Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper provides a telling case account of how a child called Charlie was positioned and (re)positioned himself within and across different situational types of classroom literacy encounters in his first-grade classroom. This telling case is based on a re-analysis of an originating study conducted by the author (HARRIS, 1989); and is founded on a history of research based on revisioning archived data records as new theories develop. Providing a profile of different ways in which a child positions self and is positioned by the teacher, the system and peers, this telling case presents a research approach for understanding positioning processes and their consequences for children as they develop literacy processes and identities. To make transparent how the telling case study led to new theoretical insights, this paper makes visible multiple levels of analytic scale and angles of analysis of positioning (ANDERSON, 2009) that were undertaken to make visible the dynamic nature of positioning as understood through Positioning Theory (HARRÉ & LANGENHOVE, 1999; HARRÉ, 2012). This telling case study, therefore, builds a foundation for developing theoretical understandings of the fluid and dynamic nature of positioning in classrooms, and influences of positioning on children’s opportunities to enact and demonstrate their literate identities and capabilities.
Highlights
In the last three decades, researchers focusing on language and literacy processes in classrooms have begun toenter archives of records collected in earlier studies in order to develop deeper understandings of the phenomena of study by drawing on theories that developed in the period after their original analyses of classroom processes and practices (e.g., BARNES & TODD, 1995; ALVERMANN, 1999; BARONE, 2011; GREEN, BROCK, BAKER & HARRIS, in press)
Theanalysis undertaken in this study involved levels ofanalysis of archived records as well as the adoption of positioning theory as a basis for theorizing patterns of action and interactions that my originating study made visible in terms of different forms of literate identities constructed by and for students
Having framed the logic-of-analyses that I developed for this telling case study of how literacy identities are socially constructed in particular encounters in a class across time and events, I present the analyses and findings for four literacy encounters in Charlie’s classroom that constituted the data set I constructed from four sets of audio-recording transcripts annotated with my onthe-spot observational fieldnotes in my originating study:
Summary
In the last three decades, researchers focusing on language and literacy processes in classrooms have begun to (re)enter archives of records collected in earlier studies in order to develop deeper understandings of the phenomena of study by drawing on theories that developed in the period after their original analyses of classroom processes and practices (e.g., BARNES & TODD, 1995; ALVERMANN, 1999; BARONE, 2011; GREEN, BROCK, BAKER & HARRIS, in press). I present a telling case study (MITCHELL, 1984; SHERIDAN, STREET & BLOOME, 2000) of the analytic approach that I developed to (re) enter the archive of the literacy processes that shaped the literate identities, not identity, of Charlie, a six-year old-student. This telling case study approach, and the selection of positioning theory, were guided by my growing interest in deepening my previous understandings of Charlie’s processes and interactions. Through my (re)analysis of Charlie’s opportunities for engaging in literacy processes and practices and his participation in, or resistance to these events, in his class, I construct this telling case study to explore in more depth the interactions and practices that shaped opportunities for Charlie to make visible and to develop his literate identities
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