In this talk I show how Conversation Analysis contributes to teacher education (1) with its role in creating flexible digital observation tools as well as (2) its power in the analysis of pedagogical interactions. Issues related to the analysis of teacher learning and developing sustainable teacher education will be discussed.
Conversation Analysis is a powerful methodology that has transformed our analytical understanding of teaching and learning. While cross-sectional (e.g. Lilja & Piirainen-Marsh 2018), longitudinal (e.g. Pekarek-Doehler and Berger 2016), and retrospective (e.g. Jakonen 2018) studies of learning have received growing interest, less has been done on teacher learning (but see, e.g. Walsh 2011) using the methodological tools of CA. Teacher learning and development is a process of transformation and as in all forms of learning, it “involves connections between moments” (Jakonen 2018: 4). Such moments in teacher education can be traced in classroom teaching, in post observation feedback sessions, and in reflections. Therefore, to understand teacher learning and development, we need to locate moments during teacher education where participants themselves orient to their own teaching and learning. Recent attempts in digitalization in teacher education have equipped us with audio-visual tools that novice teachers can utilize to visualize their own teaching and classroom interactions, and retrospectively talk such interactions into being with their mentors or peers (Sert 2019; Seedhouse forthcoming). Building on findings from my pilot study in Sweden, I will introduce our new 3-year project funded by MKL & municipalities in Sweden. Part of this development & research project involves the integration of CA findings from recent classroom interaction research into the development of teacher-observation schemes in a digital mobile application. The project also involves the use of CA in analyzing interactions of student-teachers with their learners at upper-secondary level, as well as other qualitative data from post-observation feedback sessions and reflections of student-teachers. I argue that CA’s contribution to teacher education programmes has multiple layers, including development of flexible observation tools and analysis of pedagogical interaction (Waring 2016). I suggest that in addition to one-time interventional research, we need to work together on sustainable CA-informed teacher education programmes.
