Analysing Discourses in Teacher Observation Feedback Conferences

Abstract

This volume focuses on the post-observation feedback conference, a common feature of teacher education programs, and highlights the importance of such talk in the development and evaluation of teachers and other professionals.

The book adopts a linguistic ethnographic approach, which provides a framework for examining the contextual nature of the talk and how it is embedded within wider social contexts and structures, such as evaluation regimes. Drawing on data from a range of settings, including pre-service teacher education, medical education, and teacher appraisal programs, Copland and Donaghue examine the feedback conference from a range of perspectives, including face, identity and genre, and show how a nuanced understanding of discussions can support teacher trainers, supervisors and observers to provide appropriate and useful feedback. A concluding chapter brings together brief vignettes from researchers active in the field to point to future directions for further study.

This book will be of particular interest to students and researchers in discourse analysis, language education, linguistic anthropology, and professional communication, as well as pre- and in-service teachers.