Qualitative research: Interactions in clinics and classrooms

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Qualitative research Interactions in clinics and
classrooms

• Peter Freebody
• School of Education
• The University of Queensland
• UniSA, August 6, 2005

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My aims, to persuade you

• 1) that data about social practices and events
  (e.g. in clinics classrooms) are not and
  cannot stand for data on practice
• 2) that the long tradition of interaction
  analysis (from various disciplinary sources)
  means that common sense commentary is no longer
  acceptable
• 3) To follow up on some leads, with special
  attention to classroom interaction

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The significance of interaction

• Social interaction is the primordial means
  through which the business of the social world is
  transacted, the identities of the participants
  are affirmed or denied, and its cultures are
  transmitted, renewed, and modified. (Goodwin
  Heritage, 1990 283)

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So?

• theories, syllabuses, guidelines etc tell us what
  phenomena are and how they are done in supposedly
  context-free, generic terms
• participants knowledge of social phenomena is
  mediated through specific forms of interaction
  with other people and
• we simply dont know how somehow generically
  -- such mediations (re)define e.g., teaching and
  learning or doctoring and patient-ing to
  participants

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An eg found in a clinic

• The shuttling of technical / medical and social /
  lifeworld topics
• See h/o

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Some initial vocab for classrooms

• Movesgtturnsgtexchangesgtphasesgtlessonsgtunitsgtsyllabu
  sgt
• Initiation-response-evaluation cycle
• Pre-re-post-formulations in and around the IRE
  cycle
• Accountable/portable knowledge (propositions and
  procedures)

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The jobs a pedagogy has to do

• Manage the bodies and props
• Manage the attention of students
• Deliver the syllabus
• Allow for self-expression
• Protect all individuals
• Relate to individual differences
• Monitor students progress and .

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A quick example of a phenomenon found in the
classroom

• Organisation around formal and commensensical
  interactional axes (McHoul Watson 1984)
• Shuttling (Hammond 1990)
• Recasting (Gibbons 2003)

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Three kinds of shuttling

• Lexical
• (technical lt-gt commonsensical)
• Interactional
• (low lt-gt high latitude running q-a)
• Generic
• (narrative/recount lt-gt exposition)
• Tan Freebody 2004

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Lexical

• 1 T Okay, now, let's draw the simplest cell or a
  typical cell. What is a typical cell?
• 2 S1 Its the first few cells.
• 3 T What is the word typical mean?
• 4 S2 most common
• 5 T The most common,(.2) now
• 6 S2 Basic
• 7 T basic, ok, Now, some of you say it's
  common, or basic. Now, essentially, what aa
  typical cell is a cell with all the essential
  organelles that are present ok, it is erh. Baby
  cell meaning all cells will have these. Typical
  cell is also called unspecialised (2) cell. What
  is a baby cell?
• 8 S Stem cell?
• 9 T Yes, that's the name we give it, right? A
  stem cell. What is a stem cell?

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Interactional

• T What makes up fats?
• S3 Fat cells \/
• Ss ((laughter))
• T You learnt this in year 8. What makes up fats?
• S1 Muscles! \/
• T My goodness!
• Ss ((laughter))
• T When you digest fats, what do you get?
• Ss Energy /\//
• T //Good grief! Energy?!
• S3 Glycerol./\
• T Glycerol \/ Very good and (5) When you digest
  fat, you get glycerol and (2) fatty acids. And
  what is the enzyme that digest fats?
• S1 Hydrochloric acid.
• T Why did you even bother to go to Year 8?
• Ss lipase /\
• T Lipase\/. Very good.

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• Generic

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T if you were to examine the cell membrane under
the electron microscope, you will realise that it
is not a continuous circle, what you will
actually see will betiny little holes, alright ?
And what can go in would be particles that are
smaller than this opening would be able to enter
and particles that are bigger would be kept
outside. Similarly particles that are smaller
will be able to leave, bigger ones stay inside
the cell. Therefore, this acts like a sieve. You
know what's a sieve? When you sieve the flour,
bigger particles are kept and smaller particles
are come out. So, size is the determining factor.
Like the door here. The door here has a fixed
size and it controls who can enter the classroom
and who can leave the classroom. All of us here
are smaller then the size of the door, so we can
leave and we can enter. But if your were a 200 kg
sumo wrestler, chances are you will not be able
to enter the classroom, why? Because you are too
fat, right and then the erh. opening not big
enough, okay? Which reminds me of a story I read
sometime back about this fat man who died in his
house. He was so fat he could not leave his
house, he couldnt leave the door. S How did he
get in? T Then you ask me how did he get
in? When he was slimmer, he got into the house.
Then he put on so much weight, he could not leave
the house. So, he needs food to be delivered to
his house. Then he died. They could not take his
body out of the house, because the door was just
too small. So what did they do? T So that
determines who leaves and who comes in and the
cell membrane does exactly the same thing because
of its selectively permeable property. Okay, size
is determining factor.
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from Desrosieres, The politics of large numbers,
1998 2,5

• The student, research worker, or statistical
  data-user receives compact concepts, encapsulated
  into concise and economical formulas even
  though these tools are the result of a historical
  gestation punctuated by hesitations,
  retranslations, and conflicting interpretations
  In science-in-the-making (or hot science),
  truth is still a wager, a subject of debate only
  gradually, when science cools down again, are
  certain results encapsulated, becoming
  recognized facts

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References

• Desrosieres, A. (1998). The politics of large
  numbers A history of statistical reasoning.
  Cambridge Mass. Harvard UP.
• Freebody, P. Freiberg, J. (1999).
  Health-literacy and social practice Response to
  Nutbeam. Literacy and Numeracy Studies An
  International Journal in the Education and
  Training of Adults. 9, 57-66.
• Gibbons, P, (2003). Mediating Language Learning,
  TESOL Quarterly, 37, 247-273.
• Goodwin, C. Heritage, J. (1990). Conversation
  analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 19,
  283-307.
• Hammond, J. (1990). Is learning to read the same
  as learning to speak? In F. Christie (ed.)
  Literacy for a Changing World, Hawthorn Vic
  ACER,.
• McHoul, A.W. Watson, D.R. (1984). Two axes for
  the analysis of "commonsense" and "formal"
  geographical knowledge in classroom talk. British
  Journal of Sociology of Education 5, 281-302.
• Tan, A.L. Freebody, P. (2004). Interaction,
  cognition, and knowledge Reconsidering the
  relationship between classroom talk and thinking.
  Opening keynote address, Thinking Quality
  Initiative, 5th International Conference, Hong
  Kong.

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Some leads

• ten Have, P. Methodological issues in
  conversation analysis. www.pscw.uva.nl/emca/mica.h
  tm.)
• Conversation Analysis materials
• http//www2.fmg.uva.nl/emca
• Methodological issues in CA http//www2.fmg.uva.nl
  /emca/Mica.htm
• Get started in CA page
• http//www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/ssca1/sitemenu.h
  tm