Reflections on a dialogic pedagogy inspired by the writings of Bakhtin: an account of the experience of two professors working together in the classroom

Abstract

The practice of a dialogic pedagogy inspired by the writings of Bakhtin is increasingly popular in different parts of the world. This article is an account produced in the spirit of such pedagogy. Two professors (one from Brazil, the other from the United States), both members of an international dialogic pedagogy study group, write together to discuss the work they developed in partnership under this educational paradigm when teaching a course on “Diversity in secondary education” in the School of Education of the College of Education and Human Development of the University of Delaware, USA. After presenting brief introductory information on who they are, how they met and how they happened to work together, the two scholars present classroom interaction data followed by reflections on to what extent certain forms of classroom interaction they identified in the data promote or inhibit the practice of a truly Bakhtinian Dialogic Pedagogy. In other words, what the readers will find in this article is not a traditional empirical study, but a telling case of two educators learning from one another about what counts as dialogic in the classroom, while at the same time using the aforementioned course as an anchor for multiple discussions.

Making sense of events in literature and life through collaboration

“…I also think of each class as a lived event with its own breathing patterns. I learned to attend to the emotions in the classroom as a way to adjust my teaching to be more in the appropriate moment with students (Lima and von Duyke, 2016, p. A119).…”

Como ajudar professores do magistério superior a transformar metodologias passivas em metodologias ativas na sala de aula: a prática da Clínica da Atividade Docente em foco

“…Do nosso ponto de vista, consideramos que o processo de ensino-aprendizagem ideal ocorre por meio de uma relação dialógica entre docentes e discentes, aqui entendida em termos bakhtinianos e implicando, "quer em palavras, quer em ação [...], compreensão ativa e responsiva" (Bakhtin, 2016, p. 122). Isto é, uma interlocução entre agentes da ação, que se revezam nos papéis de ouvinte e falante, ou seja, interagem um com o outro e também consigo mesmos e com o objeto-conteúdo de ensino-aprendizagem, de modo ativo e responsivo, uma vez que a ação é sempre mediada pela linguagem Von Duyke, 2016).…”