‘I think we should just accept … our horrible lowly status’: Analysing Teacher–Teacher Talk Within the Context of Community of Practice

Abstract

While interaction inside the classroom – frontstage discourse – has been a subject of study and has been considered the most significant type of discourse that teachers engage in, I propose that interaction outside the classroom – backstage discourse – is equally significant and has not thus far received as much attention as it merits. This paper is concerned with the institutional interaction of English language teachers using a corpus of (currently) over 40,000 words, consisting of a variety of meetings. It will consider the characteristics of the community of practice (CofP) and how membership is realised in language. It looks at the inexplicit nature of the language that teachers use in relation to their practices as indicative of this membership, and how humour is related to the establishment of a shared communicative space, as well as evidence of it. Highlighted also is the creation of this space within the meeting with the construction of in- and out-groups. The paper concludes that reflection not only on our practices within the classroom, but our practices as a professional community opens a new window on our profession as a whole.

Keywords:

• backstage discourse
• community of practice
• humour
• professional discourse
• teacher-teacher talk