Analytic toolkit

For each data chapter I draw on different analytic tools provided by Fairclough’s (2003) CDA method. In Chapter 5, I employ Fairclough’s (2003) notion of the genre chain and recontextualisation, as well as Transitivity from Halliday’s (1994) SFL.

The genre chain “works as a regulative device for selecting and privileging some discourses and excluding others” (Fairclough, p. 34). Fairclough (2003) notes that as we move along a genre chain, a filtering process occurs. Part of the filtering effect, he argues, is on discourses which are drawn upon in one genre (e.g., a meeting) and filtered out in the next (e.g., minutes of the meeting) so the chain serves to regulate which discourses are finally included and excluded. The concept of genre chains enabled me as researcher to gain insight into the network of social practices, at both state and local levels, that indicate the priorities around critical literacy in relation to the teaching of EAL/D learners at this point in time. Change or shifts between genres within a chain is a significant part of social change (Fairclough, 2003). I explored, through Transitivity analysis, particular wordings of relevant syllabuses (as official policy) that indicate the discourse aspect of each syllabus and therefore its capacity as a “governance of governance” (Fairclough, 2003) and its capacity for action at a distance.

Recontextualisation (originally from the work of Bernstein (1990) on pedagogic discourse) is the representation of other practices produced in the course of activity within one’s own social practice (e.g., deployment of particular models of pedagogy gleaned from study or professional development). It also includes reflexive representations of one’s own practice (Fairclough, 2001c). In order to analyse recontextualisation, as part of the genre chain process, I draw on Fairclough (2003) who argues there are four recontextualising principles in any genre: “the degree of abstraction from concrete events; presence or absence of particular elements; the order events are presented in; and additions such as explanations, legitimations and evaluations” (p. 139). I use these four principles to explore the ways the teachers

recontextualised critical literacy in the genre chain5 through school-based planning documents and classroom talk. To analyse the school-based documents I identify the inclusions and exclusions in terms of learning experiences (activities or tasks) underpinned by critical literacy. To analyse the classroom talk, I draw on the SFL construct of mode continuum (Martin, 1984) and specifically the concept of mode-

shifting, focusing on modes of talk, to demonstrate the rescaling of critical literacy in

the teachers’ talk with their students. Teacher talk in each data extract is divided into three registers: situationally-embedded language or talk that contains exophoric reference and relies on the immediate context for their interpretation (Gibbons, 2003); everyday informal language; and critical literacy formal jargon. Gibbons (2003), in her analysis of language classroom talk, refers to this as “mode-shifting” – or the shunting back and forth between everyday language, technical language and situation-specific language – and argues it is a key feature of classroom interaction as a genre.

Mode-shifting in talk is a choice, made by people, within a genre chain. It can “result in considerable message redundancy, an important aspect of discourse in facilitating comprehension for (second language) learners” (Gibbons, 2003, p. 259). I propose that Fairclough’s second principle of recontextualisation – the degree of abstraction from concrete events – can be observed through the lens of mode-shifting as it is to do with making complex, abstract ideas concrete so that learning can take place. Mode-shifting, I argue, is also an indicator of Fairclough’s concept of agency within his broader category of Styles or identification, which I explore in detail in Chapter 6. Drawing on Archer (2000), Fairclough (2003) maintains that agency relates to achieving social identity through assuming social roles and enacting them in a distinct way (p. 161). Mode-shifting, therefore, can be seen as a tool to analyse ways in which the teachers textured their own identity, through their choices in different types of talk, in their role as authoritative enactors of curriculum with EAL/D learners.

5 _{For the purposes of this thesis, the genre chain stops with the teachers’ enactment. In reality, it}

would continue on to student engagement and production and even beyond but the scope of this study does not allow discussion of that.

In Chapter 6, I take up Fairclough’s textually-oriented CDA analytic method to closely examine specific linguistic properties of chosen data texts using CDA tools, so that linguistic form as well as content is given appropriate attention. These properties, Fairclough (1995) argues, are “extraordinarily sensitive indicators of socio-cultural processes, relations and change” (p. 4). He further elaborates on these specific properties in his 2003 book where he provides the linguistic analytic tools to allow the analyst to oscillate between the specific text in question and the network of social practices this text suggests. I use aspects of SFL (Halliday, 1978, 1994) (see Chapter 3). The analytic logic is that in exploring the linguistic elements of text, light can be shed on social practices (Fairclough, 2003). The data will be systematically described, interpreted and explained in order to demonstrate how teacher talk (including stimulated verbal recall comments), and classroom pedagogic talk (including student–teacher interaction) create certain representations of teacher knowledge about critical language pedagogy, and how this talk establishes particular social relations and social identities in EAL/D high school classrooms. As A. Luke (2005) argues, in a normative application of discourse analysis, it is the consequence of systems of representation that matters.

Table 4.6 indicates the relationship between two of the research sub-questions, the data sources, the analytical tools and Fairclough’s (2003) method of CDA. Table 4.6 is read from left to right and indicates the data sources and the three phases of analysis – Phase 1 of analysis is description; Phase 2 of analysis is interpretation and Phase 3 of analysis is explanation. While it is useful to separate the major types of text meaning discretely for analysis purposes in Phase 2, they operate interconnectedly in social practice. As explained in Chapter 3, any text contains all three meanings or dimensions simultaneously which have a dialectical relationship with one another (Fairclough, 2003). Interdiscursivity, it will be recalled from Chapter 3, is “the particular mix of genres, of discourse and of styles upon which a text draws, and of how different genres or styles are articulated (or worked) together in the text” (Fairclough, 2003, p. 218). This level of analysis mediates between the fine-grained analysis of the micro-linguistic features of texts and the analysis of social events and practices (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999).

Table 4.6

The Relationship Between Two of the Research Questions, the Data Collected, and the Tools Used to Organise, Describe and Analyse the Data (based on Fairclough, 2003)

Analysis Phase 1 Analysis Phase 2 Analysis Phase 3

Research

questions sources Data labelling the dataDescribing and

Interpreting

the structural effects of the social practice of

teaching EAL/D. Interdiscursivity Explanation of orders of discourse, institutional and societal practices around critical literacy

with EAL/D learners

a. What understandings about critical literacy do teachers of EAL/D articulate? b. How do they enact a critical approach with their students? 1.Teacher interviews 4 x 4 (including SVR) 2.Video observations of teaching 4 x 3 3.Field notes Representations: Themes; aspects of transitivity (Halliday, 1978) – participants (who or what is acting) and processes (how are they acting); and metaphor. Actions: Predominant

semantic/grammatical relations between sentences and clauses; higher-level semantic relations over long stretches of text – predominant types of exchange and speech functions; predominant grammatical moods. Identification: Modality (commitment to “truth” – epistemic modalities) and necessity/obligation (deontic modalities); evaluation (e.g., through the use of adjectives or

qualifiers); and shifts in mode from everyday to technical language. Representations of knowledge about critical language study with EAL/D learners:

Ways of representing – discourses

Social relations in the teaching of EAL/D learners:

Ways of acting and interacting – genres

Social identities in the teaching of EAL/D:

Ways of being and identifying – styles

Valued knowledge about critical literacy; degree of commitment to critical literacy; attitudes to critical literacy. Valued ways of enacting critical literacy; pedagogical frameworks/ methods used; social relations constructed by this interacting. Identities – positioning of selves as EAL/D teachers in relation to critical literacy in the context; positioning EAL/D learners in relation to critical literacy.

The following is my selection from a range of questions Fairclough (2003, p. 191-194) suggests CDA researchers ask of texts at the description phase, in order to interpret critically the discourses, genres and styles associated with any social practice.

Phase 1: Describing (and analysing) the data at the text level – identifying and labelling linguistic features (see Table 4.6)

Fairclough (2003) suggests a range of textual analysis questions to ask of the data texts. As presented in Chapter 3, Fairclough (2003) suggests any text has three dimensions of meaning:

 Representation: Ways of representing aspects of the world through

language (e.g., critical literacy as a concept in this study) = discourses.  Action: Ways of acting/interacting within a social event which includes

enacting social relations (e.g., ways of doing teaching) = genres.  Identification: Ways of being/identifying with some position; indicates

commitment and judgement = styles.

In terms of Representation, I draw on Fairclough’s (2003) suggestions and analyse the chosen data texts using three investigative lenses: aspects of transitivity (Halliday, 1978) – participants (who or what is acting) and processes (how are they acting – see below for a worked example); themes and associated lexical items; and metaphor.

For analysing Action – actors and their social relationships – Fairclough suggests the following probes: What are the predominant semantic/grammatical relations between sentences and clauses – causal, conditional, temporal, additive, elaborative, contrastive? Are there higher-level semantic relations over long stretches of text – e.g., problem-solution. What predominant types of exchange and speech functions exist? Are there any predominant grammatical moods (declarative, imperative or interrogative?) and what do these suggest?

In terms of analysing Identification, Fairclough suggests asking the following: What styles are drawn upon in the text and how are they textured together? Is there a significant mixing of styles? What features characterise the styles that are drawn upon? To do so, I analyse the data texts for modality (commitment to “truth” – i.e., epistemic modalities) and necessity/obligation (deontic modalities); evaluation (e.g., through the use of adjectives or qualifiers); and assumed values.

Phase 2: Interpreting the discursive practice of teaching critical literacy with EAL/D learners (see Table 4.6)

This discursive practice level of analysis focuses on the nature of the processes of text production and interpretation, for example the discourses being drawn upon in

the text and the way in which they are combined. The linguistic features of the texts (as categorised above) are seen as traces of Fairclough’s (2003) three types of meaning – Representation, Action and Identification. In this way, Fairclough (2003) draws on Halliday (1978) in suggesting that text meanings show particular ways of acting and interacting (genres), ways of re-presenting the world (discourses), and ways of identifying self (styles). Texts realise (or make “real”) these meanings as particular “mixings” of discourses, genres and styles. According to Fairclough, these mixings are interdiscursive relations and constitute the discourse element of social practice.

Phase 3: Explanation of the social practice of critical literacy within EAL/D teaching in high schools (see Table 4.6)

When it comes to the social order, Fairclough borrows Foucault’s (1984) term “order of discourse” to mean the way discourse mediates the connection between the textual and the structural (refer to Table 4.6). An order of discourse takes up certain possibilities and excludes others: “it controls the linguistic variables available to represent particular areas of social life” (Kettle, 2007, p. 124). The first two phases of analysis enable me to explain at the macro level (Phase 3), the orders of discourse that are evident, and the institutional practices occurring within the critical language of study with EAL/D learners in the four school classes studied. By comparing the practices of the four teachers, an explanation of broader societal practices around critical literacy with EAL/D learners in some Queensland schools at this point in time is possible. Patterns and anomalies in practice, as well as the constraints and enabling factors will be explained in this phase. Ultimately, this study seeks to identify a range of elements at the macro level: the types of knowledge about critical literacy study that are valued among the four teachers of EAL/D in two Queensland high schools; the attitudes and degree of commitment they have to critical literacy; the way the teachers identify in relation to critical literacy within the broader field teaching of EAL/D learners; and how they position students in relation to critical literacy and the social relations this produces. It will also identify the ways teachers enact critical literacy in the contexts studied, the pedagogical frameworks used and the institutional reasons for these.

For the third data chapter, Chapter 7, first a thematic sweep of the data was conducted and then textually-oriented discourse analytic tools were applied. Data

were initially analysed using an inductive method whereby all references to students in all of the interviews (including the SVR interviews) were coded and retrieved. This data, showing teacher comments about students, comprised 16 pages of tabled statements organised into a single file. Following the method of analysis of teacher interview talk conducted by A. Luke, Cazden et al. (2013), fine-grained analysis of wordings was then conducted to identify what discourses were drawn on in the teacher’s talk and how these were textured together (Fairclough, 2003). Decisions were made about what would count as evidence of particular discourses and these were refined inductively. The features that characterised the discourses were: semantic relations between elements of statements, in particular the use of adverbial and prepositional phrases or Circumstances of time, cause and manner (Halliday, 1994); metaphors; assumptions realised via positive or negative connotations via use of modal verbs such as “can” and “cannot”. Circumstances were utilised due to the fact that they “stood out” in the data once it was collated into the 16 page table. Their prevalence indicated that they were important to investigate further.

To illustrate, teacher comments that indicated student “lack” were categorised as a “deficit-lack discourse”; for example, where a teacher used negative verb forms such as cannot, or its contraction can’t (e.g., “They can’t deal with academic English”). Other such phrases, words and terms used to talk about students that signalled this discourse were: lack, not taught, have no understanding of…, haven’t

got, don’t understand, have difficulty with, struggle, uneducated. The retrieved data were interrogated closely to build an understanding of what the teachers had said and this was cross-checked with transcripts. Teacher comments about student capacity for critical literacy and higher order thinking, for example, were identified via positive connotations and use of modal verbs such as can indicating ability (e.g., “they can do the thinking”, “these kids are bright, they can understand”); and metaphors such as “they rise to the challenge”; “they’re on the ball”; “they’ll make a good fist of it” and “they are right on the mark”.

The interview talk was also analysed for the ways in which the teachers discussed students in relation to the particular pedagogy used. Causal relationships evident in Circumstances of cause (Halliday, 1994) reveal that the positioning of the learners was directly related to the pedagogy these teachers use. For instance, “Some

of their [the students’] language I think will be okay because I scaffold them…” (Lucas, Interview 3, November 2, 2010).

The range of analytic tools drawn on in the design of this research project and employed in the analysis are shown in Figure 4.4.

Figure 4.4. The range of analytic tools in the research design.

In using the tools and procedure identified above, this study provides insight into how notions of critical literacy are being constructed through identifying the discourses surrounding critical literacy as evident in policy as well as teacher talk and practice. It enables identification of the practices in which teachers of EAL/D engage with particular learners and the reasons for these practices. The study also makes more visible competing discourses within the teachers’ talk and classroom practice as well as connections to institutional and broader social processes that may be contributing to the existence of these discourses in the teachers’ talk and practice.

Ch 5

•Data: policy documents (syllabus); school work programs, classroom talk and resources.

•Analysis: CDA using the concepts of 'genre chains' and 'recontextualisation' & Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).

Ch 6

•Data: teacher interview talk and classroom interaction.

•Analysis: CDA drawing on Fairclough's notion of 'interdiscursivity' & SFL.

Ch 7

•Data: teacher interview talk about students.

•Analysis: CDA using Transitivity – circumstances, modality, semantic relations, metaphor.

As Rogers and Schaenen (2013) point out, CDA has been conducted in many areas of literacy education. However, only 5 of the 69 empirical CDA studies carried out between 2004 and 2012 that they surveyed dealt with literacy education in secondary schools, and none of these investigated reconstructive or positive instructional practices within the Australian context. This study therefore seeks to contribute to this gap in the methodological literature as well.