Dialogic teaching: talk in service of a dialogic stance

Abstract

We consider what it means to be a dialogic teacher as characterized by Paulo Freire and Robin Alexander, and utilizing discourse analysis, we explicate how one elementary teacher's talk reflects these characteristics. We provide context for and analysis of a seven-minute discussion selected as a cumulative achievement the focal nine-year-olds are capable of after a year's exposure to dialogic teaching. These students explored many authors’ stereotypical treatment of orphanages as a common setting in children's literature and considered how it impacted character development and the readers’ predisposition toward characters. We explore the role the teacher played to mobilize students’ everyday knowledge, listen attentively as students grappled with ideas, and then anchor his questions and comments in students’ contributions. Using talk in this way, he was able to negotiate school knowledge, specifically literate talk, and effectively connect it to what his students already knew. We highlight the concept of dialogic stance and argue that it is not isomorphic with the way a particular utterance is syntactically structured. It is rather a function of how patterns of talk may open up discourse space for exploration and varied opinions, and how teacher- and student decision-making about content is presented and discussed.