University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Workshop
| Pupil disengagement and pedagogical climate | Pels, Trees |
| Acquiring turns in classroom interaction | Tom Koole |
| Constructing comprehension on math assignments in interaction. | J. Prenger (1), C.M. de Glopper (2), H.I. Hacquebord (2) |
| Instructional dialogues: Participation in dyadic interactions in multicultural | Maaike Hajer |
| Negotiating student characterizations in report card meetings | Jan Berenst, Harrie Mazeland |
| Participation, learning and exclusion in group work | Jeanine Deen (1), Nienke Zuidema (2) |
| Promoting mathematics and language learning in interaction | Dolly van Eerde, Maaike Hajer |
Keywords:
Classroom discourse, Multicultural, Variation, Math Education, Language learning, Participation, Identity, Exclusion.
3. Topic:
Discourse in the multicultural school.
Relationship with the conference theme: The macro category of the multicultural school is analysed on the micro level of classroom discourse and other types of conversational discourse in the school.
4. Background
Schools in The Netherlands are becoming multicultural in the last thirty years. Especially in the big cities in western Holland, the percentage of pupils that are born in foreign countries or whose parents are born elsewhere, have increased as a consequence of labor migration and the stream of refugees. Most of the new citizens in Holland are from non-western countries, often with different ideas about the role of the school in society, different ideas about the relationship between teacher and student or school and home and different ideas about how learning in school can be accomplished. That challenges the schools to deal with the multilingual background of the pupils but also with the cultural differences of the students. Many schools are aware of that challenge, in view of the government policy and the official documents and declarations of the schools.
The question is, however, whether that multicultural situation is not just visible in official documents, but also on the micro-level of classroom discourse and in other types of school discourse. That question will be discussed in the workshop, based on discourse analytic research that was conducted by the group of presenters -from different disciplines- in two secondary schools in one of the big cities in The Netherlands. Math lessons in two classrooms with a mixed group of students were videotaped during the first school year (grade 7) and transcribed, the teachers were interviewed about these lessons (using the technique of Stimulated Recall), pen/paper observations were made, staff meetings were audiotaped and transcribed, the headmasters, teachers and students who were involved, were interviewed and the thinking aloud of students who are reading and trying to solve math assignments in a dyadic situation, was taped and transcribed. The research was focused on a couple of questions, related to different types of discourse and the specialism of the researchers. The qualitative analysis was accomplished by discourse analytic and/or conversational analytic methods; in some studies the analysis was complemented by statistics.
5. Discussion questions
The central question is:
To what extent are cultural differences between students constructed in school discourse?
We will particularize that question in three discursive sub-domains:
a. classroom discourse in plenary interaction
b. peer interaction and dyadic teacher/student conversations in the classroom
c. staff meetings and student interviews
Key reference:
Deen, J., M. Hajer & T.Koole (eds.) (to appear), Interaction in Two Multicultural Mathematics Classrooms - Mechanisms of Inclusion and Exclusion. Amsterdam: Aksant.