Position Taking: The Shifting Habitus of Teachers, Parents, and Researchers in Collaborative School Research

• In Event: Theory Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6

Abstract

This study uses Bourdieusian thinking tools of habitus, field, and doxa to examine how teachers, parents, and researchers made sense of their roles within a collaborative design team. The team's objective was to develop materials and activities to support early math learning. The team included teachers and parents to support dual-capacity home-school relationships in which teachers and families collaborate in a non-hierarchical relationship. The team met twice monthly in a ‘design team’ which was co-facilitated by two members of the research team.

Findings suggest that participants’ habitus, capitals that can be activated in the field of the school, and doxa related to the school influenced initial position-taking in the design teams. The facilitators worked with the design teams to shift those positions, thereby altering habitus and changing interactions between teachers and parents. However, in doing so, the facilitators reinforced their own positions in the field, taking up much of the space for discussion and often shifting from facilitators to teachers during design team meetings.

This study raises questions about how researchers may reinforce positions in the field through their own work in attempting to dismantle power relationships by providing pedagogic work to shift habitus of participants.

Authors

• Stephanie C. Sanders-Smith, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Jadyn Laixely, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Zhiyue Lu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Tina Smith-Bonahue, Research Consultant