Abstract
Discourse analysis as a method of inquiry has improved our collective understanding of teaching and learning processes for at least four decades. This chapter provides some historical context for understanding the emergence of discourse analysis within educational research, describes some of the different ways that discourse analysis continues to be used and useful in educational research, and synthesizes scholarship that has influenced how discourse analysis has enhanced educational research. It explores key contributions in the study of discourse, including how underlying social systems shape (and are shaped by) interaction, how identities are constructed in and through talk, the relationship between interaction and learning in both formal and informal educational contexts, and how embodiment, multimodality, and virtual spaces offer new sites of analysis, which raises important questions about what new modes of communication imply for discursive methods of research and representation. It also covers four major approaches to discourse analysis in education – anthropological, narrative, classroom-based, and critical – and shows that the study of language and discourse in education has blossomed into a dynamic and interdisciplinary endeavor. Although educational researchers using discourse analysis as a method/tool of inquiry continue to wrestle with questions of context, definitions of “text,” and notions of discourse, this approach to inquiry remains extremely useful and influential. After describing recent advances in the study of discourse within educational research and the problems and challenges that remain, the chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions and suggests recommended additional reading.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. In M. Holquist (Ed.), (trans: Emerson, C., & Holquist, M.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Bloome, D., Carter, S. P., Christian, B. M., & Otto, S. (2004). Discourse analysis and the study of classroom language and literacy events: A microethnographic perspective. New York: Routledge.
Cazden, C. (1988). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Cazden, C., John, V., & Hymes, D. (Eds.). (1972). Functions of language in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
Clandinin, D. J. (2013). Engaging in narrative inquiry. San Francisco: West Coast Press.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2004). Narrative inquiry: Experience and the story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
de Freitas, E., & Sinclair, N. (2014). Mathematics and the body: Entanglements in the classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Erickson, F. (1982). Classroom discourse as improvisation: Relationships between academic task structure and social participation structure in lessons. In L. C. Wilkinson (Ed.), Communicating in the classroom (pp. 153–181). New York: Academic.
Gee, J. P. (2014a). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Gee, J. P. (2014b). How to do discourse analysis: A toolkit (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Gee, J. P. (2014c). Unified discourse analysis: Language, reality, virtual worlds and video games. New York: Routledge.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor Books.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk (pp. 124–159). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Goodwin, C., & Duranti, A. (1992). Rethinking context: An introduction. In C. Goodwin & A. Duranti (Eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 1–42). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Green, J., & Dixon, C. (1993). Talking knowledge into being: Discursive and social practices in classrooms. Linguistics and Education, 5(3–4), 231–239.
Gumperz, J. (1982). Discourse strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1973). Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold.
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and literacy in school classrooms. Review of Research in Education, 32, 241–267.
Jewitt, C. (2009). The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. New York: Routledge.
Jewitt, C., & Jones, K. (2007). Multimodal discourse analysis: The case of “ability” in UK secondary school English. In V. Bhatia, J. Flowerdew, & R. Jones (Eds.), Advances in discourse studies (pp. 149–160). New York: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2013). Multimodal discourse analysis. In J. P. Gee & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 35–50). New York: Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Edward Arnold.
Lewis, C., & Tierney, J. D. (2013). Mobilizing emotion in an urban classroom: Producing identities and transforming signs in a race-related discussion. Linguistics and Education, 24(3), 289–304.
Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: Social organization in the classroom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Michaels, S. (1981). Sharing time: Children’s narrative styles and differential access to literacy. Language in Society, 10(3), 423–442.
Morgan, M. (2009). The real hiphop: Battling for knowledge, power, and respect in the LA underground. Durham: Duke University Press.
Orellana, M. (1999). Good guys and “bad” girls: Identity construction by Latina and Latino student writers. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang, & L. A. Sutton (Eds.), Reinventing identities: The gendered self in discourse (pp. 64–82). New York: Oxford University Press.
Rampton, B. (2008). Language in late modernity: Interaction in an urban school. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Rex, L., & Juzwik, M. (Eds.). (2011). Narrative discourse analysis for teacher educators: Managing cultural differences in classrooms. New York: Hampton Press.
Rex, L., & Schiller, L. (2009). Using discourse analysis to improve classroom interaction. New York: Routledge.
Rogers, R. (Ed.). (2011). An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education (2nd ed.). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rogers, R., & Schaenen, I. (2014). Critical discourse analysis in literacy education: A review of the literature. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(1), 121–143.
Rymes, B. (2009). Classroom discourse analysis: A tool for critical reflection. New York: Hampton Press.
Rymes, B. (2016). Classroom discourse analysis: A tool for critical reflection (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696–735.
Scollon, R. (1999). Mediated discourse and social interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 32, 149–154.
Scollon, S. W., & de Saint-Georges, I. (2013). Mediated discourse analysis. In J. P. Gee & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 66–78). New York: Routledge.
Wohlwend, K. E. (2009). Damsels in discourse: Girls consuming and producing identity texts through Disney princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 57–83.
Wohlwend, K. E. (2013). Mediated discourse analysis: Tracking discourse in action. In P. Albers, T. Holbrook, & A. Flint (Eds.), New methods of literacy research (pp. 56–69). New York: Routledge.
Wooffitt, R. (2005). Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: A comparative and critical introduction. London: Sage.
Wortham, S., & Rymes, B. (Eds.). (2003). Linguistic anthropology of education. Westport: Praeger.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Warriner, D., Anderson, K. (2016). Discourse Analysis in Educational Research. In: King, K., Lai, YJ., May, S. (eds) Research Methods in Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02329-8_22-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02329-8_22-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02329-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education