{"title":"Epistemic positioning and knowledge-building in postgraduate neuroscience classroom interaction","authors":"Merve Bozbıyık , Tom Morton","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2024.08.009","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This article explores the dynamics of epistemic positioning and knowledge-building in classroom interaction in two postgraduate neuroscience classrooms. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining multimodal Conversation Analysis and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), it examines how lecturers and students negotiate epistemic stance and status through interactional practices, and how these practices legitimise certain stances or “gazes” in relation to doing neuroscience. Drawing on six hours of video-recorded classroom interaction, the study uses detailed transcripts to uncover the epistemic positioning practices of two lecturers teaching modules on neurobiological bases of psychiatric disorders and addiction. The interactional data are reanalysed from the knowledge-building perspective of LCT, revealing that the two lecturers were operating different <em>specialization codes</em> and activating different <em>gazes</em> in terms of the social relations of both themselves and their students as knowers. The analyses demonstrate how slight shifts in interactional practices around epistemic positioning can have significant consequences for legitimating different knower positions in postgraduate neuroscience education. By combining micro-analysis with the sociological framework of LCT, the study offers insights into the complex dynamics of knowledge-building in advanced academic settings and offers tools for reflection on and enhancement of teaching practices in postgraduate science education contexts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"232 ","pages":"Pages 72-90"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216624001607/pdfft?md5=5d0eeed3b5144385e63a3c23a3520328&pid=1-s2.0-S0378216624001607-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Pragmatics","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216624001607","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article explores the dynamics of epistemic positioning and knowledge-building in classroom interaction in two postgraduate neuroscience classrooms. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining multimodal Conversation Analysis and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), it examines how lecturers and students negotiate epistemic stance and status through interactional practices, and how these practices legitimise certain stances or “gazes” in relation to doing neuroscience. Drawing on six hours of video-recorded classroom interaction, the study uses detailed transcripts to uncover the epistemic positioning practices of two lecturers teaching modules on neurobiological bases of psychiatric disorders and addiction. The interactional data are reanalysed from the knowledge-building perspective of LCT, revealing that the two lecturers were operating different specialization codes and activating different gazes in terms of the social relations of both themselves and their students as knowers. The analyses demonstrate how slight shifts in interactional practices around epistemic positioning can have significant consequences for legitimating different knower positions in postgraduate neuroscience education. By combining micro-analysis with the sociological framework of LCT, the study offers insights into the complex dynamics of knowledge-building in advanced academic settings and offers tools for reflection on and enhancement of teaching practices in postgraduate science education contexts.
期刊介绍:
Since 1977, the Journal of Pragmatics has provided a forum for bringing together a wide range of research in pragmatics, including cognitive pragmatics, corpus pragmatics, experimental pragmatics, historical pragmatics, interpersonal pragmatics, multimodal pragmatics, sociopragmatics, theoretical pragmatics and related fields. Our aim is to publish innovative pragmatic scholarship from all perspectives, which contributes to theories of how speakers produce and interpret language in different contexts drawing on attested data from a wide range of languages/cultures in different parts of the world. The Journal of Pragmatics also encourages work that uses attested language data to explore the relationship between pragmatics and neighbouring research areas such as semantics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis and ethnomethodology, interactional linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, media studies, psychology, sociology, and the philosophy of language. Alongside full-length articles, discussion notes and book reviews, the journal welcomes proposals for high quality special issues in all areas of pragmatics which make a significant contribution to a topical or developing area at the cutting-edge of research.