Currently reading "Language Ideologies" by Woolard et al. The introduction thoroughly examines the concept of "ideology", settling on an interpretation that is distinct from culture because it involves power in some way. Interesting though that Woolard puts discussions of power within a bigger context: social positioning. So e.g identity and affiliation (community) are seen as not reducible to power.
This definition of ideology makes it more or less like the concept of "discourse" as I'm using it, but I prefer "discourse" because it links to the idea of "conversations that are around to be had" on a certain topic.
I've read one paper in the book (Mertz), which looks at Socratic dialogue in US law schools, and how it positions teacher and student. Reminds me of "The stage management of guided discovery", but more linguistically focused. Mertz shows how teachers sometimes take over the student role in this dialogue, putting words, ideas, whole discourses into students' mouths if the students can't or won't voice them themselves.
I'm interested in ideologies of language, and also ideologies of learning: discourses about learning that people hold to in ways which are linked to their social position.
27 Apr 2008
12 Apr 2008
"From boardroom to classroom"
Read an interesting paper by Sue Nichols (reference below) about how the 6 Thinking Hats model is applied in business and primary education, and the views of thinking which it rules in and rules out.
The way she traces discourses in public media and classroom interaction resembles what I'm doing with English learning in my data. It's very clear how she traces discourses, types of discoursal site (including websites) and examples (specific webpages and classroom extracts). It's interesting how she makes the link concrete between media and classroom practice by imagining a teacher looking up materials to use from the internet.
The organization of her paper is worth noticing, too. You can only fit a fairly short section on each topic into the length of a paper: I'll put a wordcount on each section of my paper outline.
An aspect of my study of learning resources that particularly interests me is learner independence/learner autonomy as intentionally navigating a cultural landscape.
Nichols, S. (2006). From boardroom to classroom: tracing a globalised discourse on thinking through internet texts and teaching practice. In K. Pahl & J. Rowsell (Eds.), Travel notes from the New Literacy Studies: instances of practice (pp. 173-194). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
The way she traces discourses in public media and classroom interaction resembles what I'm doing with English learning in my data. It's very clear how she traces discourses, types of discoursal site (including websites) and examples (specific webpages and classroom extracts). It's interesting how she makes the link concrete between media and classroom practice by imagining a teacher looking up materials to use from the internet.
The organization of her paper is worth noticing, too. You can only fit a fairly short section on each topic into the length of a paper: I'll put a wordcount on each section of my paper outline.
An aspect of my study of learning resources that particularly interests me is learner independence/learner autonomy as intentionally navigating a cultural landscape.
Nichols, S. (2006). From boardroom to classroom: tracing a globalised discourse on thinking through internet texts and teaching practice. In K. Pahl & J. Rowsell (Eds.), Travel notes from the New Literacy Studies: instances of practice (pp. 173-194). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
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