Diversity in the Construction of Modes of Collaboration in Multiethnic Classrooms: Continuity and Discontinuity of Cultural Scripts

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511499937.015

12 - Diversity in the Construction of Modes of Collaboration in Multiethnic Classrooms: Continuity and Discontinuity of Cultural Scripts

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 August 2009

Mariëtte De Haan and

Edited by

Ed Elbers and

Mariëtte De Haan: Affiliation:
Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Ed Elbers: Affiliation:
Professor of communication, cognition Culture at Utrecht University
Bert van Oers: Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Wim Wardekker: Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Ed Elbers: Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
René van der Veer: Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden

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Summary

If students from different ethnic groups or cultural backgrounds join together in one classroom and construct a “common” practice, can they still be described as different? Given this “common” classroom practice that they share (which is the result of both classroom traditions of the past and the day-by-day sharing of experiences leading to a common history and tradition as a group), and the reshuffling of the variety brought along given the particular dynamics of this classroom, how is this difference to be perceived or conceptualized?

Furthermore, if we are able to describe this variety, how do we describe it in terms of its effect for the construction of knowledge or learning? Do we see variety as a problem or as fruitful input? For instance, do we see this as productive or counterproductive? (Compare the classic discontinuity thesis in which diversity is seen as disadvantageous for the culturally “deviant” groups versus seeing heterogeneity in the classroom, by using the Bakhtinian term social heteroglossia, as a potential that is able to foster learning – e.g., Gutierrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995, pp. 447, 453.)

In this chapter we consider different conceptualizations of (cultural) variety in classrooms from a sociocultural activity theory perspective and related approaches, especially those concepts that answer the question how this variety is related to the differential participation of students in past or present out-of-school contexts.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Transformation of Learning
Advances in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory
, pp. 219 - 241

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499937.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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