Sociology of the Lesson: Discourse Organization of Successful Teaching Practices

Abstract

In this article, we analyze successful teaching practices (practices that ensure students’ academic progress and well-being) in their social projection, using videos of the lessons as the material for analysis. Unlike traditional assessments of pedagogical skills (compliance with norms and professional standards), the article focuses on the sociological dimension of a teacher’s work — how the social aspect of the lesson is arranged, what practices teachers use to improve student results, how the class is organized as a social community. We recorded videos of lessons (N = 74) conducted by 11 teachers in the 5th-8th grades in 4 non-selective academically successful secondary schools in 3 regional centers of Russia. We used it as the material for the analysis of successful teaching practices. To analyze the data, we used critical converse analyses in the vein of Norman Fairclough, which involves the division of a communicative event into linguistic, processing and social levels. Successful teaching practice at the linguistic level can be characterized by the use of markers of control and care, as well as switching modes of responsibility attribution («I»/«We»/«You»/«you»). At the processing level, the following is stated: a) the use of metaphors and student assessment systems that regulate the situational context; b) labeling the symbolic boundaries of the lesson, which normalizes the educational process. At the social level, we conclude that one of the main conditions for the success of teacher practices is the control over the structural integrity of the lesson. The results of the article can be used in professional development programs for teachers.

Keywords

• sociology of school life
• school
• ethnographic methods in education studies
• successful teaching practices
• discourse analysis