On authentic questions in academic writing tutorials: Epistemic authority and the co-construction of knowledge

The present paper examines dialogic interaction in educational contexts by problematising the role of authentic questions advocated by proponents of dialogic pedagogy. We begin by reviewing research on questions in teacher-fronted discourse, while critically assessing the types of knowledge these questions target and their potential to result in dialogic interaction. We then move to the context of academic writing tutorials, which differ significantly with respect to the knowledge the participants bring to the conversation, and where authentic questions have received relatively little attention. We analyse tutor questions and their sequential unfolding in tutorials where the tutors have the relevant subject-specific knowledge and where they do not – and where authentic questions prevail. The framework of epistemics, as developed in conversation analysis, allows us to establish the extent to which these questions result in the co-construction of new understandings of the assignment topic.