Dialogic stance in higher education seminars

ABSTRACT

A multi-dimensional conceptualisation of dialogue was used to examine how university tutors valued dialogic interaction in higher education seminars. Values were evidenced in tutors’ stimulated recall interviews based on reflections of their seminar practice. As would be expected, the reflective accounts revealed different orientations towards dialogue. However, accounts also revealed how tutors managed dialogic tensions between values, contextual constraints and disciplinary aims. This paper highlights the affordances of data-led tutor reflection on classroom practice as an effective way to raise awareness of talk in seminars and ultimately engage higher education teachers in talking about talk.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education seminars
• classroom talk
• dialogic interaction
• dialogic tensions
• disciplinary differences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Tutor refers to teacher in a higher education context.

2. All tutor names are pseudonyms.

3. R = Researcher.

4. (xxx) = inaudible.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by Zayed University [grant number R17088].