Hunting the position: On the necessity of dissonance as attunement for dialogism in classroom discussion

Abstract

In exploring the relationship between talk, power, and the nature of knowledge in an elementary classroom, I examine how participants position themselves and others within the tensions and dilemmas of dialogic discourse. I argue that in order to understand the complex dilemmas of enacting dialogic discourse in classrooms, power structures must be foregrounded as important theoretical and analytical constructs. Various factors contribute to the positioning of ideas and participants, including teacher question types, the polarization of ideas, and deictic pronouns across multiple layers of activity. I trace a small group discussion of a debate about the moral versus legal ethics of hunting animals in order to make the central claim that dissonance is necessary to dialogism, but it must emerge out of relations of care and the continuous effort of attunement. Despite seemingly dialogic tasks and forms as well as a desire to create dialogic contexts on the part of the teacher, authoritative meanings can pervade the learning.