Rhetorics of transformations : a discursive analysis of interviews with teachers

Eyber, Carola

Rhetorics of transformations : a discursive analysis of interviews with teachers

Master Thesis

1997

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Psychology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This study examines haw teachers at two former white Model C schools construct educational changes rhetorically. The discourse analytic approach of Wetherell and Potter (1992) is employed to interpret interview texts in which teachers talk about desegregation, school governance and finance. Specific constructions of 'race ', culture and language and their function as signifiers of sameness, difference and otherness are critically discussed. Two interpretative repertoires are identified. Good Educational Practice contains the concepts of standards, values and naturalness. It is demonstrated how these are used as argumentative strategies to contain and restrict changes taking place at the schools. Managerialism draws on financial and business principles such as entrepreneurship and efficiency to propose a particular view of how educational change should be managed. Connections are made between the effects of these discursive constructions and social practices at the school.