Session Information
27 SES 01 A, Ethnomethodological Approach and Didactics: Theoritical and Methodological Perspectives
Paper Session
Contribution
The paper discusses theoretical and methodological tensions between an ethnomethodological approach to the inquiry of classroom order as situated practice and a more didactical oriented approach to teaching and learning.
The ethnomethodological tradition of classroom research is, roughly speaking, interested in the pragmatics, the members “methods”, and daily routines in establishing something like a “lesson” (cf. Mehan 1979, Doyle 2006, Breidenstein/Tyagunova 2012). All together this kind of analysis inquires the functionality of classroom discourse and practice. It is generally less interested in the sbject matter of the lesson and it does deliberately not ask for the quality of teaching and learning. It does not evaluate the observed classroom events but it sticks to the normative abstinence which is routed in the ethnomethodological research tradition. From this perspective it is possible to explain order and to get to see how things work in a very pragmatic sense.
This research tradition and perspective obviously stands in tension to a more didactic point of view. From this perspective one wants to know what works better with respect to learning opportunities, one is interested in the subject matter of the lesson and in the quality of teaching and learning. In this line of research, at least in the German discourse, most empirical classroom discourse seems to be disappointing and unsatisfactory: Opportunities for learning are missed, the subject of the lesson is misrepresented, classroom practice very much relies on routines and very seldom on curiosity and detection (cf. e.g. Gruschka 2009, Geier/Pollmanns 2015).
Nevertheless participants usually do not seem to have problems with lessons which can be seen critical from a didactical point of view. Teachers as well as students may be satisfied with a lesson which just doesn´t make too much problems, which follows established routines, and which looks like a “lesson”. There are findings in research on “classroom management”, that “relatively simple and routine tasks involving memory or algorithms tend to proceed quite smoothly in class with little hesitation or resistance. (…) In such circumstances a well-managed class would not necessarily be a high achieving class” (Doyle 2006, 111). – So there seems to be an empirical tension between the interest in the quality of teaching and the interest in a frictionless course of lessons as well (Doyle&Carter 1984).
To get this tension between the pragmatics of classroom order and the didactic quality of teaching and learning into the view, it is necessary to operate with both, the ethnomethodological and the didactical perspective. And probably it is more promising to use both as different approaches than to interfuse them to one – this is the point the paper wants to put to discussion.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bergmann, Jörg (2000): Ethnomethodologie. In: Flick, Uwe et. al. (Hrsg.): Qualitative Forschung. Ein Handbuch, Reinbek (Rowohlt), 118-135 Breidenstein, Georg (2006): Teilnahme am Unterricht. Ethnographische Studien zum Schülerjob, Wiesbaden (VS Verlag) Breidenstein, Georg (2008): The Pupils' Job. An Ethnographic Approach to Schooling as Practical Accomplishment (paper presented on the ECER-Conference 2008 in Göteborg) Breidenstein, Georg (2010): "Teaching and Assessment – Ethnographic Research on Classroom Practices" (Paper to be presented on the ECER-Conference 2010 in Helsinki) Breidenstein, Georg (2012): Zeugnisnotenbesprechung. Zur Analyse der Praxis schulischer Leistungsbewertung. Pädagogische Fallanthologie, Band 12. Opladen (Verlag Barbara Budrich) Breidenstein, Georg (2015): Practices of "Individualized" Teaching and Learning in German Primary Schools (paper presented at the ECER 2015 in Budapest) Breidenstein, Georg (2015): Qualitative Unterrichtsforschung und (fach-)didaktische Reflexion, in: Petrik, Andreas (Hrsg.): Formate fachdidaktischer Forschung der der politischen Bildung. Schriftenreihe der GPJE. Wochenschau Wissenschaft, S. 17-33 Breidenstein, Georg/Tanja Tyagunova (2012): Ethnomethodologie und Konversationsanalyse, in: Bauer, Ulrich/Uwe H. Bittlingsmayer/Albert Scherr (Hrsg.): Handbuch Bildungs- und Erziehungssoziologie. Wiesbaden (Springer VS), S. 387-403 Breidenstein, Georg/Rademacher, Sandra (2016): Individualisierung und Kontrolle. Empirische Studien zum geöffneten Unterricht in der Grundschule (Springer VS) (forthcoming) Doyle, Walter (2006): Ecological Approaches to Classroom Management. In: Doyle, Walter/Carter, Kathy (ed.): Handbook of Classroom Management, 97-125 Doyle, Walter/Carter, Kathy (1984): Academic tasks in classrooms. In: Curriculum Inquiry 14 (2), 129-149 Garfinkel, H. (1986) (ed.): Ethnomethodological studies of work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Geier, Thomas/Pollmanns, Marion (2015) (Hrsg.): Was ist Unterricht? Zur Konstitution einer pädagogischen Form. Wiesbaden (Springer VS) Gruschka, Andreas (2009): Erkenntnis in und durch Unterricht, Wetzlar Ligozat, Florence (2011): The Developement of Comparative Didactics and the Joint Action Theory of Didactics, Paper presented ECER 2011 in Berlin Mehan, Hugh (1979): Learning Lessons: Social Organisationin the Classroom. Cambridge Reckwitz, Andreas (2003): Grundelemente einer Theorie sozialer Praktiken. In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie 32 (H4), 282-301 Schatzki, T.R., Knorr-Cetina, K. & Savigny, E.v. (eds.) (2001): The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London & New York. Schmidt, Robert (2012): Soziologie der Praktiken, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp Sensevy, Gerard (2012): About the Joint Action Theory in Didactics. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 15, 503-516 Zaborowski, Katrin Ulrike/Meier, Michael/Breidenstein, Georg (2011): Leistungsbewertung und Unterricht. Ethnographische Studien zur Bewertungspraxis in Gymnasium und Sekundarschule. Wiesbaden (VS Verlag)
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