Understanding and embracing contradictions: an exploration of high school English teachers’ beliefs about whole-class discussion

ABSTRACT

Despite the effectiveness of dialogic instruction and whole-class discussion, it does not happen with regularity in the English Language Arts classroom. To examine this discrepancy, this study focused on the beliefs of teachers as they thought about discussion. To this end, the question addressed in this study was: How do high school English teachers define and conceptualize whole-class discussion in their classrooms? Fifteen high school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers were interviewed about their thoughts on whole-class discussion. Analysis of the interviews found seven meta-themes, which included three pairs of seemingly contradictory concepts about discussion. By understanding these contradictions, teachers and researchers can consciously focus on their purpose and emphasis, and make choices that can enhance whole-class discussion instruction in the classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Classroom discourse
• dialogic instruction
• whole-class discussion
• teacher talk
• English language arts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.