, this analysis reveals how teachers maintain control through a discursive term I introduce––white rationalism––to dismiss students’ lived experiences. Yet, students are not passive receptors to imposed hegemonic norms. CDA enables educators to identify how students resist teachers’ efforts to control through peer-led floors and critical (dis)engagement. These moments of refusal challenge conventional assumptions that participation is equal to compliance. CDA offers a lens to recognize these refusals as forms of agency to reimagine student and teacher participation.

Author

• Jonathan Desmon Russell Pérez, The School of The New York Times