Discourse Analysis of Languaging and Literacy Events in Educational Settings

Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the use of microethnographic discourse analysis for researching, theorizing, and reconceptualizing the uses of language and literacy in educational settings. The authors apply an ethnographic perspective to discourse analysis to emphasize how teachers and students use spoken and written language to construct knowledge, opportunities for learning, and social relationships. The authors demonstrate how microethnographic discourse analysis at different levels of scale can provide deeper understandings into the nuanced, complex social interactions and relationships that exist in and across educational contexts, including meaning-making, literacy practices, power relations, and the social construction of personhood. Each chapter offers philosophically and theoretically grounded principles for using microethnographic discourse analysis and example cases that reflect the principles presented. Ideal for researchers, teacher educators, and teachers, this essential text on discourse analysis, language, and literacy provides a grounding to further examine critical questions challenging educators.