Egalitarian Interactive Group Dialogue for children in at-risk school contexts

Abstract

Abstract This article presents some qualitative results of an investigation where Interactive Groups were implemented with collaborators in a first grade language arts classroom at a primary school with high social vulnerability. Our objective was to analyze the actions, based on dialogue, developed by the level teacher and her collaborators during classes with Interactive Groups. A qualitative design with communicative methodology was used. Data collection instruments were interviews, observations and focus groups. For data analysis, content analysis was employed. In this article, we will show the analysis of the actions arising from the deductive dialogue category oriented towards the inductive (emerging) egalitarian dialogue category. We conclude that dialogue actions such as “listen closely”, “give equal participation opportunities”, and “accept arguments which contribute” helped establish egalitarian dialogue in the classroom between the teacher and the collaborators with the children. This implied that, progressively, horizontal relations were established in the classroom, where the opinions and contributions of children were accepted based on arguments, since egalitarian dialogue is not directed by power relations.