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Reconceptualising Teacher-Child Dialogue In RECONCEPTUALISING TEACHER-CHILD DIALOGUE IN EARLY YEARS EDUCATION: A BAKHTINIAN APPROACH A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education in the University of Canterbury by L. de Vocht University of Canterbury 2015 Abstract This thesis argues that a Bakhtinian dialogic approach holds possibilities for reconceptualising and re-enacting teacher–child dialogue interactions in early years education. It accepts education as open-ended, with children as active participants and frames teacher–child dialogues as unique encounters, which can go beyond children’s neoliberal enculturation in the world. Neoliberal discourses have exerted an important influence on early years education, emphasising universal “best evidence” strategies and narrowly defined learning “outcomes” which can lead to technicist approaches to teaching and learning. The study explores the dialogic interactions between children aged from 3½ to 5 years and their teachers in two early childhood settings. In a dialogic methodological approach, two of the teachers and myself as a researcher critically engaged in collaborative discussions of selected video recordings of the teacher–child interactions. A Bakhtinian concept of moral answerability applies to the collaborative dialogic approach between teachers and researcher. It goes beyond teaching as a technical approach with universal strategies, to provide guidance for teachers in the unique lived experiences with their students. A dialogic reflexivity, which is employed both pedagogically and as a methodological approach in the study, is aligned with Bakhtin’s philosophy of praxis in everyday life experiences. A second Bakhtinian notion of polyphony explains how each person accesses multiple voices in response, which are shaped simultaneously by unique previous experiences and the encounter itself. In educational dialogue, polyphony can open up a view of dialogue as open-ended and providing different possibilities; it can allow for more meaningful responses by students and more respectful listening from teachers. Furthermore, young children’s carnivalesque utterances are viewed as challenging authoritative, monologic discourses when analysed through a Bakhtinian lens. For Bakhtin, Acknowledgements subjectivity is not only shaped in and through dialogue; it also in turn shapes present and future dialogue. Dialogue is therefore inevitably intertwined with subjectivity. Findings show that teaching in early childhood settings involves a complex mix of both monologic and dialogic acts. Dialogic processes can provide alternative understandings of children and teachers as agentic and unfinalised. At times, children were engaged in carnivalesque acts, resisting authoritative teaching through their play, chanting and non- verbal communication, thereby making visible the institutionalisation of children and teachers in early childhood settings. It is suggested that children who are active participants in their education need to be given opportunities for carnivalesque responses. Furthermore, when early childhood teachers have opportunities to critically reflect on children’s utterances in a collaborative dialogue with colleagues, they can gain a more complex understanding of teacher–child dialogue, enabling them to answer morally to the children in their care. Ongoing dialogic encounters with the teachers provided multiple perspectives of the data, resulting in changes to their teaching practices and routines. The findings of the study hold important implications for teaching and for in-service and pre-service teacher education. I suggest that respectful dialogic approaches between teachers and researchers hold pedagogical and methodological potential and, when used thoughtfully, can counteract neoliberal, technicist interventions. In relation to both pre-service and in-service teacher education, the study speaks to the importance of teachers being equipped to engage in open- ended dialogue with children and collaborative dialogues with peers. Drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of moral answerability, this thesis is an utterance asking for an active response not only in everyday teacher-child dialogues, but also in the ongoing, open-ended dialogue about early childhood education and, in particular, teacher–child dialogue. It leaves unfinalised not only children and adults, but also the subject of teacher- child dialogue. There is no first utterance and no last word; Bakhtinian dialogue views both children and adults as becoming. 3 Preface The empirical research for this thesis was carried out in Christchurch, between 2009 and 2012. I will not only remember this period for the wonderful relationships with the participating teachers Gemma and Tracy and the friendships of the children in the participating childcare centres; that period is etched in my memory for the 10,000 or so earthquakes that we experienced in and around our city. For a while, the importance of my PhD study paled in comparison with basic survival and finding cover when there was yet another earthquake. Data collection stopped for a year or so; everyone’s mind was on other things. In a Bakhtinian sense the earthquakes brought home carnivalesque elements of living: the grotesque shaking of the earth, the destruction of the city infrastructure, the ruins. The formal world stopped for a while; all public places closed and there only was an unofficial world, of neighbours supporting and hugging each other in the street. The earthquakes also had a huge impact on the early childhood centres and the teachers, especially Jacarinda Street centre, which lost many families, who moved away from the city. Many early childhood teachers became an even stronger support for families. As all lived experiences, the earthquakes and all its consequences greatly affected our subjectivities. They foregrounded the importance of relationships and support for each other and made it painfully obvious how we live in an uncertain, unfinalised and open-ended world. 4 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Firstly I want to thank Tracy and Gemma and the children at Jacarinda and Wisteria Street childcare centres for allowing me to observe and write about your interactions with each other. You made me feel so welcome and I treasure your friendship. Tracy and Gemma, a heartfelt thank you also for your participation in the teacher meetings and for openly sharing your thoughts. This thesis would not exist without you. I sincerely thank my supervisors, Dr Kathleen Quinlivan and Professor Peter Roberts for your invaluable support, encouraging me with your wise words, challenging me and gently pushing me along. I appreciate your flexibility to always work around my deadlines and your timely responses, even at times when you were very busy. I enjoyed the dialogues at our meetings and I look forward to ongoing dialogues ‘in the corridors’. I now go back to the beginning: I want to thank my parents for giving me such a great start to life, answering all my ‘why’ questions, instilling in me a desire to keep learning and for supporting me to study as far as I wanted to go. Thank you also to my sons and their partners and my friends for your interest and for your understanding that I did not always have the time to socialise. Thank you also to my colleagues for your support and for your empathy. Last and most importantly I want to thank my husband Kees, for his unwavering belief in me that I could complete this thesis and for all his practical support, making hundreds of meals and coffees, waiting patiently for me to finish this work. 5 Dedication For my grandchildren Louis and Felix and all children yet to be born. Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Preface ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 12 What Is Dialogue? .............................................................................................................. 12 Teacher–Child Dialogue .................................................................................................... 15 A Brief History of the Philosophy of Childhood and Education ................................... 17 Influence of Global Neoliberal Discourses in Education ................................................ 20 New Zealand Policy Framework in Relation to Teacher–Child Dialogue .................... 24 Open-ended Education ...................................................................................................... 30 A Bakhtinian Approach to Education ............................................................................. 35 Philosophical Perspectives on Dialogue in Education .................................................... 37 My Interest in Teacher–Child Dialogue .......................................................................... 43 Brief Overview of Chapters .............................................................................................. 47 Chapter 2: Toward an Understanding of Bakhtin.............................................................. 53 Why Bakhtin?....................................................................................................................
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