Collaborative conversations in a post-graduate study group: constructing academic and professional identities
Date
2014-11-07
Authors
Kempe, Elspeth Michelle
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Abstract
There appears to be very little research into the functioning of teacher-student study
groups that operate at the interface between academic and professional environments, and
into the possible influences of such groups on the members’ teacher and post-graduate
student identities. In particular, there appears to be no insider research into groups that
are self-constituted and therefore function without the mediation of a researcher.
This study is an insider investigation of the ways of talking in a self-constituted teacherstudent
study group in an attempt to establish how the use of dialogic talk contributed to
the co-construction of knowledge and at the same time to the constitution of identities as
confident, innovative students and teachers.
It takes a socio-cultural approach to learning, and draws on the theories of Vygotsky and
Bakhtin which highlight the use of talk, especially dialogic talk, as a tool for learning. It
draws on the work of Wenger and of Gee in the analysis of the constitution of identities
as confident, innovative students and teachers, and on the concept of ‘figured worlds’,
developed by Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, to develop an understanding of what
enabled or constrained each group member’s identity/ies as a confident and innovative
teacher.
The data were comprised of transcripts of the conversations of study group members
working together, and of two sets of interviews: the first conducted while the group
members were still studying and the second two years after they had graduated.
The findings show firstly, that engaging in dialogic talk while working together played an
important role both in the co-construction of knowledge and in the constitution of
confident student and teacher identities, and secondly, that continued professional
engagement with other study group members may be significant for the on-going
development of professional identities as confident teachers.
The study concludes that encouraging teachers who return to study to form study and
support groups, encouraging them to draw on each others’ professional knowledge as a
resource during the learning process, and encouraging them to use dialogic talk as they
work together, may provide some of the support needed for them to develop confidence
in themselves as both students and teachers.
Key words: identity, teacher-student study groups, dialogic talk, communities of
practice, figured worlds, insider research.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities,
University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Johannesburg
2014