The Case of Marek: Tension and Conflict in a Dialogic Teaching System
In this chapter, we will focus on the teacher Marek. In describing his case, we want to demonstrate that dialogic teaching is a complex and interlinked system consisting of elements (indicators, principles, and methods) that influence one another in eithe
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The Case of Marek: Tension and Conflict in a Dialogic Teaching System
Abstract In this chapter, we will focus on the teacher Marek. In describing his case, we want to demonstrate that dialogic teaching is a complex and interlinked system consisting of elements (indicators, principles, and methods) that influence one another in either a synergistic or a discordant way. Tensions or even conflicts such as those documented here can arise between these elements.
The organization of this chapter is similar to that of Chap. 5. At the beginning, we present some contextual information about the teacher Marek. Next, we describe individual lessons he taught during the TPD program to show how his teaching practices changed. The data from the lessons are complemented by data from the reflective interviews to present how Marek was thinking about the transformation process. Finally, we offer some interpretations for why tensions and conflicts may arise in a system of dialogic teaching. Further, we focus on the most harmful instances in which the principles of purposefulness and collectivity were broken. We explain the sources of this and show how Marek and other teachers in our sample overcame the tension and saved the principles essential for dialogic teaching.
6.1 About Marek Marek participated in the TPD program during the 2014/2015 school year. At the start of the program, Marek had been a secondary school teacher for 12 years, ever since he had graduated with a degree in teaching English and Czech language and literature. Apart from the courses that he was certified to teach, Marek was also teaching media education and information and communication technologies. Marek thought of himself as of a skilled teacher and a very gifted manager. He was a self-confident teacher with high self-esteem. We accompanied Marek to the classes of Czech language and literature that he taught to seventh-grade students four times a week for 45 min. Of the four classes, one was devoted to literature. Marek was teaching this class for the second year. It © Masaryk University 2020 K. Šed’ová et al., Getting Dialogic Teaching into Classrooms, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9243-0_6
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comprised 19 students at the start of the year (18 at the end because one male student relocated to another town because of his parents’ work). Boys made up two-thirds of the class; there were seven girls. One of the boys, Karel, was a new addition to the class since he had failed to complete the previous year and had to repeat the seventh grade with students who were one year younger than him. The school at which Marek was teaching is situated in a conservation area in the city’s historic center. The students’ socioeconomic background was either middle or working class.
6.2 Series of Lessons Marek Taught During TPD Program Observations of Marek’s classes confirmed the findings from the case of Daniela (see Chap. 5) that the implementation of dialogic t
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