Discourse Analysis and Multimodal Meaning Making in a Science Classroom: Meta-Methodological Insights from Three Theoret
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Discourse Analysis and Multimodal Meaning Making in a Science Classroom: Meta-Methodological Insights from Three Theoretical Perspectives Jenny Martin 1
& Lihua Xu
2
& Lay Hoon Seah
3
# Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
This article provides rich insights into the process of data generation for discourse analysis from three separate studies of the video recordings of a single science classroom in action. The central claim is that multimodal transcription can contribute to developments in discourse theory. A three-stage reflective heuristic is developed and used in the article to support meta-methodological discussion on different researchers’ negotiations with the complexity of the video data. The focus is how the different researchers attended to modalities of meaning making (e.g. speech, learning artefacts, whiteboard notes, gestures, bodily actions) and appropriated, adapted and transformed their theoretical framework in order to construct the transcripts for each study. The three-stage heuristic is shown to facilitate transparency in analytic decision-making and is recommended for promoting much needed discussion on processes of data generation for discourse analysis that draws upon video recordings of action in situ. Keywords Systemic functional linguistics . Distributed cognition . Positioning theory . Science classroom discourse . Qualitative methodology
Introduction This article contributes to the special issue on discourse analysis using a focus on practices of data generation. It offers a unique contribution to understanding transcription as an agentic, iterative and
* Jenny Martin [email protected]
1
Institute of Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
2
School of Education, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
3
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Singapore
Research in Science Education
theory-driven process (Davidson 2009; Green et al. 1997; Ochs 1979) by examining how three different researchers used video recordings of a single science classroom in action across sequential lessons to generate data for three separate inquiries (Arnold 2012; Xu 2010; Seah 2010). More than “the use of language in context” (Kelly 2014), discourse is understood as sociocultural practice (Harré 1979). In these terms, discourse analysis is the study of multimodal meaning making, a particularly salient point for research in science education (Scott and Mortimer 2005). Whilst meaning making in a science classroom was the focus of each of the studies discussed in this article, the discussion is meta-methodological (Zuengler and Mori 2002, p. 285). It rises above the separate studies to consider researchers’ inquiry practices, specifically transcription, as social semiotic (Kress 2010), i.e. as acts of meaning making by the researchers. Rapidly advancing digital recording technologies are making possible new methods for the study of multimodal meaning making. As new methods for recordi
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