Date of Award
2009
Degree Type
Dissertation
First Advisor
Carolyn Panofsky
Abstract
The territory of this critical ethnography lies at the intersection of democratic, transformative pedagogy and differences that made a difference in an urban kindergarten. It is an interpretation of a democratic, transformative educator responding to sociocultural differences that emerged in the classroom discourse. Often, such differences lead to otherization. This study interprets the constraints and possibilities that encouraged students to recognize and respect difference. The kindergarten classroom is interpreted in the framework of activity theory. Drawing largely on discourse analysis, this interpretation turns on the interplay between two primary elements in the activity system. The first is Zeke, the kindergarten teacher and subject of the activity system. Zeke's students, the nexus of the system's community, represent the second primary element. The participation (or lack thereof) and discourse patterns of one particular student exemplify the complex nature of social systems in general and emancipatory pedagogy in particular. The focal student, an adopted Cambodian child with lesbian moms, embraced certain aspects of Zeke's emancipatory practice and resisted others. The study concludes that kindergarten is an early and viable opportunity to exercise transformative, democratic pedagogy. Zeke, the subject of the activity system, brought the pedagogical tools of dynamic and designed dialogicality to bear on his object: student ideologies that tend to exclude or otherize. If student ideologies were tightly woven fabric, Zeke's pedagogy was a stretching frame, its diagonals (fabric is stretched on the diagonal) being dynamic and designed dialogicality. These tools, named for their embodiment of Bakhtin's theory of the politics of language, worked on student ideologies toward the establishment of a democratic learning community. Dynamic and designed dialogicality are not resistant-proof, however. A child from a marginalized social group might withdraw during lessons or activities that bring her difference into relief.
Recommended Citation
August, Gerri, "Making room for one another: Practicing dynamic and designed dialogicality in a kindergarten classroom" (2009). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 2304.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/2304
Terms of Use
All rights reserved under copyright.