Dialogic Pedagogy and Polyphonic Research Art: Bakhtin by and for Educators

321 Pages·2019·3.285 MB·English

by  Eugene Matusov, Ana Marjanovic-Shane, Mikhail Gradovski

Dialogic
Pedagogy
and Polyphonic
Research Art
Bakhtin by and
for Educators
eugene matusov
ana marjanovic-shane
mikhail gradovski
Dialogic Pedagogy and Polyphonic Research Art
Eugene Matusov • Ana Marjanovic-Shane
Mikhail Gradovski
Dialogic Pedagogy
and Polyphonic
Research Art
Bakhtin by and for Educators
Eugene Matusov Ana Marjanovic-Shane
School of Education Independent Scholar
University of Delaware Philadelphia, PA, USA
Newark, DE, USA
Mikhail Gradovski
University of Stavanger
Stavanger, Norway
ISBN 978-1-137-58056-6 ISBN 978-1-137-58057-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58057-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019933209
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
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C
ontents
Introduction: Inspired by Bakhtin—The Aim, Focus, and History
Behind This Research Project 1
References 14
Part I Teaching Cases and Their Online Discussion 17
Chapter 1.1: Two Teaching Cases with Online Forum Discussions 19
Case#11: Bakhtinian Teaching as Unfinalized Dialogues Between the
Consciousnesses of Equal Minds, Tara Ratnam, India, Interviewed by
Ana Marjanovic-Shane on 2015-12-10 19
Case#9: Bakhtinian Teaching as a Messy Chatting on a Subject Matter,
Dmitri Nikulin, USA, Interviewed by Eugene Matusov on 2016-06-20 37
References 60
Chapter 1.2: Standalone Teaching Cases 63
Case#1: My Papa’s Waltz, Paul Spitale, USA, Interviewed by Eugene
Matusov on 2015-11-23 63
Case#3: Peanut Butter Sandwich Pedagogical Violence, Eugene Matusov,
USA, Interviewed by Ana Marjanovic- Shane and Mikhail Gradovski on
2015-08-18 65
Case#5: How to Make School Suck Less? Aaron Yost, USA, Interviewed by
Eugene Matusov on 2015-12-03 67
Case#6: Allowing the Students to Participate in Designing the Final
Examination Questions, Beatrice Ligorio, Italy, Interviewed by Mikhail
Gradovski on 2015-11-17 70
Case#8: Teaching Marxism-Leninism in a Soviet College, Alexander
Lobok, USSR, Interviewed by Eugene Matusov on 2015-10-30 71
v
vi CoNTENTS
Case#13: Morally Confronting a Student’s Behaviorism, Ana Marjanovic-
Shane, USA, Interviewed by Mikhail Gradovski and Eugene Matusov on
2015-08-19 77
Combined Cases #15 and #18: Fascinating 7-year-old Children into
Learning by Helping Them Develop Their Own Voices, Alexander Lobok,
Russia, Interviewed by Eugene Matusov on 2015-10-30 80
Case#16: Three Ways of Incorporating the Bakhtinian Approach into
Language Lessons, Iryna Starygina, Ukraine, Written Interview by
Eugene Matusov, Between 2015-12-30 and 2016-07-04 88
Case#19: The Chivalry or Sexism Dilemma, Eugene Matusov, USA,
Interviewed by Ana Marjanovic-Shane and Mikhail Gradovski on
2015-08-18 91
Case#23: Teaching Without Prejudices, Silviane Barbato, Brazil,
Interviewed by Eugene Matusov on 2015-11-23 92
Case#24: Choosing a Shakespearean Play for a School Performance,
Charles Bisley, New Zealand, Interviewed by Ana Marjanovic-Shane on
2015-12-04 94
Case#25: Report About a Relative, Mikhail Gradovski, Norway,
Interviewed by Ana Marjanovic-Shane and Eugene Matusov on
2015-08-22 102
Case#26: Multicultural Diversity Hypocrites, Eugene Matusov, USA,
Interviewed by Mikhail Gradovski and Ana Marjanovic-Shane on
2015-08-18 103
Case#30: Dialogic Teaching of Russian Grammar, Mikhail Bakhtin,
USSR, 1944–1945 106
References 115
Part II Analyses of Teaching Cases: Issues in Bakhtinian
Pedagogy 117
Chapter 2.1: What Is Bakhtinian Pedagogy for the Interviewed
Bakhtinian Educators? 119
Instrumental Versus Ontological 120
Creative Authorship Versus Critical Authorship 124
The Ethical Issue of a “Torpedo Touch” Undermining the Students’
Ontological Being 126
Teacher Authorship Versus Student Authorship 129
Mono-Goal of Education Versus Diverse and Unlimited Goals of
Education: Between First and Second Drinks 131
Dialectical Achievement Versus Dialogic Being: Bifurcation Between the
First and the Third Drinks 137
Conclusion 139
References 140
CoNTENTS vii
Chapter 2.2: Ontological Engagement 143
What Is Ontological Engagement and Why Are Bakhtinian Educators
Craving It? 143
Observed Types of Ontological Engagement 147
Extrinsic Ontological Engagement (Applied) 148
Intrinsic (Self-Contained) Ontological Engagement 153
Eventful Ontological Engagement 156
Ontological Engagement Through Self-Selection By Interest 159
Issues of Ontological Engagement 160
Pseudo-Ontological Engagement 160
Exploitation of Ontological Engagement 165
Conclusions 169
References 170
Chapter 2.3: The Educational Vortex in Bakhtinian Pedagogy 175
The Bakhtinian Educational Vortex 175
Is an Educational Vortex Always Possible? 185
Is Lack of Student Engagement Necessarily a Marker of Poor Education? 188
Conclusion: Is the Eeducational Vortex Even Desirable? 191
References 196
Chapter 2.4: Teacher–Student Power Relations in Bakhtinian
Pedagogy 199
Forcing Students to Face an Ethical Mirror of Their Ontological Wrongs:
Case#3 by Eugene Matusov 202
Fascinating Children into Learning by Helping Them Develop Their Own
Voices in the Academic Curricula: Cases#15 and 18 by Alexander Lobok 207
Channeling Students’ Voices Through a Manipulation of Their Free Will:
Case#24 by Charles Bisley 212
Not Allowing Students to Be Monologic: Case#25 by Mikhail Gradovski 217
Conclusions 219
References 220
Chapter 2.5: Bakhtinian Pedagogy in Conventional Educational
Institutions 225
Struggles of Innovative Bakhtinian Educators in Conventional
Institutions 225
Opportunities for, Strategies by, and Failures of Bakhtinian Educators in
Conventional Institutions 234
Conclusion: Uncovering Hidden Tensions 240
References 245
viii CoNTENTS
Part III Dialogic Research Art 247
Chapter 3.1: Introducing Dialogic Research Art 249
Conventional Positivist Versus Dialogic Research Approaches in (Social)
Science 252
References 262
Chapter 3.2: Dialogic and Positivist Research in the Social Sciences 265
Dialogic Research Stances: Dialogic Subjectifying, Dialogic
Problematizing, and Dialogic Finalizing 266
The Status of Disagreement in Dialogic Research 270
The Legitimacy, Importance, and Limitations of Positivist Science 272
Boundaries of Dialogic Humanistic Science and Research 275
Dialogism Meets Positivism: Dialogic Research of Objectification 277
References 280
Chapter 3.3: Summarizing Contrasts and Boundaries Between
Positivist and Dialogic Research 283
Part IV Conclusion: Lessons, Regrets, and Hopes 287
Chapter 4.1: Lessons We Learned About Bakhtinian Pedagogy 289
References 297
Chapter 4.2: Regrets About Our Polyphonic Dialogic Research 299
References 302
Chapter 4.3: Hopes About the Future of Bakhtinian Pedagogy and
Dialogic Research 303
Diversification and Experimentation 303
Professional Reflective Networks 304
Educational Philosophy Societal Pluralism for Authorial Pedagogy and
Education 307
Bakhtinian Educational Institutions 308
Favorable Transformation of the Economy and Society 309
References 309
Chapter 4.4: Project Participants’ Holistic Judgments About the
Book 313
Index 317
Introduction: Inspired by Bakhtin—The Aim,
Focus, and History Behind This Research
Project
Russian philosopher and literature theoretician Mikhail M. Bakhtin
(1895–1975) has become hugely influential within diverse fields of the human-
ities and social sciences around the world. Although Bakhtin represents many
different things for different scholars, we might characterize his philosophy as
a new version of dialogic ethical humanism (Matusov & Marjanovic-Shane,
2018). Since the 1960s–1970s when Bakhtin’s texts started appearing in the
Soviet Union and then were translated into many languages elsewhere, his
ideas had strong influence on the field of education. Literature involving trans-
lating Bakhtin’s philosophical and literary ideas into educational concepts has
been steadily growing (Bibler, 2009; Matusov, 2009; Sidorkin, 1999; Wegerif,
2007). The term “Bakhtinian pedagogy” has been introduced and defined as a
pedagogical alternative to conventional education (White & Peters, 2011). By
now, there have been many attempts to study Bakhtinian pedagogical ideas and
implement them in innovative education practices (e.g., Fecho, Falter, &
Hong, 2016; Lefstein & Snell, 2013). A wide range of diverse innovative
teaching practices have been researched from Bakhtinian frameworks in diverse
settings, including outside schools (e.g., Dysthe, Bernhardt, & Esbjørn, 2013).
Our book is different. Strictly speaking we are not focusing on Bakhtin,
painstakingly reconstructing his philosophical views and applying them to edu-
cation. Rather, we critically analyze the educational practice of self-identified
Bakhtinian educators—what they mean by claiming to be Bakhtinian, what
attracts them in Bakhtin not merely in an abstract way but in their own
pedagogical teacher practice. By writing this book, we want to help to pass the
ownership of Bakhtinian pedagogy from mainly Bakhtinian educational
academicians—scholars of education coming from Bakhtinian perspectives—to
educational practitioners, interested in Bakhtin as their theoretical and philo-
sophical orientation to their educational practice.
Ours is a book of educational practitioners, by educational practitioners, and
primarily for educational practitioners. The task we set out to accomplish was
© The Author(s) 2019 1
E. Matusov et al., Dialogic Pedagogy and Polyphonic Research Art,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58057-3_1
2 E. MATUSOV ET AL.
both facilitated and complicated as all three authors of this book are both (self-
identified Bakhtinian) educational practitioners and scholars of education. We
worked hard to prevent our scholarly orientation from taking over our practi-
tioner orientation, while still preserving our particular scholarly voices. The
practice of scholars often revolves around the conceptualization of ideas. In
contrast, a pedagogical practice lives primarily in teaching cases—dramas,
mysteries, problems, excitements, puzzlements, surprises, laughers, fears,
fatigues, tears, terrible mistakes, grounded reflections, revelations, relational
breakdowns—in all those stories that are told and relived (Matusov, 2017). We
argue that the scholarly conceptualizing and philosophizing of this practice
comes as a gift from the scholarly orientation to the practitioner orientation (cf.
Bakhtin, 1990). Thus, we focused on teaching cases by Bakhtinian educators,
which were often revealing teaching events of their Bakhtinian pedagogical
practice—whatever “Bakhtinian” meant for the practitioners. We invited and
interviewed educators, who claimed Bakhtinian pedagogy as their own (i.e., “of
educational practitioners”). We selected those interviewees who could articu-
late their inner teacher voice rather than inner scholar voice through providing
us with their Bakhtinian teaching cases (i.e., “by educational practitioners”).
Finally, through our presentation and discussion of the teaching cases revealing
Bakhtinian pedagogy, we tried to address primarily educational practitioners
and only secondarily scholars (i.e., “for educational practitioners”). It is up to
the reader to judge how successful we are in accomplishing this task.
The research with its results presented in the book is based on a dialogical
theoretical paradigm informed by Bakhtinian ideas. We, the authors of the
book, understand ourselves as being in a dialogue with each other, with the
interviewees, with ourselves internally, with our past and present colleagues
and students, and with our imaginary readers. We present the results of our
analyses as dialogic provocations and invitations for our readers. We hope that
the diverse teaching cases, pedagogical ideas, their justifications, and our analy-
sis might reveal values, tensions, and issues that might be invisible to the par-
ticipants and to ourselves and thus generate fruitful new dialogues, which in
the future might change educational practitioners’ lenses on their own peda-
gogical practices. Similarly, but as a secondary aim, we hope to address
Bakhtinian scholars to engage them in a dialogue about our findings. Thus, our
analysis should not be considered as the final word about our respondents’
practices and ideas. We all—the authors, the interviewees, and the readers—are
situated in the dynamic field of multivocal dialogues with ourselves and others
in diverse settings. Furthermore, we continue to evolve and change both as
human beings and as professionals, transforming our teaching and scholarship
practices thanks to the dialogues big and small, in which we participate.
The process of searching for self-identified Bakhtinian educators started in
2015. As academicians and editors of the Dialogic Pedagogy: An International
Online Journal,1 we sent an invitation to our readers, colleagues, and innovative
1 http://dpj.pitt.edu