“Institutional talk” in the discourse between an educational psychologist and a parent: a single case study employing mixed research methods

Abstract

Despite the centrality of conversations in the practice of educational psychologists, there are very few published accounts that utilise “live” data captured during professional consultations. This paper employs mixed research methods, combining a quantitative Content Analysis with the qualitative approaches of Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology, to examine the transcript of a complete consultation between an educational psychologist and a mother who wishes her son to be considered for an assessment of special educational needs. The analysis allows each of the two methods to compensate for the weaknesses of the other and reveals fluctuating patterns of process and content leadership between the two participants. These, and other features, such as the use of institutional knowledge as a “turn holding device” and professional cautiousness, have been found to be common across a number of professional contexts and are seen as illustrative of “institutional talk”. The findings from this study have implications for further theoretical developments and for increasing the interactional sensitivities and skills of both trainee and experienced educational psychologists.