Reconceptualising Teacher–Child Dialogue in Early Years Education as a Moral Answerability

Abstract

This paper forms part of a study which used Bakhtinian concepts to explore the interactions between children aged from 3½ to 5 years and their teachers in two early childhood settings. The paper focuses on the dialogic research approach that was used as the methodological framework, whereby two of the teachers and the researcher engaged in collaborative discussions of selected video recordings of the teacher–child interactions. The study is underpinned by a view of education and thereby teacher–child dialogue as open-ended, and children are seen as active participants. For 4 weeks, spread over a period of 4 months, interactions between the children and the participating teachers were video-recorded. After each week of recordings, the teachers and researcher each selected one of the video clips that surprised or intrigued, and these clips were then discussed at a meeting. It is argued that a dialogic research approach created a more respectful relationship between teachers and researcher by giving the teachers opportunities to contribute to the interpretation of data and to act on these. Findings show that the collaborative discussions not only led to more complex understandings of teacher–child dialogue as uncertain and unfinalised, but also to transformative changes in the teachers’ practice with fewer structured, teacher-initiated activities and more open-ended opportunities for children.