Positioning theory and discourse analysis

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2020

Department/School

English Language and Literature

Publication Title

Handbook of the cultural Foundations of Learning

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Positioning Theory as both an analytic lens and explanatory theory to show how learning, and development of identity, evolves through discourse. Positioning Theory as an analytic lens draws readers’ attention to the positioning actions of teachers and students as they co-construct practices and processes in classrooms. As an explanatory theory, Positioning Theory serves as a set of guiding principles for investigating the consequences of the discourse and interactions of, and with, particular students and groups of students as they assume, or reject, particular positions or acts of positioning. This chapter is divided into two main parts. In the first section, we present the history of Positioning Theory, define Positioning Theory, and critique the affordances of Positioning Theory in education. In the second section, we present two telling case studies that make transparent how Positioning Theory can serve as an analytic lens to guide two of the co-authors of this chapter, Harris and Baker, in (re)analyzing archived records from their original longitudinal research studies. The goal of these (re)analyses was to explore how Positioning Theory made visible previously unexamined processes that framed the identity potentials and performance styles of students in each site.

Comments

W. D. Baker is a faculty member in EMU's Department of English Language and Literature.

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