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Doing Gender Against the Odds: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Educational Discourse

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Gender and Spoken Interaction

Abstract

Contemporary studies of the performance of gender in spoken interaction have tended, understandably, to focus on contexts in which there is likely to be evidence of gender being done. In this paper, by contrast, I shall look at a context in which the odds seem to be stacked against the interactional performance of gender. The data I examine come from an intervention project carried out in primary classrooms in the south east of England, designed to encourage children to use talk effectively for learning. Children are carrying out various problem-solving activities, exploring ideas together and engaging in collaborative interaction. Both the topic and the interactional style are relatively constrained (the children have been taught to use particular ways of speaking) and the context is not one in which gender is likely to be salient. I shall examine ways in which gender may nevertheless be invoked, albeit rarely, and the strategic use to which gender — and gendering — is put in this context.

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Authors
  1. Joan Swann
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

    Pia Pichler

  2. Roehampton University, UK

    Eva Eppler

Copyright information

© 2009 Joan Swann

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Cite this chapter

Swann, J. (2009). Doing Gender Against the Odds: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Educational Discourse. In: Pichler, P., Eppler, E. (eds) Gender and Spoken Interaction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230280748_2

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