Autonomy: the next phase of dialogue between systemic functional linguistics and Legitimation Code Theory

ABSTRACT

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) has long enjoyed a close and fruitful dialogue with Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). A growing number of scholars enact both theories together in empirical research to explore how knowledge and language relate together to shape practice. This work both generates greater explanatory power in research and encourages conceptual advances in each of the two theories. In this paper we introduce new concepts from a recently renovated dimension of LCT called Autonomy that may spark a new phase of dialogue between the frameworks. We begin by summarising the existing ongoing phases of dialogue between LCT and SFL. We then introduce the concepts of “autonomy codes”, which explore changing relations among different kinds of practices by tracing “autonomy pathways”. The potential of these concepts for empirical research is illustrated through detailed analyses of classroom practice in which schoolteachers attempt to use everyday knowledge as ways of helping students learn History. These analyses suggest that “one-way trips” from one form of knowledge practice into another constrain knowledge-building while “autonomy tours” that engage with, repurpose and connect other knowledge practices support knowledge-building. Finally, we consider how these concepts might raise questions for SFL research and theory and thereby initiate a new phase in its dialogue with LCT.

KEYWORDS:

• Legitimation Code Theory
• autonomy codes
• autonomy tours
• knowledge building
• systemic functional linguistics
• register

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is based on a keynote paper given by Karl Maton at the International Forum of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Peking University, Beijing, China, in October 2018. Parts of this paper draw from analyses first presented in Maton and Howard (2018).

2. For introductions to LCT, information on groups around the world, news about events and access to publications, see www.legitimationcodetheory.com or www.karlmaton.com.

3. On translation devices, see Maton (2014, 136–9), Maton and Chen (2016), and Maton and Doran (2017b).

4. The analyses draw on research funded by the Australian Research Council (DP130100481).

5. The teacher begins within her inner-core target, so positional autonomy and relational autonomy are both extremely strong; the Figure 3 pathway thus begins deep inside her sovereign code.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karl Maton

Karl Maton is Professor and Director of the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building at the University of Sydney, Australia; Visiting Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa; and Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Sarah K. Howard

Sarah K. Howard is Associate Professor in the School of Education and Head of SMART Education at the University of Wollongong, Australia.