Collective meaning-making in collegial conversations: teacher educators’ talk about students’ academic writing

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores ways in which a group of teacher educators co-construct knowledge about students’ academic writing and aspects of academic writing instruction in collegial conversations. Analysing the communicative projects, communicative acts and types of talk in 22 episodes from four collegial conversations, it investigates how the teacher educators’ talk and interaction may present opportunities for joint meaning-making in this respect. The analysis shows that the teachers’ talk was predominantly cumulative and descriptive, reflecting a focus on collegial consensus. However, it also suggests that descriptive talk may hold transformative capacities in meaning-making contexts as it provides the teachers with opportunities to interthink about students’ academic writing and aspects of their own instructional practices. Interestingly, while exploratory talk was employed in conversations about specific teaching practices, cumulative talk occurred primarily in conversations about perspectives on students’ writing. It is also interesting to note that, with respect to students’ academic writing, these teacher educators appear to perceive teacher education as its own disciplinary field with its own conventions. The study concludes that collegial conversations may provide spaces where teacher educators can engage in collective meaning-making, and that such conversations may promote a greater collective awareness of students’ academic writing and academic writing instruction in teacher education.