Roles of engagement: Analyzing adolescent students' talk during controversial discussions

Abstract

Dialogic talk affords students opportunities to share ideas and co-construct knowledge while developing various literacy skills such as perspective taking, text comprehension, and argumentative reasoning. In this study, we examine how seventh- and eighth-grade students in four classrooms discuss a controversial topic about changing a National Football League team's controversial name and analyze their discursive roles using thematic content analysis. We provide dynamic profiles of student speakers, including those who take on primary, secondary, tertiary, and periphery roles within discussions. We also discuss how these roles shift and provide implications for teachers who engage students dialogically around controversial, yet essential, topics.