DP & Such...

Theory of Planned Action (100)…

·      represents an attempt to improve the ability of attitude measurement to predict actions

·      intentions to behave in particular ways are seen as a result of three factors: the person’s attitudes towards the object of the action, his or her impression of what significant others such as friends or family think about the action, and his or her control over the action

This section gave the example of a person’s decision to buy organic food, but it made me think of my family’s decision to get healthy by exercising and how we have done it together.  When we talk about it, both my husband and I talk in relation to one another’s contribution to our individual success; i.e. without the other one we wouldn’t have been able to continue.  We went in with a positive attitude and we have seen positive results, which spurs our further interest.  If my husband were to give up and stop working out with me, I wonder if I would continue long-term or if I would give up. 

In terms of education research, I would be interest to use this theory to look at participants in a book club as professional development study or another school change movement.  At my school, we adopted Lucy Calkins Units of Study for our writing curriculum.  The moment that struggle began to surface, whining started and administration buckled on their expectations for the curriculum’s use.  Instead of backing their decision to implement writer’s workshop in our school and provide teachers with professional development, they gave in to those difficult teachers.  It would be interesting to conduct research in a school using ‘the theory of planned action’ over the course of adoption to implementation to completion of year one. 

Social Identity Theory…

·      aim is to determine what happens to people’s identity and their evaluations, perceptions, and motivations when they interact within groups (101)

·      people’s cognitive processes change since self-categorisation as a group member leads to the expression of a social identity rather than a personal identity; when expressing a social identity, stereotypes are deployed (101)

·      one’s sense of self becomes based on shared ideas regarding the group (101)

·      in order to feel good about oneself, the individual has to feel good about the group (101)

·      people favourise their own group and discriminate against other groups (101)

The reading on social identity theory made me think of my own personal struggle this past year and in previous chapters in my life and how those struggles made me feel about myself.  When I was finishing up my internship at LCMS, I knew in my heart that I was going to work at LCES. I had done everything right: volunteer, local connections, personal relationships, great recommendations, etc.  However, I wasn't even given an interview, because I didn't attend UT.  LCES is a UT school. When I found out that I wasn't considered, it was a huge ego blow.  A few weeks later, I was hired at a school for a much better job, but it really wasn't until I had gotten a degree from UT and turned down an offer at LCES that my ego recovered.  I finally felt 'good enough'.

This summer, I struggled on the quantitative portion of the GRE.  I felt like the most ridiculous person ever. I just knew that I was going to end up attending LMU.  When I received my acceptance letter and attended the doctoral student orientation, I could have floated off of the planet.  It is amazing how a person's identity can be determined by a piece of paper.  I have changed.  My confidence is higher and I feel more capable in most areas.  A few months ago, I would start classes and be like, 'I am just seeking my Ed.S.'  I felt like I was lesser of a student simply because of my program of study.  Now that I have been accepted, I feel like I belong.  Nothing has changed in me.  I am taking courses with the same friends, but now I feel like I am one of them. I am a part of the group.  

DP’s Position Quotes…

·      According to discursive psychology, language does not merely express experiences; rather, language also constitutes experiences and the subjective psychological reality (Potter and Wetherell 1987; Shotter 1993; Wetherell 1995).

·      According to discursive psychology, discourses do not describe an external world ‘out there’ as schemata and stereotypes do according to cognitivist approaches. Rather, discourses create a world that looks real or true for the speaker (103).

·      Discursive psychologists contend that social events, relations, and structures have conditions of existence that lie outside the realm of discourse (103).

DP’s 3 Strands & Points Common to the 3 Strands (104, 118)…

·      A poststructuralist perspective that builds on Foucauldian theory on discourse, power and the subject.

·      An interactionist perspective that builds on conversation analysis and ethnomethodology.

·      A synthetic perspective that unites the two first perspectives (104).

·      The concept of interpretive repertoire is often used instead of discourse to emphasize that discourses are drawn on in social interaction as flexible resources (105).

·      The purpose is to gain insight into questions about communication, social action, and the construction of the self, the Other, and the world (106)

·      Each repertoire provides resources that people can use to construct versions of reality (107).

Object Relations Theory…

·      Object relations theory proposes that subjectivity is formed by experiences in the ‘pre-oedipal phase’ in which the child shifts from being at one with the mother to being separate (113).

·      Object relations theorists consider this process of differentiation to be central to the development of the individual’s self-knowledge and self-confidence and his or her sense of ontological security (Wetherell, 1995) (114)

Dialogic Unconscious…

·      consists of statements that have been repressed in specific social contexts (115)

·      Billig conceives of the unconscious as the product of dialogue with, and in, the social world.  The idea is that it is through dialogue that people repress things and, at a more general level, acquire the ability to repress (115)

·      Some ways of talking make certain themes possible and make other taboo, so that statements do not only express things but also take part in repression (115).

·      Gave example of the inquiry involving asking the English if it would be okay for a member of the royal family to marry outside of their race.  The basic answer given was that although they personally didn’t have a problem with it, the population as a whole probably didn’t have that feeling towards it.

DP’s Research Design and Methods

1.     Research Questions: the questions asked lead up to study of how people, through discursive practice, create constructions of the world, groups, and identities (119).

2.     Choice of Sample: no correct, natural limit; what is important is that researchers clearly describe their chosen sample and justify their choice on the basis of the research questions and methodology (120).

3.     Production of Naturally Occurring Material (120)

4.     Production of Material Through Interviews (121-124)

5.     Transcription: choose a system that enables the researcher to analyze the interview as social interaction (124)

6.     Coding: no clear cut procedure or recipe; identify themes, crisis points, pronoun uses (124)

7.     Analysis (125)

8.     Determination of Validity: coherence & fruitfulness (125)

9.     Research Report: transparency is crucial (126)

10. Applying Research Results: choose the audience (scientific community, research participants, participants group, mass media as the medium; consider critical language awareness (126)

A discourse and order of discourse

·      analytical framework for empirical research

·      use the concept of ‘order of discourse’ as a main pillar

·      discourse is defined as the fixation of meaning within a particular domain

·      An order of discourse is defined as a complex configuration of discourses and genres within the same social field or instruction (141).

·      authors ‘believe that an analysis of the order of discourse is useful in that, by identifying the relationship between the discourses within a certain domain, it can explicate why people draw on some discourses rather than others in specific situations’ (142).

Content of Discourses

Using this framework, the researcher can delineate the different discourses, focusing on the following:

·      the aspects of the world to which the discourses ascribe meaning;

·      the particular ways in which each of the discourses ascribes meaning;

·      the points on which there is an open struggle between different representations; and

·      any understandings naturalized in all of the discourses as common-sense (144-145).

Analytical Strategies:

·      comparison: compare the text with other texts (149);

·      substitution: form of comparison in which the analyst herself creates the text for comparison, substituting one word for another (150);

·      exaggeration of detail: blowing up a particular textual detail out of proportion (150);

·      multivocality: delineation of different voices or discursive logics in the text, based on intertextuality (all utterances are inevitably draw on, incorporate or challenge earlier utterances) (151);

How much analysis should be included in the research report?

·      The analysis should be solid…based on a range of different textual features.

·      The analysis should be comprehensive…the questions posed to the text should be answered fully and any textual features that conflict with the analysis should be accounted for.

·      The analysis should be presented in a transparent way, allowing the reader, as far as possible, to ‘test’ the claims made (173).

Action Research…the research should be carried out with people, rather than about them…the aims of the research should be formulated in a specific context of social practice, together with the people in this context.  People in the field are seen as participants in the research process, contributing their knowledge of the field to a common development of new knowledge together with the researcher (188).

Strong objectivity is achieved through strong reflexivity which involves an exploration of our own cultural and social locations as researchers (202).

As social constructionists, we do not have the right endowed by possession of a final truth.  But we do not have the right that all people, in principle, have to intervene in democratic debate with a truth that can be discussed, in order to further our visions for a better society (211).

A Review of Discourse Analysis in Literacy Research: Equitable Access (2010)

*Drawing from more than 300 studies, we discerned that a common theme was understanding how the literacy education of all students can be successfully accomplished (94).

*Data sources: peer-reviewed studies, journals, chapters, books on literacy and discourse (94)

*Research databases: WorldCat, JSTOR, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Wilson, Dissertations Abstracts, ERIC, and ISI Web of Science (94)

*Researchers’ Aim: ‘to discover which literacy issues have been investigated through discourse analysis and for what purposes, how scholars have applied discourse analysis in their research, and the cases researchers have made for the pertinence of discourse analysis in literacy studies’ (94).

One of the contributions of discourse analysis studies of literacy in education is problematizing how equity and access have been defined in part by deconstructing traditional binaries—for example, successful/unsuccessful; abled/disabled; capable/deficit; central/marginal (95).

3 Terms Key to DA Studies of Literacy Education: discourse (95), discourse analysis (95-96), and literacy (96)

Levels of Discourse: global aspects and local contextuality situated aspects (95)

Literacy’s 3 Units of Scale: macro, micro, and meso (96)

Questions:

Whose literacies count?

Which literacies count? (97)

What are literate identities, how are they constructed, and by whom?

How are disciplinary knowledges, discourses, and identities constructed?

How can schools provide students with access to school-based literacies?

What are the shifting roles of literacy teachers and learners within and outside of school?

How does discourse analysis research address movement within and across literacy sites and practices in a contemporary, globalized, and increasingly digitally influenced world? (98)