Using Socio-Semantic Inventory to Describe Emerging Political Discourses When Modeling Segregation With Preservice Teachers

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Curriculum and Pedagogy to Improve Teacher Knowledge and Instruction (San Diego)

Abstract

We describe an intervention where preservice elementary teachers engaged in a 3-day lesson series to use, evaluate, and revise an agent-based model of racial segregation. We analyze the sociopolitical discourses which emerge when participants revise the agent-based model to reflect changes to their thinking. We draw on methods of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003), specifically van Leeuwen’s sociosemantic inventory (1993, 1996), to analyze patterns in the representation of social actors, actions, and circumstances. Results demonstrate that participants exclude discussing racial groups and instead focus on socioeconomic class and individual preference as the primary social actors and actions involved in segregation. We aim to use these results to identify strategies to foster more politically clear understandings of complex phenomena.

Authors

• Maximilian Sherard, The University of Texas at Austin

• Anthony J. Petrosino, Southern Methodist University