Abstract of

Illuminating Constructivism: Structure, Discourse, and Subjectivity in a Middle School Classroom

Margaret Sheehy

Popkewitz (1998) questioned whether constructivism, a discursive imagination that draws into its narratives the writing of Dewey and Vygotsky, can produce social change. He contended that contemporary discussions of constructivism decontextualize classroom participants from the relations involved in disciplinary content and thus produce a mind/society binary. This study examined constructivism in a seventh-grade civics project, involving a variety of literacy practices. Data consisted of observational field notes, classroom talk occurring during the civics project, interviews with participants (2 teachers, 1 researcher, and 22 of 30 students in one classroom), and library research. Constructivism was understood within a habitus framework (Bourdieu, 1977) and analyzed with attention paid to guided participation (Rogoff, 1990), orders of discourse (Foucault, 1972), and discursive storylines (i.e., Davies, 1997). Findings suggest that constructivism within a classroom creates a variety of relationships, including binaries. When binaries are constructed, they are not always tied to disciplinary study. They also involve non-school discourses with which students narrate their lives. Implications of the research suggest that those interested in changing binaries in classroom relational structures must contemplate the degree to which relationships have been produced historically, in materials, curricula, and literacy practices at specific school sites.

Abstract from Sheehy, M. (2002). Illuminating Constructivism: Structure, Discourse, and Subjectivity in a Middle School Classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 37(3), 278–308. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.37.3.2