Creating space for learner autonomy: an interactional perspective

Abstract

This paper is concerned with teachers’ and learners’ collaborative pursuit of learner autonomy in a highly asymmetrical education setting, the music masterclass. Evaluations are identified as a potential opportunity for the mutual construction of learner autonomy. The analysis shows that, while teaching professionals mitigate interactional inequalities and thus reflexively handle asymmetrical interaction, words alone do not address the imbalances that exist. It is only when teachers show determination in pursuing invitations for students to engage and provide sequential slots for them to do so that spaces for learner autonomy are created. Students are also shown to take charge of their own learning by evaluating themselves, rather than waiting for teachers to do so. The data show that, while interactional asymmetries can be deeply ingrained in traditional forms of instruction, the local co-construction of social life means that patterns of instruction can be negotiated in situ rather than being the inevitable result of established hierarchies. However, doing so requires considerable interactional effort.

Keywords:

• Instruction
• performance
• masterclass
• music education
• conversation analysis

Notes

1. See Jensenius et al. (2010, 20).

It is possible to define the home position of a performer to be the resting position in which the performer sits or stands before starting to act (Sacks and Schegloff 2002). In a musical context, and particularly in Western classical music, this can be understood as when a musician is standing or sitting at ease with the instrument before starting to perform.

2. Previous work has shown that learners can interactionally claim understanding through communicative behaviours such as nods, agreement tokens and the like, and exhibit understanding through production of the appropriate next action (Hindmarsh, Reynolds, and Dunne 2011).