Week 5: Rupert Wegerif - Opening up a dialogic space for reflection and agency

‘Learning is not a piling up of facts but an expansion of dialogic space, each new voice adding a new perspective from which to experience and understand the world…. A dialogic self is a self that sees both sides, that can listen as well as talk and that finds it easy to form a community with others. Ultimately being dialogic is not just about being in dialogue with this or that other person or participating constructively within this or that specific community but it is also about seeing oneself from the outside and so, in a sense, being in dialogue with the cosmos.’

- From Rupert Wegerif’s blog post ‘What is a dialogic self?’

This week we expand our understanding of dialogic education by looking at the concepts of dialogic space and dialogic self. We build on Week 2 where we looked at taking a dialogic stance; Week 3, where we looked at interthinking; and Week 4, where we looked at dialogic moves. We ask, how might these dialogic ideas affect how we think about our classroom spaces, and the learners in our classrooms? Why might it be useful and important to ‘widen’ and ‘deepen’ dialogue in our classrooms? How can we support learners to make connections within their learning and with wider knowledge? How can dialogue support creativity? How can it support cultural literacy and intercultural understanding? How can we give learners agency and encouraging reflection? And how might Rupert Wegerif’s ideas change how we think about education and its purposes?

Reflective Journal Template

Use the Week 5 reflective journal template to make notes as you work through the following tasks.

Watch

Watch the following video for an overview of the week’s theme:

You can download the video transcript here.

Watch this video where Rupert Wegerif joins us to discuss his work:

Note that this interview is also available as an audio resource (you may prefer to listen to the interview whilst on a walk!):

Read

This week’s readings and resources for you to review are as follows:

• Core Reading 1: Course Handout Week 5
• Core Reading 2: Blog post by Rupert Wegerif - What is a ‘dialogic self’?
• Core Reading 2: Blog post by Rupert Wegerif - Dialogic Space, and why we need it

Optional further readings and resources:

• Teacher Resources: DIALLS Teaching children to be tolerant, empathetic and inclusive through talking together
• Teacher Resources: Generation Global
• Blog post by Paul Warwick: Oracy and dialogue: is there a difference and does it matter?
• Blog post by Lyn Dawes: Talk is for learning
• Article: Mihai, Alexandra (2021-03-16). Let’s pause for a moment. The Educationalist.
• Article: Huang. Li-Shih (2016). Three ideas for implementing learner reflection. Faculty Focus.
• Journal Article: Charteris and Smardon (2005). Teacher agency and dialogic feedback: Using classroom data for practitioner inquiry. Teaching and Teacher Education. Elsevier.
• Video: Dialogic Learning with Rupert Wegerif
• Book: Mind Expanding: Teaching for Thinking and Creativity in Primary Education by Rupert Wegerif (Note that this is not fully available as open access.)
• Book: Dialogic Education: Mastering Core Concepts Through Thinking Together by Neil Phillipson and Rupert Wegerif (Note that this is not fully available as open access)
• Book: Dialogic: Education for the Internet Age By Rupert Wegerif (Note that this is not fully available as open access)
  
  

  Do

  1. This week, think about how you might ‘widen’ or ‘deepen’ a dialogic task with your classroom this week. Or, how might you plan an activity that supports learners to develop agency or reflection within a dialogue?
  2. Plan an activity that achieves one of these aims.
  3. In your reflective learning journal for Week 5, write a reflective account of what went well in the activity and what could have been done differently.

Reminder: the weekly accounts you are asked to write in your reflective journals do not need to be submitted. Rather, they are meant to help you record your thoughts and should be drawn on when writing your final learning product. Your final learning product is the only piece of writing you are asked to officially submit for this course.

Discuss

In the Week 5 discussion forum channel, please post a response to at least one of these questions.

• How can we support learners to make connections within their learning and with wider knowledge? How can dialogue support creativity?
• In what ways can we support learners to develop agency? In what ways can we encourage reflection within dialogue?
• In what ways can dialogue support cultural literacy and intercultural understanding? Is dialogue a ‘western’ idea? Does intercultural dialogue really respect cultural differences?
• How might Rupert Wegerif’s ideas change how we think about education and its purposes?

Now, read through others’ responses to these questions and reply with your ideas to at least one person.

Discussion forum

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