Identity and Interpretative Repertoires within Teacher Education – Battles over Perspectives and Courses

Author(s):

Marie I Carlson

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

19. Ethnography

Format:

Paper

Session Information

19 SES 07, Network 19 Session 7

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

A1 316

Chair:

Geri Smyth

Discussant:

35 females) from six suburban neighbourhoods outside of Montreal Methodology and research instruments Seventy-five grade one children (40 males

Contribution

Within a Swedish educational context local as well as national steering documents tell us that teacher education should be characterised by diversity and equality. In the local practices, in a heavily decentralised educational system with a lot of different departments cooperating, this policy is to be translated, interpreted and carried out by a range of actors within the institutional practices embedded in power relations (Ball 1990, Bourdieu 1991, Beach & Carlson 2004, Carlson 2004). This paper will discuss how various categories are constructed and varying ways of thinking within institutional settings are used in order to create/delete ”the others” within teacher education (Hall 1996, Thornborrow 2002, Winther Jørgensen & Phillips 2000). Ideological and scientific ideals as well as economic priorities are involved in the interpreting processes/repertoires (Becher & Trowler 2001, Talja 1999). The research uses a policy ethnographic approach and builds on a rich data corpus – documents, texts, interviews, field notes (Beach & Carlson 2004, Carlson 2004, Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999). Analytical tools are used from organization theories (Czarniawska 2004, DiMaggio 1983) and discourse analysis (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips 2000). Also “identity” is used as an analytical lens in understanding altering positions/standpoints within teacher education (Gee 2000). The analysis shows how faculties and departments in spite of a recommended ”holistic” and interdisciplinary approach very much stick to their own logic, perspectives and ideals and thereby create parallel monologues within the teacher education, where the student teachers constantly have to re-orient her/himself. Indeed a kind of diversity but probably not in the way expressed in the steering documents.

Method

The research uses a policy ethnographic approach and builds on a rich data corpus (documents, texts, interviews, field notes). Analytical tools are used from organization theories and discourse analysis. Also “identity” is used as analytical lens in understanding altering positions/standpoints.

Expected Outcomes

The analysis shows how faculties and departments in spite of a recommended ”holistic” and interdisciplinary approach very much stick to their own logic, perspectives and ideals and thereby create parallel monologues within the teacher education, where the student teachers constantly have to re-orient her/himself. Indeed a kind of diversity but probably not in the way expressed in the steering documents.

References

Ball, Stephen J (1990) Politics and Policy Making in Education: Explorations in Policy Sociology. London: Routledge. Beach, Dennis & Marie Carlson (2004) Adult Education Goes to Market: an ethnographic case study of the restructuring and reculturing of adult education. European Educational Research Journal, Volume 3, Number 3, 2004. Bourdieu, Pierre (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press. Carlson, Marie (2001) ‘Swedish Language Courses for Immigrants: Integration or Discrimination?’ In Ethnography and Education Policy. Ed. Geoffrey Walford. Oxford: Elsevier Science. Carlson, Marie (2004) Restructuring of Swedish Adult Education: the involvement of economists and politicians in education policy. In Identity, Agency and Social Institutions. Eds. G. Troman, B. Jeffrey & G. Walford. Studies in Educational Ethnography, vol. 10. Oxford JAI Press. Carlson, Marie (2006) ”Immigrant Women within Swedish Language Instruction: Contradictions and Transgressions.” I Multiple Marginalities: An Intercultural Dialogue on Gender in Education. Eds. Justyna Sempruch, Katharina Willems & Laura Shook. Königstein: Helmer Verlag. Carlson, Marie (2007) ”Images and values in textbook and practice – Language courses for immgrants in Sweden” I Education in ’Multicultural’ Societies. Turkish and Swedish Perspectives. Eds. Marie, Carlson, Fatma Gök & Annika Rabo. Transactions Vol 18, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. Chouliaraki, Lilie & Norman Fairclough (1999) Discourse in Late Modernity – Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Czarniawska, Barbara (2004) Narratives in Social Science Research. London: Sage. DiMaggio, Paul (1983) The Iron Cage Revisited. Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality. In American Socicological Review, no 48, pp 147-160. Gee, J. Paul (2000) Identity as an Analytic Lens for Research in Education. In Review of Research in Education. 2000. 25: 99-125. Hall, Stuart (1996) ”Introduction – Who Needs ’Identity’?” I Questions of Cultural Identity. Eds. Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay. London: Sage Publications. Talja, Sanna (1999) ”Analysing Qualitative Interview Data: The Discourse Analytic Method” I Library & Information Science Research, Volume 21, Number 4, pages 459-477. Thornborrow, Joanna (2002) Power Talk – Language and Interaction in Institutional Discourse. Harlow: Longman. Winther Jørgensen, Marieanne & Louise Philips (2000) Diskursanalys som teori och metod. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Author Information

Marie I Carlson

University of Gothenburg

Department of Culture, Aestehetics and Media

Göteborg

186

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