Reconceptualizing online discussion forums as a fabricated focus group: illuminating educators’ language ideologies through asynchronous discussion posts

Abstract

We propose a novel method for repurposing online course discussion posts to explore educators’ language ideologies. Drawing on asynchronous discussion posts from a subset of 30 educators enrolled in an online, masters-level, sociolinguistics-for-educators course at a US Southwest university, we “smooth” posts into a dialogue resembling a focus group discussion, a method we are terming a fabricated focus group (FFG). The topic of the discussion forum was defining “Standardized English” (SE), allowing us to observe nuances of participants’ ideological stances, positioned and juxtaposed to one another within a constructed dialogue. Online discussion forums offer a unique tool for researchers/educators to generate a context for student stance taking and reflexivity, which can raise educator’s critical consciousness. FFGs can help us to represent educators’ varying ideological positions and provide direction as instructors of such courses attempt to foster more tolerant, democratic, and empowering attitudes toward cultural and linguistic diversity.

Keywords:

• Language ideologies
• subjectivity
• focus groups
• discussion posts
• discourse

Acknowledgements

This study was unfunded, and we claim no conflict of interest present in the oversite, administration, or writing of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Other weekly prompt topics included myths about multilingualism; contrasting descriptivist and prescriptivist perspectives; analyzing rule-based patterning of dialect features, identity and language choices; and global Englishes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua Cruz

Joshua Cruz is an assistant professor in curriculum and instruction at the College of Education at Texas Tech University. His research interests include academic writing, higher education, secondary/postsecondary transitions, and methodological innovations. He also researches his own hobbies, including circus performance and capoeira from critical and post-structural frameworks, and occasionally dabbles in engineering.

Kate T. Anderson

Kate T. Anderson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Her interdisciplinary research draws from linguistics, anthropology, and qualitative inquiry to interrogate discourses, texts, and learners’ opportunities to participate in equitable learning contexts from sociocultural and post-structuralist perspectives. She is the lead editor of the journal, Linguistics and Education, and program coordinator for ASU's Educating Multilingual Learners' online Master's Program.