Education Commons^™

Dialogic Teaching In A Detracked High School Ela Class: "We Talk Here", Signy Emler

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation combines the two fields of dialogic teaching and detracking in a study of one teacher’s English Language Arts high school classroom. The policy of tracking students into separate academic classes perpetuates segregation and is antithetical to the principles of democracy. Dialogic teaching is where students and the teacher engage in inquiry and exploratory talk to co-construct knowledge, and all students are provided with frequent opportunities to express their voices. Grounded in theory that views language and identity as socially constructed and situated, this qualitative case study examined how students from different racial, socio-economic, political and cultural backgrounds worked …