Education and Dialogue in Polarized Societies: Dialogic perspectives in times of change

by Ola Erstad (Editor), Bente E. Hagtvet (Editor), James V. Wertsch (Editor)

Overview

A number of scholars within the social sciences and the humanities have elaborated on the cultural and psychological dimensions of living through social, economic and political crises. Still, developments during the last decade have created an awareness that something fundamental of the human condition is at stake, especially for the young generation growing up today, with a devastating environmental crisis, globalization, large scale migration, the impact of digitalization and so forth. The consequence has been increased polarization between nations, communities, and people, where the dialogue for human understanding seems to vanish. The basic rationale underlying this book is that education is a key social system where learning to take different perspectives, to stimulate dialogue and intersubjectivity are fundamental for social and cultural development. We bring together scholars from North-America and Europe, but with relevance on a global scale. The four sections in the book cover theoretical explorations referring to the power and generativity of the writings of the Norwegian scholar Ragnar Rommetveit (section 1), diverse chapters and examples on the societal conditions for dialogue and the role of education (section 2), empirical illustration on the role of digital technologies (section 3), and micro-analytical studies of learning dialogues at home, in kindergarten and school (section 4).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197605424
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	0.10(w) x 0.10(h) x 0.10(d)

About the Author

Professor Erstad is an internationally leading researcher with a focus on digital literacy, but firmly rooted in the wider social and cultural context of learning beyond the technological aspects. His areas of expertise are learning, technology and education, children and youth in modern society. Erstad has been leading several large-scale research projects and research networks funded by the Norwegian Research Council, Nordforsk and the EU, and is part of several international networks and committees. He has been elected as Chair for the Scientific Advisory Committee for Science Europe (2016-2018), and Vice-Chair for the COST Action of 'The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children' (2015-2018). He has been visiting scholar/professor at the University of Southern-Denmark, University of Hong Kong, UC San Diego.

Bente E. Hagtvet is a researcher of the learning and teaching of language and thinking with particular interests in in developmental and didactic perspectives on the transition from preschool to school and children's meeting with the written language, when in typical and untypical deveopment. She graduated from the University of Oslo, has taught at Universities in Sweden, Denmark and Finland and been a guest professor at the University of Oxford (1996-1996), Berkely University (the fall of 2007), University of Tromsø (2008-2010), At the University of Oslo she was Dean of Faculty (2002-2007) and has been leading a fair number of research projects over the years.

James V. Wertsch is a scholar of language, thought, and culture, with a special focus on national memory and and narratives. After finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, Wertsch was a postdoctoral fellow at the USSR Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University, where he studied with the neuropsychologist A.R. Luria. Wertsch has held faculty positions at Northwestern University, the University of California, San Diego, Clark University, and Washington University in St. Louis, where he has also been Vice Chancellor for International Affairs. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Russian Academy of Education, and he holds honorary degrees from Linköping University and the University of Oslo. Wertsch has also served as a guest professor at the University of Oslo, the University of Bristol, the University of Seville, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Fudan University in Shanghai.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Importance of Dialogue
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The importance of dialogue
1.3 The current dominance of monologic approaches
1.4 The dialogical rationale of this book: Key theoretical positions.
1.5 Dialogue and learning
1.6 The structure of the book
SECTION 1: THE LEGACY OF ROMMETVEIT
Chapter 2 The Role of Narratives in Dialogue and Intersubjectivity
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The influence of Rommetveit
2.3 Narrative as a Symbolic Tool
2.4 American National Narratives as Co-authors
2.5 Competing Narrative Templates
2.6 Dialogism, Intersubjectivity, and Narratives
Chapter 3 Ragnar Rommetveit on Contextures and Partially Shared Understandings
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Ragnar Rommetveit
3.3 On Rommetveit´s early attempts to describe contexts of languaging
3.4 Authentic situations I: Threatening phone calls
3.5 Authentic situations II: Situations suggesting sexual abuse of children
3.6 Authentic situations III: Hannah Arendt about Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem
3.7 Authentic example IV: Putin´s on the war in Ukraine
3.8 On remote contexts and lost opportunities
3.9 Context atrophy in formal linguistics and in myopic interaction analysis
3.10 Coda: A note on macro-level phenomena
Chapter 4 Layered Attunement: Internal dialogues of intersubjectivity
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Dialogical negotiation beyond consciousness
4.3 The Polysemic Multivoiced Self (PMS)
4.4 Relations between voices: tensions and their negotiation
4.5 General Discussion: Learning with Rommetveit
SECTION 2: SOCIETAL CONDITONS FOR DIALOGUE AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION
Chapter 5 The Limits and Potential of Dialogue to counter Polarization in Educative settings
5.1 Introduction: is dialogue disabled in polarized settings?
5.2 Dialogue as a remedy of polarization - the UNION project
5.3 What can dialogue do in situations of polarization according to the theory?
5.3.1 Can we design inclusive dialogical spaces for communities that are diverse?
5.3.2 (How) can dialogue function between parties with rival or incommensurable worldviews?
5.3.3 What can we learn from the very nature of intersubjectivty and its ability to bridge opposing worlds?
5.4 Implications for designing dialogical interventions
5.4.1 Design principles for dialogical interventions
5.5 Concluding thoughts: the need to go back to the rough ground
Chapter 6 Active citizenship and participation through “Dialogues in the Square”
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Theoretical framework
6.3 “Dialogues in the Square”: The origins of the project
6.4 Participants and Partners
6.5 The Development of dialogues: Towards Action in a Public Space
6.6 Experiencing Different Types of Dialogues
6.7 A Snapshot from the Field: Triggering Cross-Generation Dialogue
6.8 Constraints and Opportunities
Chapter 7 A dialogic theory of educational technology
7.1 Introduction: definitions and scope
7.1.1 What is 'technology'?
7.1.2 Theory and practice as dialogues in different timescales
7.1.3 What is 'education'?
7.2 Dialogism
7.2.1 The dialogic gap is constitutive for meaning
7.2.2 Dialogic space
7.2.3 The inside:outside/outside:inside nature of dialogic relations
7.2.4 We learn as a response to a call
7.2.5 Dialogic double-voicedness
7.2.6 Learning as the expansion of dialogue
7.3 The theory of educational technology
7.4 Conversation Theory
7.4.1 Commentary on Conversation Theory
7.4.2 Connectivism or learning as networking
7.4.3 Commentary on Connectivism
7.5 A dialogic theory of educational technology
7.5.1 Education technology for connection
7.5.2 Education technology for participation
7.5.3 Education technology for the expansion of time
7.6 Discussion and conclusion
SECTION 3: THE ROLE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
Chapter 8 Using microblogging to create a space for attending and attuning to others
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Socioscientific reasoning (SSI), intersubjectivity and technology mediated dialogue
8.3 Microblogging in classroom interactions
8.4 Vignettes of classroom attunement and intersubjectivity
8.4.1 Who is to blame if the car crashes?
8.4.2 'The computer could go crazy'
8.4.3 'I think you should do that one'
8.5 Attunement and intersubjectivity in technology-mediated learning
Chapter 9 Engaging in dialogic activities in an online community: Expanding the notion of double dialogicality
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Dialogism and co-authorship of meaning
9.3 Digital technology and the expansion of double dialogicality
9.4 Engaging in dialogic activities in an online community - Space2cre8 as an illustrative case
9.5 Concluding remarks
Chapter 10 Intersubjectivity and Dialogue in Video Games
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Online Gaming and Notions of Intersubjectivity
10.3 Contextual Background
10.4 Elements of the Communicative Medium and Their Influence on Toxicity
10.5 Enculturation
10.6 Data and Analysis
10.7 Disagreement and Intersubjectivity - Online and Offline
10.8 Conclusion
SECTION 4: LEARNING DIALOGUES AT HOME AND IN SCHOOL
Chapter 11 Opportunities to learn and intersubjectivity
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Classroom/supports for active learning
11.2.1 Engaging in debate and discussion
11.2.2 Using worked examples to promote reflection
11.3 Collaborative learning with authentic tasks
11.3.1 Summary of classroom methods
11.3.2 Piercing the Autonomous learner shield in professional development
11.3.3 Engaging in hybrid debate and discussion
11.3.4 Using worked examples to promote reflection
11.3.5 Collaborative Learning with Authentic Tasks
11.3.6 From practices to principles
Chapter 12 Code-switching during Shared Reading in Bilingual Families
12.1 Introduction
12.2 A dialogic perspective on parent-child code-switching in the context of shared reading
12.3 The present study
12.4 Methods
12.4.1 Participants
12.4.2 Procedure and data collection
12.4.3 Coding and analysis
12.5 Results
12.5.1 Code-switching patterns over time in the seven dyads
12.5.2 Code-switching as a tool in scaffolded dialogues
12.5.3 Child-initiated code-switching and parental confirmation
12.5.5 Child-initiated code-switching and parental extension
12.5.6 Parent-initiated code-switching to support the child's understanding
12.6 Discussion
12.7 Conclusion
Chapter 13 The Importance of Intersubjectivity in Teacher-Child Joint Story Construction
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Teaching and learning as communicative acts, based on intersubjectivity
13.3 Intersubjectivity and learning dialogues
13.4 Intersubjectivity in a developmental perspective
13.5 The current study
13.6 Method
13.7 Results
13.7 Teacher-child-interactions with wavering intersubjectivity
13.8 Summary and Conclusions
13.9 Implications
SECTION 5: COMMENTARIES
Chapter 14 Dialogue, Polarization, and Change: Reflections - a Commentary
Chapter 15 Not just change: Dialogue in times of crisis - a Commentary
15.1 A perennial theme of acute contemporary relevance
15.2 Crisis, not just change
15.3 The implications of considering crisis
15.4 The significance of dialogical perspectives in a time of planetary crisis
15.5 A brief illustration
Chapter 16 Legacies and Prospects of Dialogue - Editor's Final Note
16.1 A final note
16.2 With inspiration from Ragnar Rommetveit