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Not Just Talk, But a “Dance”! How Kindergarten Teachers Opened and Closed Spaces for Teacher–Child Authentic Dialogue

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Abstract

Although authentic dialogue between teachers and young children is vital to the learning process, increasingly diverse student populations and a focus on high-stakes testing, challenge teachers’ approaches to such conversations. This study examined the verbal and nonverbal interactions between five teachers and young children using child-taken photographs to promote conversation. Analysis exposed how the teachers’ nonverbal and verbal responsiveness opened and closed conversational spaces for the children to describe their home contexts. This teacher–child dance illuminates the necessary and effective pursuit of attending to both verbal and nonverbal communication in authentic dialogue and suggests a teacher choreograph that, when attended to, is positioned for effective and efficient use within the increasingly diverse and time-pressured classroom.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by Penn State University’s Social Science Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Penn State Harrisburg, 777 W Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA, 17036, USA

    Martha J. Strickland

  2. Mount St. Mary’s University, Archbishop Borders Hall, 224, 16300 Old Emmitsburg Road, Emmitsburg, MD, 21727, USA

    Barbara A. Marinak

Authors
  1. Martha J. Strickland
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  2. Barbara A. Marinak
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Correspondence to Martha J. Strickland.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Pennsylvania State University IRB approved this study.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Strickland, M.J., Marinak, B.A. Not Just Talk, But a “Dance”! How Kindergarten Teachers Opened and Closed Spaces for Teacher–Child Authentic Dialogue. Early Childhood Educ J 44, 613–621 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0750-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0750-1

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