Understanding Classroom Discourse and Interaction

Abstract

This chapter reviews contributions of qualitative perspectives to the understanding of classroom discourse and interaction. We present a brief overview of qualitative research development with a focus on contributions of language-based qualitative research approaches. We then analyze how classroom interaction and discourse are studied in four purposefully selected journals: Journal of Classroom Interaction, Applied Linguistics, Language and Education, and Linguistics and Education. Through analysis of how classroom interaction and discourse are used in the titles of the research articles published in these journals, we make visible the variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives used to study diverse phenomena of classroom life. This diversity of perspectives makes visible the need for dialogues across disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological research groups to build deeper understandings of classroom discourse and interaction and other phenomena in education. Qualitative research approaches expand understandings of educational phenomena by: 1) making visible the role of language in constructing classroom life; 2) shifting the focus on processes rather than outcomes; 3) demonstrating how learning and education are overtime phenomena linked to moment-bymoment interactions; 4) emphasizing the intertextual nature of human interaction; and 5) questioning terminologies and phenomena under study. Introduction Classroom interaction research dates back to the late 1930s, but has expanded exponentially since the 1960s, when societal changes and growing student diversity in classrooms created a need for new ways of understanding teaching, learning, and classroom interaction. In the 1960s, researchers primarily sought to develop observation instruments for measuring teacher behaviors (Green & Dixon, 2008), yet each observational system focused on different phenomena (Simon & Boyer, 1970). Research on classrooms through the 1960s was mostly observational and quantitative, measuring how teacher variables affected particular student outcomes. Qualitative researchers entered classrooms in the 1960s, seeking to understand discrepancies in achievement of students from varied linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. Green & Dixon (2008) traced the roots of this research in the U.K. and the U.S., noting that U.K. scholars tended to examine reasons for school failure, while U.S. scholars sought to explore how linguistic differences of diverse students influenced student opportunities for learning. Most of this early qualitative work was ethnographic, conducted by scholars grounded in anthropology, sociology, and sociolinguistics. Rex, Steadman and Graciano (2006) reviewed seven perspectives that have been used to study classroom interaction since the late 1930s: 1) process-product; 2) cognitive; 3) sociocognitive, situated cognition and activity theory; 4) ethnographic; 5) sociolinguistic and discourse analysis; 6) critical; and 7) teacher research. This variety of theoretical and methodological approaches makes visible the complexity of understanding classroom interactions. Each perspective provides opportunities to see and understand some aspect of classroom life. No single perspective and no single researcher can uncover all of the dynamic interactions or factors influencing what occurs in classrooms. However, when different perspectives are brought together in a single volume, as Markee has done with this Handbook, researchers have opportunities to compare and contrast theoretical and methodological perspectives and make grounded interpretations of how the different perspectives contribute to deeper understandings of life in classrooms.