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Discourse Communities
– Swales (1990)
– common goals (Sw1)
– common language
characteristic genres (Sw2)
specific lexis (Sw3)
– communication practices
mechanisms for intercommunication (Sw4)
information & feedback (Sw5)
threshold level of members (Sw6)
• Gee: Discourses
J. Gee, "What is literacy?", 1987, p. 1: By "a
discourse" I will mean: a socially accepted
association among ways of using language, of
thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or
"social network". Think of a discourse as an "identity
kit" which comes complete with the
appropriate costume and instructions on how to act and talk so as to take on a particular role that others
will recognize.
J. Gee, l990, p. 143: A Discourse is a socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking,
feeling, believing, valuing, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as
a member of a socially meaningful group or 'social network', or to
signal (that one is playing a socially meaningful role.
literacy = control over secondary Discourse
• Community Definition
– 1. Common ways of talking and acting--”identity kit”
a. representational devices (vocabulary--
Sw2)
b. ways of acting (genres, forms--St4, Sw3)
c. physical objects (St1)
d. interpretive strategies (personal appearance--
Gee)– 2. Characteristic participation
structures
a. Communication channels (two-way)
b. Activity structures
c. Dialogue function
d. Locus of expertise
e. Power relations
– Implications
roles
communication patterns (IRE)
silences
– 3. Common ideology
a. Beliefs (Gee)
b. Knowledge status
c. Diversity of beliefs
d. Values (standards) (Gee)
e. Purpose (Sw1)
• Boundary objects (Star, 1989)
– repositories (St1)
– ideal types, e.g., species (St2=Sw3)
– coincident boundaries (St3)
– standardized forms (St4=Sw2)
• Exclusion/inclusion (Gee, 1989)
– => resistant to internal criticism--centripetal (G2)
– => defined in opposition to other discourses--centrifugal (G3)
– => certain concepts, values, viewpoints at expense of other; marginalize other viewpoints (G4)
– related to distribution of social power & hierarchy (G5)
– no outside discourse position
– inherently ideological; set of values about relationships between people and the distribution of social goods (money, power, status)
• Theory of splitting (Star, "onions", 1991)
multiple membership--simultaneously in and out
(Hubbard & Randall, Shape of red)
maintaining the high tension zone
cost of membership in multiple areas
multivocality and translation
• Other Discourse Issues
– Analysis of new technology
– Evolution of discourse communities
– How individuals enter into
• Linguistic Utopias
Mary Louise Pratt, “The linguistics of writing”
– Verbal practices associated with women (connected to powerlessness or domestic sphere)
Planting suggestions in the minds of other people
so that they think they thought of it themselves
Speaking to one person in such a way that another
might hear and be affected in the desired
fashion
In academic writing, gradually building up
evidence toward the main point rather than stating it at the beginning and
then backing it up
Storytelling as a way of communicating values (to
children, for example)
Gossip as a means of supporting and surveilling each other, and as a form of power over men, who fear this secret network
Talking often repetitively with one another for the
purpose of maintaining a shared world (small talk)
Talking to subjects who don’t know language at all (babies, animals, plants,
TV sets, the walls)]– marginalization of speech forms associated with women and women’s spheres
– imagined ocmmunity
• Discourse Theory Challenges
Inner
Outer
Knowledge
Epistemology Rhetoric
Social Relations
Community Ideology
• Scollons: Learning as Cultural Crisis
• Pedagogical Responses
Inner
Outer
Knowledge
Meaningful goalsContext of Criticism
Social Relations
Legitimate Peripheral Participation
Recognition of contention
• Responses to Challenges
– Meaningful goals
– Empowerment through critique
Gee: resistant, meta-level, Mushfake
Wineburg study
Engstrom: context of criticism
Boomer: radical v progressive teaching
Rethinking Columbus
– Learning communities
Lave & Wenger: LPP
Gabelnick et al: college models
Graff: canon debate into curriculum
– Recognition of contention
culturally-appropriate practices: Tharp &
Gallimore; Mason & Au; Moll
Delpit criticism
not reducing difference to mismatch
• Questions about Learning Communities
How can we understand individual learning in a
social context?
What role does/could/should community play in
learning?
How can we make educational discourse communities into more
effective learning communities?
• Learning Community Charts
Participation Structures
Model
Activity structure
Dialogue
function
Locus of expertise
Power
relations
Ideology
Model
Knowledge
status
Diversity
of beliefs
Values
(standards)
Purpose
Standard Teaching
temporal;
standard sequence
to transmit knowledge
value asymmetry
monotonic asymmetry;
seek complete
Standard Teaching
pre-established
heterodoxy -> orthodoxy
pre-set; global
learning as explicit goal--thematized; cognitive
emphasis
Learning Community
spatial;
heterarchical
process of learning
recognize difference;
seek balance
value complementarity;
expect limits
Learning Community
socially constructed
heterodoxy + orthodoxy
emergent; local
learning incidental;
affective; holistic
• Standard teaching model
(2/3 rule)
– Participation Structure
Organization: time segmented; sequenced
Dialogue: to transmit knowldege
Expertise: assume monotonic asymmetry;
seek complete
Power: value asymmetry
– Ideology
Knowledge status: pre-established
Diversity of beliefs: heterodoxy -> orthodoxy
Values (standards): pre-set; global
Purpose: learning as explicit goal; thematized;
cognitive emphasis• Learning community model
– Participation Structure
Activity structure: spatial; heterarchical
Dialogue function: process of learning
Locus of expertise: value complementarity; expect
limits
Power relations: recognize difference; seek
balance– Ideology
Knowledge status: socially constructed
Diversity of beliefs: heterodoxy + orthodoxy
Values (standards): emergent; local
Purpose: learning incidental; affective;
holistic