UsingCriticalDiscourseAnalysisinExploringtheNatureof.ppt

Using Critical Discourse Analysis in Exploring the Nature of Communication among School Participants: A Case Study of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Serving Chinese Students Presented by Xi Wang September 3rd, 2008 Background to the Research Development of International Baccalaureate Diploma Programmes The value of intercultural understanding (the IBO) The design of IB curricula intends to deepen school participants’ understanding of both foreign and native cultures, to improve their abilities to communicate with others and to promote a positive attitude to learning. Research Aims Conceptual Framework The social constructionst perspective of ‘learning’ and ‘learners’ Learning is an ongoing process of social participation, which suggests not only engaging in certain activities, but also being active participants in certain relationship networks and constructing identities of membership. Learning participating in ‘communities of practice’ a process of negotiating meaning the Social dimension of learning negotiation of meaning and its social contexts Discourse Analysis The discursive role of semiotic elements of social life: language does not objectively mirror the world, but rather plays an active role in constructing meaning and social relations. Fairclough’s framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) The critical intention: to uncover and explain the role of discursive practice in the construction and maintenance of unequal power relations Key concept: orders of discourse The dialectical relations between discourses and other moments of social practice Discourses are both ‘constituted’ and ‘constitutive’. Research Questions How did certain classroom participants, from a variety of cultural backgrounds, describe the status of communication among them? What were the power relations among these teachers and students, and how did they evolve through th