Engaged Dialogic Pedagogy and the Tensions Teachers Face

Main Article Content

T. Hunter Strickland

Abstract

Book review: Fecho, B., Falter, M., & Hong, X. (2016). Teaching outside the box and inside the standards: Making room for dialogue. New York: Teachers College Press.

This review highlights the editors’ vision of showing the power of engaged dialogic practice in classroom contexts that are at odds with the push for the standardization of schools and learning. In particular, this review will show how the individual stories of the four teachers highlighted in the book along with the experience of the university researchers created a dialogue from which readers can take hope that their choice to engage in Bakhtinian dialogism in the context of their classrooms is a worthy pursuit. According to the book, this is true even when that choice puts them at odds with other teachers, administrators, and state or national standards. This review will show that the editors and the teachers whose stories are told do not intend for their readers to come to this text ready to join the fight against standards, but for them to be able to see how dialogue is exceptionally important in working in standardized spaces. The book itself is short with only six chapters and just over one hundred pages, therefore, the review will address each chapter individually and its overall engagement with the purpose outlined above. Each chapter ends with the author’s suggestions for action which can help the reader new to dialogical pedagogy grasp dialogical strategies.

 

Article Details

How to Cite
Strickland, T. H. (2019). Engaged Dialogic Pedagogy and the Tensions Teachers Face. Dialogic Pedagogy: A Journal for Studies of Dialogic Education, 7. https://doi.org/10.5195/dpj.2019.224
Section
Book Reviews
Author Biography

T. Hunter Strickland, The University of Georgia

T. Hunter Strickland is a doctoral candidate in Language and Literacy Education and Graduate Teaching Assistant in English Education at The University of Georgia. His research interests are in dialogic pedagogy and the use of young adult literature in both secondary schools and teacher education programs. Additionally, he is interested in using Bakhtin’s concepts in analyzing young adult literature in order to engage with young adult texts and the students who read them.

References

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981a). Discourse in the novel. In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogic imagination: Four essays (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.) (pp. 272-348). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981b). From the prehistory of novelistic discourse. In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogic imagination: Four essays (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.) (pp. 272-348). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Fecho, B., & Amatucci, K. B. (2008). Spinning out of control: Dialogical transactions in an English classroom. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 7(1). 5-21.

Fecho, B., Falter, M., & Hong, X. (2016a). Embracing tension: using Bakhtinian theory as a means for data analysis. Qualitative Research, 17(1), 20-36.

Fecho, B., Falter, M., & Hong, X. (2016b). Teaching outside the box and inside the standards: Making room for dialogue. New York: Teachers College Press.

Stewart, T.T. (2010). A dialogic pedagogy: Looking to Mikhail Bakhtin for alternatives to standards period teaching practices. Critical Education, 1(6). 1-20.

Stewart, T.T. & McClure, G. (2013). Freire, Bakhtin, and collaborative pedagogy: A dialogue with students and mentors. International Journal for Dialogical Science, 7(1), 91-108.