Mighty Digests # 7: GRAFF, Classroom talk: co-constructing a ‘difficult student.’

Graff, N. (2009). Classroom talk: co-constructing a ‘difficult student.’ Educational Research 51(4), 439-454.

The article focuses on a teacher-student relationship in a grade seven class, and shows how classroom talk can help to reveal difficult relationships.

The research method was participant observation and micro-analysis of data through CA, DA, and “Goffman’s discussion of participation frameworks” (p. 439).

The author tries to answer to this question:

“What role does the public nature of classroom talk play in casting the relationship between a particular teacher and a particular student as “difficult”?” (p. 440)

The article stresses the importance of talk as a means of establishing relationships and building knowledge in the class.

The research demonstrates that the difficulty of a relationship can be alimented by the class.

The author of the article is really insightful in the analysis of the “violation of norms”, and how they are balanced and “redirected” by the teacher in the classroom. Like in the article by Cromdal et al. the axis is between a student, his peers, and the teacher:

“Often tense relationships between teachers and students develop lives of their own”.

I liked the numerous references to the literature, and a constant contextualization of the problem in a broader scenario.

I am not totally convinced by the “message, interaction and pattern” model. (p. 442) I think that both messages and interactions may be considered patterns. Furthermore, the recognition of patterns in a talk-in-action scenario is subjective. And can we consider the exchange of utterances as interaction? This “foggy” distinction and categorization is confirmed by other “groupings” by other authors, like den Brok, who merges message and interaction.