Studying the Over-Time Construction of Knowledge in Educational Settings: A Microethnographic Discourse Analysis Approach

Abstract

This review presents theoretical underpinnings supporting microethnographic-discourse analytic (ME/DA) approaches to studying educational phenomena. The review is presented in two parts. Part 1 provides an analytic review of two seminal reviews of literature that frame theoretical and methodological developments of microethnography and functions language in classrooms with diverse learners. Part 2 presents two telling case studies that illustrate the logic-of-inquiry of (ME/DA) approaches. These telling case studies make transparent how theoretical considerations of cultural perspectives on education inform decisions regarding research methodology. Telling Case Study 1 makes transparent the logic-of-inquiry undertaken to illustrate how microanalyses of discourse and action among participants in a physics class provided an empirical grounding for identifying how different groups undertook a common task. This case study shows how ethnographically informed discourse analyses formed a foundation to theoretically identify social processes of knowledge construction. Telling Case Study 2 makes transparent multiple levels of analysis undertaken to examine ways that creative processes of interpretation of art were communicated and taken up in an art studio class across multiple cycles of activity. Taken together, these telling case studies provide evidence of how ME/DA provides a theoretically grounded logic-of-inquiry for investigating complex learning processes in different educational contexts.

The Hourglass Approach: Analysing Science Classroom Discursive Interactions Through Intercontextual Lens

“…Ethnography in education gathers elements from different traditions, including ethnography of communication (Gumperz and Hymes 1972), interactional sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1992), interactional ethnography (Castanheira et al 2001;Erickson 2008), micro-ethnographic discourse analysis (Bloome et al 2008;Green et al 2020) and linguistic anthropology (Blommaert 2015). In spite of this theoretical plurality, their assumptions amount to a coordinated effort in an attempt to understand how people create and negotiate the routine activities of their lives by means of discursive interactions.…”

“…The researcher constructs answers through different representations of history. Descriptive charts of the lessons, as well as event maps and timelines, are all useful tools in this process (Green et al 2020). As an example, we now present an excerpt of a long timeline (Fig.…”

“…For this, the hourglass approach aims to: i) Give due visibility to aspects that are meaningful for the members of the classroom themselves. This means that instead of a stable view of the community of the science classroom, where we could try to fit in different categories of discourse to describe interactions, we envision the classroom based on a more fluid view (Green et al 2020).…”

Epistemic uncertainty and the support of productive struggle during scientific modeling for knowledge co‐development

“…This analysis focused on moment-by-moment to understand "the chains of concerted actions among members, the role of prior and future texts in connecting these 'bits of life,' and what members take from one context to use in another" (Gee & Green, 1998, p. 149). Once a grounded view of the social interaction was shaped moment-by-moment, the analyses "zoomed out" to examine the holistic cultural norms and timeline to get the "big picture" of the social interaction in the classroom (Green et al, 2020;Kelly et al, 2000). Because the research team worked closely with Ms. C, an "ethnographic knowing" of the norm and culture of the classroom developed.…”

Queer Compositions in a U.S. Secondary Classroom: Genre, Citationality, and Linguistic Racism

“…I engage with a tradition of queer educational ethnography (e.g., Elliott, 2016;Pascoe, 2012;Woolley, 2012Woolley, , 2015, particularly those focusing on language and literacy (Blackburn, 2003(Blackburn, , 2012Cruz, 2008Cruz, , 2013bWargo, 2018Wargo, , 2020a. From a broader queer method ological orientation, I also engage with a tradition of lan guage and literacy ethnographies in education (e.g., Bloome, Carter, Christian, Otto, & Shuart Faris, 2004;Green & Bloome, 1983Green et al, 2020;Heath & Street, 2008;Kirkland, 2014;Street, 1995). I understand these tra ditions as resonating with queer methodologies because, as Blommaert and Jie (2010) argued, such approaches to eth nography are "necessarily critical and counter hegemonic... [in that they offer the] capacity of challenging established views" (p. 10), such as views of sexuality and gender in lit eracy education.…”