Abstract
Summoning Michail Bakhtin’s notion ofheteroglossia and its relationship to metaphoricity, this chapter invites a re-conceptualized view of language use in education. The notion of heteroglossia posits the sign as a multi-discursive, diverse, ideologically and socially constructedevent . A heteroglossic approach to metaphoricity is therefore contemplated as a deeply interpretive stance on the part of teachers who are open to forms ofengagement with signs well beyond centripetal considerations of language that is otherwise ‘dead on arrival’ and denies its diverse potential for creative meaning-making. The chapter uses an example of research in the areaof early childhood education as those years where clues to meaning are often elusive. In keeping with the central tenet ofedusemiotics , emphasis is placed on interpreted meanings in action rather than isolating the sign as if it merely passes from one person to another. In the increasingly heteroglossic nature of our world, coupled with a new era of openness, diversity, and dialogue, teachers are compelled to contemplate multiple dynamic forms of semiotic engagement with learners.
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Notes
- 1.
Talbot (2015) interrogates this metaphor from the standpoint of its scientific origins to explain that centripetal forces gain sufficient momentum as to ‘throw out’, while centrifugal forces tend to combine or coalesce. Such launching offers an opportunity to transgress privileged meanings to encounter other discourses that give rise to other ways of seeing the world: it is therefore a dialogic process (see White2015).
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White, E.J. (2017). Heteroglossia as a Dialogic Route to Metaphoricity in Education. In: Semetsky, I. (eds) Edusemiotics – A Handbook. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1495-6_15
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