The application of three exotropic theories in education

ABSTRACT

The complementary theories of Vygotsky, Halliday, and Bernstein are applicable in all fields of human activity. Our interest is in the education field, specifically pedagogy for marginalized students. In analyzing classroom interactions, we draw on all three theories. From these comes an understanding of the broadest goals of education, that is culture and social inclusion, and the central role of language in participation in activity systems. In this paper, we expand on the aspects of the complementary theories drawn on for our work. Through extracts of classroom dialogue, we demonstrate how the theories support our tracking of effective pedagogy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For consistency, we generally refer to activity systems, discourses and contexts of culture as activity systems throughout this essay.

2. The study was funded by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia. We gratefully acknowledge the work and collegiality of Michael Cannavan and Louise Walker, our teaching collaborators in the project discussed here.

Additional information

Funding

The research project referred to in this paper was funded by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA) [PRG2 011016].