When boundaries become permeable
Conversations at parent–teacher conferences and their meaning for the constitution of an institution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.30196Keywords:
agreement, boundary-work, conversation analysis, legitimation, parent–teacher conference, school communicationAbstract
Parent–teacher conferences are an annual ritual, in which the knowledge of parents about their child comes up against the professional knowledge of the teacher. Parents attend the conferences in order to receive confirmation of what they already think about their child’s progress. Their influence at the conferences at first sight seems limited and the conversations appear to follow a strict scheme imposed by the school. However, this paper explores the hypothesis that it is not just the case that the school context restricts the conversations; the conversations also influence the school as an institution. The school, in order to fulfill its role as an educating/socializing institution properly, needs to find agreement with the environment – here, the parents – and these conversations form a moment where the institution is constituted. This paper contributes to the literature on boundary-work by applying ideas of permeable boundaries that are (re-)created in interaction. It uses qualitative data and conversation analytical methods based on a corpus of 80 audio recordings from parent–teacher conferences to show the actual processes of this boundary-work on the micro level and its effects on the institution.
References
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Pillet-Shore, D. (2015) On doing ‘being a good parent’ in parent-teacher conferences. Journal of Communication 65 (2): 373–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12146
Pomerantz, A. (1978) Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 79–112. New York: Academic Press.
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Waitzkin, H. (1985) Information giving in medical care. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 26 (2): 81–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2136599
Walker, B. (1998) Meetings without communication: A study of parents evenings in secondary schools. British Educational Research Journal 24 (2): 163–179. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/0141192980240204
Zucker, L. G. (1977) The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence. American Sociological Review 42 (5): 726–743. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094862
Baker, C. and Keogh, J. (1996) Accounting for achievement in parent-teacher interviews. Human Studies 18 (2): 263–300.
Berger, P. L. and Luckmann, T. (2004 [1969]) Die gesellschaftliche Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag GmbH.
Cedersund, E. and Svenson, L. G. (1996) A ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ student: A study of communication in class assessment meetings. Language and Education 10 (82–83): 132–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500789608666705
Drew, P. and Heritage, J. (eds) (1992) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Epstein, J. L. (1995) School/family/community/partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan 76 (9): 701–712.
Garfinkel, H. (1976) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gartmeier, M., Bauer, J., Noll, A. and Prenzel, M. (2012) Welchen Problemen begegnen Lehrkräfte beim führen von Elterngesprächen? DDS – Die Deutsche Schule 4: 374–382.
Heritage, J. (1984) Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hernes, T. (2004) Studying composite boundaries: A framework of analysis. Human Relations 57 (1): 9–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726704042712
Keogh, J. (1996) Governmentality in parent-teacher communications. Language and Education 10 (2–3): 119–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500789608666704
Keyes, C. R. (2000) Parent-teacher partnerships: A theoretical approach for teachers. In D. Rothenberg (ed.) Issues in Early Childhood Education: Curriculum, Teacher Education, and Dissemination of Information. Proceedings of the Lilian Katz Symposium, Champaign, 5–7 November 2000, 107–118. Champaign, IL: Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Kotthoff, H. (2008) Erklärende Aktivitätstypen in Alltags- und Unterrichtskontexten. In J. Spreckels (ed.), Erklären im Alltag und in der Schule, 120–146. Hohengehren, Germany: Schneider.
Kotthoff, H. (2012a) Lehrer(innen) und Eltern in Sprechstunden an Grund- und Förderschulen – Zur interaktionalen Soziolinguistik eines institutionellen Gesprächstyps. Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 13: 290–321.
Kotthoff, H. (2012b) ‘(Un)common ground’ zwischen Lehrer(innen) und Eltern in schulischen Sprechstunden. Kulturelles Zusammenspiel in interinstitutionellen Gesprächen. Freiburger Arbeitspapiere zur germanistischen Linguistik (FRAGL) 2: 2–35.
Kotthoff, H. (2014) Faul wie e Hund: Kritische Eltern in der schulischen Sprechstunde. Freiburger Arbeitspapiere zur germanistischen Linguistik 22. Freiburg: Albert Ludwigs Universität.
Kotthoff, H. (2015) Narrative constructions of school-oriented parenthood during parent– teacher-conferences. Linguistics and Education 31: 286–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. linged.2014.12.002
Lerner, G. H. (1995) Turn design and the organization of participation in instructional activities. Discourse Processes 19 (1): 111–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01638539109544907
Maclure, M. and Walker, B. M. (2000) Disenchanted evenings: The social organization of talk in parent-teacher consultations in UK secondary schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education 21 (1): 5–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425690095135
MacLure, M. and Walker, B. M. (2003) Interrogating the discourse of home-school relations: the case of ‘parents’ evenings’. In M. Maclure (ed.) Discourse in Educational and Social Research, 48–68. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press:
Mehan, H. (1979) Learning Lessons: Social Organization in the Classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674420106
Meyer, J. W., Ramirez, F. O., Frank, D. J. and Schofer, E. (2006) Higher Education as Institution. CDDRL Working Papers 57. Stanford, CA: Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.
Miretzky, D. (2004) The communication requirements of democratic schools: Parentteacher perspectives on their relationships. Teachers College Record 106 (4): 814–851. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00359.x
Pillet-Shore, D. (2001) ‘Doing Pretty Well’: How Teachers Manage the Interactional Environment of Unfavorable Student Evaluation in Parent-Teacher Conferences. Unpublished Master’s dissertation, University of California Los Angeles.
Pillet-Shore, D. (2003) Doing ‘okay’: On the multiple metrics of an assessment. Research on Language and Social Interaction 36 (3): 285–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/ S15327973RLSI3603_03
Pillet-Shore, D. (2015) On doing ‘being a good parent’ in parent-teacher conferences. Journal of Communication 65 (2): 373–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12146
Pomerantz, A. (1978) Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 79–112. New York: Academic Press.
Radford, J. (2009) Word searches: On the use of verbal and non-verbal resources during classroom talk. Australian Journal of Linguistics 23 (5): 598–610. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/02699200902997491
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation. 2 volumes. Oxford: Blackwell. Sacks, H.,
Schegloff, E. A. and Jefferson, G. (1974) Simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50 (4): 696–735. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ lan.1974.0010
Sarangi, S. (2010) Practising discourse analysis in healthcare settings. In I. Bourgeault, R. DeVries and R. Dingwall (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research, 397–416. London: SAGE. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446268247.n21
Schegloff, E. A. (2007) Sequence Organization in Interaction. A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511791208
Schmidt, T. and Schütte, W. (2010) FOLKER: An annotation tool for efficient transcription of natural, multi-party interaction. In N. Calzolari, K. Choukri, B. Maegaard, J. Mariani, J. Odijk, S. Piperidis, M. Rosner and D. Tapias (eds) Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, 2091–2096. Valletta, Malta: European Language Resources Association.
Selting, M., Auer, P., Barth-Weingarten, D., Bergmann, J., Bergmann, P., Birkner, K., CouperKuhlen, E., Deppermann, A., Gilles, P., Günthner, S., Hartung, M., Kern, F., Mertzlufft, C., Meyer, C., Morek, M., Oberzaucher, F., Peters, J., Quasthoff, U., Schütte, W., Stukenbrock, A. and Uhmann, S. (2009) Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem (GAT 2). Gesprächsforschung - Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 10: 353–402.
Waitzkin, H. (1985) Information giving in medical care. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 26 (2): 81–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2136599
Walker, B. (1998) Meetings without communication: A study of parents evenings in secondary schools. British Educational Research Journal 24 (2): 163–179. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/0141192980240204
Zucker, L. G. (1977) The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence. American Sociological Review 42 (5): 726–743. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094862
Published
2016-10-18
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Articles
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Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Forster, R. (2016). When boundaries become permeable: Conversations at parent–teacher conferences and their meaning for the constitution of an institution. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 10(1), 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.30196
