EdD Assignment 3 Josephine V Saliba

Doctor of Education EdD Programme: ER2 Module 3 Processes of Educational
Research
Discourse conflict or discourse alignment?

Applying Critical Discourse Analysis to engage teachers
and learners
in the transformation of learning
1. Introduction: a new world order
Evolving language and literacy studies, particularly New Literacy Studies

(NLS) research, seek to understand teaching and learning beyond traditional
behaviourist and cognitive models that often create misunderstandings
about the needs of specific learners (Gee, 2000, 2004). As a learning
support practitioner, I often experience the imposition of policies and
practices that influence if not outrightly violate non-traditionally accepted
socio-cultural values, backgrounds and the complexity of the multimodal
literacy practices involved.
Traditional deficit models of education disregard equality of diversities and

continue to misrepresent students perceived as needing support to develop
apparently lacking skills necessary to function within traditional societies
dominated by conservative Discourses of Power (Gee, 2004). This essay
discusses previously explored issues of power and discourse. It is a
professional reflection on aspects of bilingualism, multimodal literacies,
discourse and identity; specifically about how in bilingual Malta, we describe
literacy needs using particular language and nuances within what I term the
‘Discourse of Support Education’. Our purported bilingualism influences the
situated language of Discourse communities to socially construct meanings
that may disadvantage people operating within Discourses other than those
of the dominant or powerful communities (ibid).
This imbalance of power is displayed by how we mostly use Maltese to teach

and speak about learning support students but assess and write policy
documentation using often formal and clichéd English. Paralleling Jaffe's
observations (2003:42), my bilingual College's literacy support programmes
Josephine V. Saliba Page 1

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evidence 'an implicit curriculum that is conveyed to students through the

way that pedagogical and social functions are distributed across the two
languages of the school'. This curriculum is influenced by the vocational
nature of the College, bound by national policies and its mission statement to
serve the economic and employment needs of individuals and the nation. As
a state funded College, it manoeuvres within 'mutual accommodation of the
State and community institutions which are understood to be the State's
primary minority community interlocutors' (da Silva & Heller, 2009:96). The
College's motives in supporting students' literacy needs reflects the State's
shift from championing education towards social justice to producing
economic opportunities, thus harnessing 'an economic development
discourse to an older one of community reproduction' (ibid:97).
Globalisation dominates over small nation state development. Language is

thus becoming a marketable commodity on its own, distinct from identity
and accompanied by struggles of legitimacy over 'who has the right to
produce and distribute the resources of language and identity' (Heller,
2003:473). Such struggles filter through the education system, leading Jaffe
(2003:43) to look at 'the different statuses and relationships that are
produced in classroom literacy practices; in particular, how linguistic identity,
authenticity and authority are created and distributed across verbal and
written genres, across different languages, and across
different social actors'.
Different social actors and communities may not share the same coded
language and social practices. Following Foucault and others, Gee (1990)
states that within the Discourse of literacy, language as social practice is
only part of how we communicate, what we accept, share, discard, ignore or
suppress. Language labels 'files full of experiences, images, texts, and
dialogue' representing other modes of communication such as visual and
other non verbal modes so that when used by 'bigots' dominant verbal or
written language superimposes its vales on both discourses/Discourses

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formed by other communities' reproduction of identity, creating perceptions

of 'good and right' (Gee, 2009 online). Western democratic societies retain
complex power relations perpetuating myths of what is socially acceptable or
not. Traditional schooling does not negotiate complex communication
practices and relationships thus negating multiple realities and stances.
Therefore, Gee (1999) and other NLS researchers analyse learning within
multimodal social practices through semiotic approaches and discourse
analysis.
Arguably, the most exponential studies explore links between language and
power through linguistic and social theories predominantly of Marx, Gramsci,
Althusser, Habermas, Foucault and Bourdieu, with leading Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) research done by Fairclough (1989, 2001). CDA addresses
issues of literacy as social practice by investigating ‘ways of interacting’
(genre), ‘ways of representing’ (discourse) and ‘ways of being’ (style) which
‘can capture the linguistic nuances of construction and transformation of
subjectivities across contexts and over time’ (Rogers, 2004). Accordingly,
this assignment also discusses issues of language and power referring to the
potential of CDA in transforming traditional discourses. Reflections on
professional discussions and informal student-lecturer dialogue explore the
College's Discourse dynamics to better understand organisational issues of
language, power and literacy.
2. Transformation through participation
Currently, the College is attempting to increase the student application and

retention rates for Foundation programmes. It has introduced a new national
Level 1 (UK Level 2) course in preparation for existing national Level 2 (UK
Level 3) programme which had previously been partly spread over two
academic years for students with little or no qualifications. The ultimate goal
is to enable 'deficit students' to obtain minimum certification required by

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local employers, hence the effort to introduce local standardised

qualifications. However, as Jaffe (2003) and Heller (2003) observe, such a
process is complex and conflicts arise over what ought to be standardised
and how it should be evaluated to avoid repeating the failures of previous
institutions and individuals. Although discussion is vague in apportioning
blame and shame, issues of relevance and failure pervade the discourse.
The conflict revolves around issues of access to resources and power, how to
enable students overcome literacy difficulties to enter employment. The
College's vocational status often renders personal gain and development as
a means towards this ultimate end. As the nation's only post-secondary
vocational education institution, the College is the State's alternative to a
university education providing further education and employment
opportunities to those students who are either unwilling to pursue
traditionally conventional professions or who would automatically be
disqualified from pursuing such studies through inclination or standardised
literacy ability. Globalisation pressures both individuals and the State to
retain a competitive edge not only as a minor European nation, but also as a
key player in the less dominant Mediterranean region and a viable
alternative financial centre to stronger Eastern economies.
The College Mission Statement (online) is 'to provide universally accessible

vocational and professional education and training with an international
dimension, responsive to the needs of the individual and the economy'. This
laudable political platitude is contradictory. The College approves of
programmes that motivate, teach, support, transform individuals who yet
need to conform to external requirements to survive. In a small island state,
these external factors, whether factual or perceived, filter dangerously into
classrooms. It is a challenge for staff, given their diverse values,
backgrounds and beliefs to actually 'put the student at the heart of what we
do' as the latest College Strategic Plan (online) advocates. How can we
operate within a mainly traditional model to bring about transformative

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learning and teaching without directly or indirectly reaffirming those past

negative identities and experiences that students bring with
them into the classroom?
As Haller (2003) warns about how corporate culture pressures institutions to

groom students' and workers' language skills to fit a professional image, Jaffe
(2003) favours collaborative 'talk about text' to transform teaching and
learning. The classroom as living narrative can thus deal with conflict
between discourses as:
subjectivities are a continually evolving framework that both

shapes and is shaped by activity settings. The more conflict,
contradictions, and multiple discourses that compose the self,
the more likely the self will evolve. The converse is true as well.
The more stable the discourses within any person are, the fewer
possibilities there are for transformation (Chouliaraki and
Fairclough, 1999, in Rogers, 2004).
Participation is hence pivotal within classroom interaction. Communication

within the College's literacy support classes is affected by external
Discourses of power, territory and self-definition. Staff and student discourse
may thus be expressed through conflicting, placating, condescending,
sympathetic, open or other kinds of language, on the spectrum between
direct conflict to complete understanding, consequently affecting learning in
its widest sense – learning about self as well as content.
In classrooms, 'people define and defend their selves and subjectivities

through narrative’ (Luttrell, 1997, in Rogers, 2004). Power issues render
vulnerable students more susceptible to transformations in self-identity.
Hence, discursive construction of subjectivities should be analysed from a
transformational perspective, ideally emphasising processes contributing to
positive changing participation as opposed to the reinforcement of traditional
models (Chouliaraki and Fairclough, 1999 in Rogers, 2004). This essay

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explores how CDA can contribute to such transformational teaching and

learning since it ‘claims to describe, interpret, and explain how language
reflects and constructs social realities’ and especially how ‘shifts in discourse
patterns might be thought of as learning’ (Rogers, 2004).
In discussing how CDA can explore issues of language and power, I quote
professional reflections on how ‘shifts in the discourse patterns can occur
within a domain (intertextual) or across domains (intercontextual)’ and how
the College's literacy support programmes are proposing to ‘interrupt or
undo problematic literate subjectivities’ (Rogers, 2004). The College's efforts
at transformational learning through traditional approaches pose a number
of possible contradictions revolving around issues of identity and
participation in the classroom. Different situated practices exhibit different
'ways of becoming a participant, ways of participating, and ways in which
participants and practices change' (Lave, 1996:157), with some ways
emphasising learning mechanisms rather than the development of identity
through various practices. Even if outright conflict and impositions by
dominant communities may not be immediately evident, discourse alignment
as opposed to conflict remains of concern since most people:
value education and uphold a view of themselves and of literacy

that is in alignment with the views of the school. (…) It is this
alignment that causes them to more readily believe when the
school tells them that they or their children are deficient or
disabled, because they so readily believe in and value the
institution of the school (Rogers, 2004).
This essay thus explores issues of participation, discussing whether

Foundation learning support programmes are empowering students to shift
traditional deficit ways of thinking about themselves; are they transformative
or do they reinforce traditional models beneath a veneer of words purporting
social justice? Personal professional reflections discuss whether the

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College's Foundation programmes evidence discourse conflict, contradiction

or alignment; whether the language used in College is evidence of traditional
power struggles; whether what is being said and written differs from actual
classroom practice; and whether a shift towards transformational discourse
can be perceived.
3. Language, power and social structure
Previous assignments have illustrated how the Maltese educational system is

dominated by hierarchical and traditional authorities (Bezzina, 1995, 1998;
Borg and Falzon, 1989; Farrugia, 1986). Market forces and globalisation have
always influenced political decisions concerning education and employability
and adopting Western traditional learning styles was the easiest and fastest
model to replicate in an ever increasingly urgent bid to expand economic
growth and trade (Mayo, 1994; Baldacchino and Mayo, 1997). The most
dominantly radical counter-influences to capitalism observed within the
Maltese educational system emerged under the umbrella term of 'social
justice' embraced by the clergy, the two major political parties and trade
unionists. Religious and political ideological slogans revolving around the
themes of education, work, justice and liberty make it impossible 'to
separate literacy from questions of power' (Janks, 2009:5).
These ideologies remain steadfastly ingrained in Maltese education and

social institutions notwithstanding the advent of new capitalist structures
(Gee, 2000 in Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000:185). They have become
'ideology as common sense' (Fairclough, 2001) as established dominant
institutions ensure that they are never seen to sustain power through
inequality, otherwise people would cease to believe in them and change to
some degree would follow. Consequently, national education development
has made little effort to relate literacy 'to general issues of social theory
regarding textuality, figured worlds, identity and power’ (Street, 2003:87-88).

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Nevertheless, modern technology is creating a new social order, possibly

leading sections of the population to critically engage with their
environment, voicing their dissatisfaction with the local dominant religious
and political powers. Yet social life paradoxically shows that:
while there is apparently more space than ever before for

individual and group differences, there seems to be at the same
time a sort of 'codification' of aspects of social life which is partly
a codification of discourse (Fairclough, 2001:207).
Today's new social order creates corporate identities and narratives.

Technology sustains the value our modern societies give to work as a means
to financial gain and sense of belonging to a global community (Gee, 2000,
in Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000). This knowledge-economy world
associates functional literacy with reading and writing that not only serve the
individual’s needs but especially employment and economic development
which might have little if anything to do with the individual’s culture and
society (Rassool, 1999; Papen, 2005). Thus, nationally, not only does literacy
remain bound to traditional notions of citizenship (Mayo, 2004), but reflecting
a global trend, in an emerging new world order formal traditional literacy
teaching and learning remain central to normative political and social life.
In reaction, critical literacy and CDA challenges ‘utilitarian vocational

meanings’ (Rassool, 1999:8), encouraging people to read behind the literal
text, reflect on their society and the struggles of power, engaging 'in a
critical discussion of the positions a text supports’ (Papen, 2005:11). Those
wishing to impose or resist the new order struggle with the multimodal entity
of language 'both over new ways of using language, and over linguistic
representations of change' (Fairclough, 2001:204). Hence CDA echoes
Freire's sentiments that ‘what is important is that the person learning words
be concomitantly engaged in a critical analysis of the social framework in
which men exist’ (Freire, 1972:31-2).

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Freire (1972) believes reading the word cannot be separated from reading
the world and that individuals who know how to 'read' both attain a sense of
self that enables them to transform their social situations. Within NLS
research, Street (1984) discusses this further and distinguishes between
autonomous and ideological models of literacy. Attitudes to literacy, both
traditional and intertextual multimodal communications are not only
restricted to an individual's psychological attitudes but are socially and
textually produced (Janks, 2009:9). Foucault emphasises that all discourses,
including discourses of literacy, produce truth/power and in turn generate
and propagate the effects of power of dominant groups (Janks, 2009:14).
Ideology has moved on from sovereign power over individuals to disciplinary

power that regulates society and the individual (Foucault, 1977). Notions of
dominators and dominated are blurred, although dominant discourses of
truth/power may emerge creating social subjects interacting within complex
relationships. One overarching aspect of such complex societal relationships
is language in its verbal and non-verbal entity as a socially conditioned and
conditioning process (Fairclough, 2001; Kress, 2003; Kress and van Leeuwen,
2006). As discussed, ideologies are naturalised dominant discourses that
appear to be common sense. Fairclough (2001) observes that even people
who work in institutions that do not seemingly have direct links to capitalist
or governing classes have tied interests that propagate the
dominant capitalist system.
Institutional practices which people draw upon without thinking

often embody assumptions which directly or indirectly legitimize
existing power relations. Practices which appear to be universal
and commonsensical can often be shown to originate in the
dominant class or the dominant bloc, and to have
become naturalized (Fairclough, 2001:27).

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Thompson (1984, 1990, in Janks, 2009:37) identifies five general modes of

ideological operation: legitimation, dissimulation, unification, fragmentation,
reification. By looking at texts, or discourses, 'linguistic and non-linguistic
symbols which are regularly used to obtain particular ideological effects' may
be identified (Fairclough, 2001:27). However, Thompson, unlike Fairclough
does not consider unequal power relations as always leading to negative
ideological discourses. These 'symbols are not only or always used for these
purposes, nor are these modes of ideology only realised in these ways' but
provide useful ways of thinking about the relation between symbolic forms
and social effect (Janks, 2009:37).
This reinforces Foucault's theory that the 'political question(…)is not error,
illusion, alienated, consciousness or ideology; it is truth itself' (1980:133).
Dominant societal discourses seize and propagate power infiltrating and
bolstering 'procedures which constitute discourses and the means by which
power constitutes them as knowledge, that is, as truth' Janks (2009:50).
Foucault does not focus on the negative ‘censorship, exclusion, blockage,
and repression’ (1980:59) aspects of power but on how it affects the
‘processes which subject our bodies, govern our gestures and dictate our
behaviours’ (1980:97).
This 'capillary form' of power (Foucault, 1980:39) requires our focus 'on the
effects of the texts, knowledges, and practices that we bring into our literacy
classrooms' as well as on the kind of access to which resources these
classrooms provide ((Janks, 2009:5,51). Since literacy is not a neutral
activity but a selection of those parts preferred by the dominant groups,
critical literacy and CDA highlight the 'positioned and positioning' (ibid:22).
CDA in the classroom enables critical reflection on political choices such as
the language and texts used for instruction and the content that is included
or excluded from the classroom, who imposes the curriculum and how, who
decides what to teach, and the nature of student involvement in
such decisions (Janks, 2009:23).

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4. Critical Discourse Analysis: method, theory and practice
The new Level 1 (UK Level 2) embedded literacy and vocational programme
aims to integrate literacy within vocational learning. Planning meetings
initiated last April culminated in the production of schemes of work and
assessment modes in July 2010. College administrators launched the
innovations bringing in guest speakers from England to present models of
embedded learning which local staff were to adapt and implement the
following September. This process thus constrained by lack of time,
experience and relevance to the local scenario raised contradictions and
conflicts revolving around student needs, staff duties, language and
sociocultural identity. Personal professional concern mingled with intellectual
curiosity whether such a situation could be explained through CDA since it 'is
amply prepared to handle such contradictions as they emerge and
demonstrate how they are enacted and transformed through linguistic
practices in ways of interacting, representing, and being' (Rogers, 2008:1).
Analysing relationships within diverse Discourses is never easy and clearcut.

Ethical considerations including analyst involvement require academic
professional research. Nevertheless, readings about bilingualism and the
potential of CDA stirred a considerable amount of reflective thinking about
my professional role both as participant and academic observer. Reflecting
on the evident conflicts, I noted that complex power-knowledge relationships
risk being reduced to a language of binary absolutes, dominant/dominated,
social justice/injustice, literate privileged/illiterate underprivileged. Reading
about CDA made me aware that this tendency together with the assumption
that power is embedded in language might be socioculturally inherited thus
necessitating the need 'to understand the relationship between language
form and function, the history of the practices that construct present-day

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practices, and how social roles are acquired and transformed' (Rogers,
2008:2).
CDA is different from other discourse analysis methods because it

includes not only a description and interpretation of discourse in
context, but also offers an explanation of why and how
discourses work (Rogers 2008:2).
Through professional reflection, I would also add that CDA is also an attitude
or a stance that I would be interested in adopting in future research as it aids
the understanding of relationships between language and important
educational issues such as 'the current relationship among the economy,
national policies, and educational practices' (Rogers, 2008:1). Studies by
Jaffe (2003a,b), Heller (2003, 2009), da Silva and Heller (2009) Rogers (2008)
and Gee (2008) allow parallels to be drawn with the local situation where
national policies, communities of practice, social interaction and the
distribution of resources are part of the Discourse of bilingualism where 'the
discrepancy in achievement between mainstream and working class and
minority children' remains as powerful groups insist on traditional resolutions
to modern educational problems' (Rogers, 2008:11).
National and government institutions continue to espouse positivist, reliable,

and replicable methodologies that can only examine issues from an often
ideological point of view that has become common sense and naturalised but
remains ineffective in the changing world order. However, CDA research
would not provide a panacea. Criticised for potentially projecting counter-
ideologies onto findings to suit the beliefs of the analysts, CDA practitioners
are often in disaccord between them since there is an unequal balance
between social theory and linguistic method. Furthermore, critics state CDA
is not systematic and rigorous since it is restricted to the temporal
interpretations of social contexts (Rogers, 2008:14). Regardless of this
positivist assertion, Rogers agrees that an inherent drawback in CDA is that

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the methodology has not been widely used to analyse matters of learning
and that few studies have tackled nonlinguistic aspects of discourse such as
activity and emotion – ironic when considering that emotion is often the
basis of ideology (ibid). Such critique is often levelled at analysts whose sole
goal is the disruption of power relations.
Inversely, researchers who engage in CDA as a genuinely critical social

scientific method 'reflexively demonstrate the changing relationship between
social theory and linguistic structures and how this fits into evolving social
and linguistic theories and methodologies' (Rogers, 2008:15). The research
of Fairclough (1995) and Gee (1999) are such examples. Indeed, Gee has
paid extensive attention to CDA and matters of learning, pointing out that
'one can only generate paradoxes or problems about learning with regard to
specific perspectives on what learning is, and the problems and paradoxes
shift with different perspectives' (Rogers, 2008:12). 'CA is not a theoretical
enterprise but rather a very concretely empirical one' (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2008:359).
5. CDA and discursive practices in bilingual communities of practice
My professional interest in oral literacy departs from the notion that 'face-to-
face social interaction (...) is the most immediate and the most frequently
experienced social reality' (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008:358). In-class
observations indicate that when staff acknowledge students' oral
competence in their maternal minority language, students engage more in
class even vis a vis the dominant language. Following Jaffe (2003a:43), it
appears that students build up a particular individual and collective stance
that acknowledges their individual and collective identities. Giving minority
language texts an authoritative and collaborative dimension fosters a
stronger relationship between language and student identity that makes
them more confident in engaging with both languages when left at liberty to

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show their competence and familiarity beyond the restrictions required by

standardisation (ibid).
Students often come to my learning support classes declaring they do not

know a single word of English yet when they engage in collaborative talk
about text, they show oral competence and understanding beyond formal
assessment test results, a valuable foundation for the development of other
competences. I thus set out writing this essay in belief that 'the interplay of
utterances and actions in live social interaction involves a complex
organization that cannot be found in written text' (Denzin & Lincoln,
2008:359) and that 'talk creates and maintains the intersubjective reality'
(ibid:361). Nevertheless, readings on multimodal literacies and NLS studies
also challenged this assumption and aroused my interest in CDA.
The complex local bilingual situation is the result of a long historic struggle
over the language question. National pride and support in the minority
language is socioculturally strongly grounded, albeit folkloristic
sentimentality and academic purism sometimes do not reflect the current
use of the everyday language which displays a mixture of accomodation and
resistance to historically dominant languages, and specifically to English, the
last of the colonisers. In Malta full immersion in foreign languages has long
been the correct standardised teaching method. However, English, unlike
other foreign dominant languages, filters throughout all aspects of society,
embedded in the educational system unlike other languages of past and
present elites. Thus, the education system is divided between using
separate single correct standards of both languages and accepting a
vernacular mix of both languages in use as more technical English words are
incorporated in the workplace.
This is a very real problem in our College and professional sharing with
colleagues revealed that most of us engage in some sort of revoicing in our
classes. Verbal teaching and vocational instruction by staff sympathetic to

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learning needs occurs collaboratively in both languages leading to eventual

written work and assessment in English. The difficulty is that written English
is then often full of 'mistakes' that represent the Maltese idiom and students
are penalised for not being able to communicate well in the dominant
language. Staff is divided about whether to strictly reinforce official
standardised correctness or acknowledge the transformative effects of such
collaborative use of language which would eventually lead to better mastery
of both languages in the longer term. Vocational lecturers are usually more
inclined towards the latter, often accusing academic staff of demotivating
students who need functional language more than academic knowledge.
Academic staff counter that it is senseless to incorporate some sort of pidgin
language when proper words already exist in both languages, albeit some
might seem archaic in Maltese. Learning support colleagues seem to
straddle both arguments, confirming Jaffe's belief (2003a) in embedding the
minority language in the learning process, positioning it in contrast to
English. This together with a mitigated hierarchical and collaborative
learning, leaves individuals free to participate and express their competence
acknowledging and valuing individual identities as well as the collective class
community.
This professional discussion further linked my perspectives on oral literacy

with greater awareness of multimodal communication and literacies. Both
staff and students shared ideas in Maltese but switched to English when
using education terminologies. Education jargon in English seemed more
acceptable and politically correct to staff. In fact, they preferred to use Latin-
derivatives when a non-English word was used as this seemingly gloss over
the seemingly more negative connotations of Maltese when describing
'weak' students, especially when senior administration was present.
Nevertheless, while both staff and students used different language
according to formal and informal settings, students felt less pressured than
staff to conform to political correctness; their initial descriptions of their

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linguistic competences were less positively couched than staff's professional

terms. All this must surely affect multimodal staff-student communication
which is greatly but not exclusively verbal.
The drawbacks of verbal communication particularly emerged with staff's

diffidence to voice real sentiments when issues of student involvement and
participation were discussed. Numerable colleagues shared concerns that
planning the new Foundation programmes would have benefited from the
inclusion of current students' voice, especially learning support students.
Instinctively, I felt that this might have been sometimes said sincerely and at
other times simply as lip service. 'Participation' took on as many
connotations as staff's ideological and emotional motivations; sympathy,
frustration with the system, hostility even since student 'failure' was seen as
being projected onto them by management.
Interestingly, factors such as age, experience, social status and the kind of
familiar and close relationship established with the student often impinged
on staff's opinions and probably spill into their classrooms. Informal dialogue
with students indeed often did reveal that 'negative ideologies are acquired
on a routine basis in schools (Rogers, 2008:13). Nevertheless, this
professional sharing seemed to indicate that social justice ideologies and
hence some kind of participation models pervade numerous classrooms as
does Fairclough's interpretation of interdiscursivity (1992) between the
College's staff and students. This seems to have the potential to transform
otherwise stable discourses transforming perceptions of student identity.
CDA could possibly reveal this potential for transformation bringing further
understanding to the intertextuality between language, utterance-type
meanings, situated meanings and social practices (Freeman, 1998; Rogers,
2008) between the College's communities of practice. In the current
linguistic market's domination by standard English, CDA could investigate
reactive alignment or resistance by examining:

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a wide range of social practices, including written documents

and/or social activities in order to make explicit the underlying
cultural notions that link forms of writing and/or talk to social
groups in a way that seems natural within that context (Freeman,
1998:17-18).
Eventual intertextual research of spoken and written texts through a

multimodal stance could identify links between different groups' ideological
assumptions and expectations thus understanding the evolution of these
ideological stances (Freeman, 1998). It would possibly facilitate better
understanding between groups as stances are always partial and can always
be better expanded and refined through dialogue (Cummins, 2000).
Education in a bilingual setting would then become the responsibility of the
entire organisation, lessening the stigma of learning support, hence also
transforming learning, discourses and communities of practice. It could also
lead to long term policies addressing 'issues of underachievement in
culturally and linguistically diverse contexts' (ibid:36) without forcing staff to
enter into discourses of conflict or alignment with traditional learning but
rather transform learning processes at all levels.
A CDA study into the local issues surrounding bilingualism would thus open
up the discussion beyond the mere acquisition of both language skills,
focusing on the different ideological stances towards different literacies and
languages and the diverse social and cultural backgrounds which ultimately
provide different people with different educational, linguistic and literacy
goals (Freeman, 1998). Acquisition and learning could evolve into
interdiscursive social practices, supporting student potential and
acknowledging dominant and subordinated communities whilst better
understanding relationships that influence school structures and the roles of
educators and students (Cummins, 2000:36-40). Truly effective education in
a bilingual setting should embrace transformative and intercultural
challenges where collaborative power relations affirm student identities and

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extend their interactions with educators, actually hearing and respecting

student voice rather than silencing the power of self expression (ibid:44-49).
Staff within such settings work with others to:
make meaning with or from texts (...) interested in what all kinds
of texts (written, visual and oral) do to readers, viewers and
listeners and whose interests are served by what these texts do.
They also help students to rewrite themselves and their local
situations by helping them to pose problems and to act, often in
small ways, to make the world a fairer place (Janks, 2009:19).
6. Conclusion: Involving students’ literacy practices in the

classroom
This essay departed by exploring issues of discourse conflict or alignment

through professional reflection about the belief of the immediacy of talk
especially in a bilingual setting involving primarily Maltese verbal
communication. It progressed to premise that multimodal language and
literacy discourses filtering in the classrooms is confusing to the students
who shift from the organisational to their own personal communities,
especially those students who come from subordinate literacy backgrounds.
Professional reflections presented here suggest the occurrence of both
discourse conflict and alignment as well as interdiscursive communities of
practice that might have transformational value. Nevertheless such
assertions warrant further ethically reviewed research, possibly an
intertextual CDA analysis of discourse allowing:
the researcher to link spoken and written texts that are produced
by a wide range of participants who interact with one another on
a regular basis in actual communities of practice, and to make

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explicit the underlying discourses that structure their everyday

interactions and interpretations (Freeman, 1998:19).
Organisation-wide transformation would be ineffective if only oral bilingual

aspects were explored. Policy documentation analysis would also be
necessary; however, I believe that just as important is an analysis of how
these texts are being multimodally reinterpreted in the classroom thus
affecting learning processes. Thinking about:
how texts may be re-written and how to remake the word (…)
repositioning texts (…) tied to an ethic of social justice (…) can
contribute to the kind of identity and social transformation that
Freire’s work advocates (Janks, 2009:18).
Nevertheless researching bilingual minority communities is challenging since

there is overlap in the polynomic use of language (Jaff, 2003b). Discourses
present in situated practice present language and identity shifts which are
further compounded in this digital age 'replete with spaces of representation,
communication, and information dissemination' that draw on 'multiple modes
of expression and capitalize on technologies that facilitate social
collaboration in new ways' (Vasudevan, 2010:62). Researching educational
practice is complex where 'temporality and synchronicity of identity
performances have given way to multi-spatial and cross-temporal
instantiations of the self' (ibid). Moreover, boundaries of recognition and
misrecognition also shift; misrecognition being present in embedded criteria
of evaluation (Bourdieu, 1988; Jaffe, 2003b). Structures of misrecognition
and process of domination enforce compliance to dominant social and
linguistic powers (Jaffe, 2003b:515). However:
In a national curricular climate where testing too often leads

discussions of pedagogy, it is imperative to seek out spaces of
education that are governed by principles of discovery and play

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and that are free from punitive measures of learning and

engagement (Vasudevan, 2010:79).
Adopting new multimodal literacies in classrooms present seemingly

valuable opportunities to transform dominant texts using interesting media
familiar to students. Developing their multi-modal literacies across a range
of media respects, represents and includes their 'otherness' which might not
be otherwise recognised by dominant discourses and texts. Multimodal
literacies are transformative because they encourage students to 'shape
their literacy learning experiences by intentionally blurring artificial in/out of
school binaries that are institutionally reinforced' (Vasudevan, 2010:78). For
students who are labeled as weak, struggling or at risk, conventional
schooling may be alienating and demotivating, especially if 'these are young
people who live digital lives but who are confined to analog rights in school'
(ibid:64). Notwithstanding, although digital literacies often present the best
opportunities for multimodal expression, 'educators should not feel
compelled to supply digital modalities, nor should they feel constrained by
limited access to multimodal resources' (ibid:79). True multimodality should
transform classrooms into spaces offering the opportunity 'of inspiring new
sites of education through composing' (ibid).
Composing, or writing in its broadest and even digital sense is not simply
physical production but also presents opportunities for authorship of self and
identity (Ivanic, 1998). Different ideas of self, person, position, subjectivity
and related theories exist. Following Ivanic (1998), this essay investigates
how educational institutions contribute to the development of the self,
transforming selfhood to privileged identities that 'shape and constrain
actual people writing actual texts' (Ivanic, 1998:27). Traditional theories
attempt to do this by treating spoken and written language as distinct,
however this assignment has raised my awareness of how both literacies
link and reflect aspects of social relationships and social contexts which are:

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in a constant state of flux, continuously being re-shaped by social

processes of alignment with some conventions and contestation
of others. Both spoken and written language are enmeshed in
the social processes: both are heavily 'contextualized' in this
sense of context (Ivanic, 1998:61).
Still, dominant literacies continue to privilege and value written texts

directing the purposes of educational social contexts (Ivanic, 1998:65), as
personal professional experience evidences at my College. Before involving
learning support staff in programme development, oral and communicative
literacy was infrequently part of formal assessment. This perceived
superiority of writing is another aspect of the bilingual culture and Western
colonisation (ibid). Most students attending complete withdrawal literacy
sessions usually will never initially realise they are not completely 'illiterate'
in English because they can speak and communicate in the language better
than they can write it. Only when they start to make intertextual
connections and experience a transformation in their attitude and skills does
their sense of identity and motivation receive a boost.
Yet, the inherited mentality that standardised competency in written English

is a passport to social life, employment, identity and citizenship prevails
throughout the College. Following Mayo (1994) I would elaborate that the
site of the struggle for Maltese sense of citizenship is the ability to write in
both languages, favouring students' successful performance in written
English assessment as a passport for employment. Students compiling their
Europass CV are either not aware of the Maltese version or opt for the
English one because it appears more professional and may appeal to more
possible employers. Selfhood and personhood as understood by Ivanic
(1998) and others quoted in this essay is negated in favour of citizenship as
described by Mayo (1994). This reaffirms the

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traditional relationship between theory and practice in academic

support (...) in which teachers as 'knowers' translate theory into
prescriptions about the characteristics of academic writing and
practical tips on how to do it, which they 'transmit' to learners. In
my view this may lead to some short-term benefit for learners,
but will not have the emancipatory value (Ivanic, 1998:337).
Developing the discoursal self through writing would contribute to better

academic writing for multiple purposes. Student identity can be encouraged
through the development of the autobiographical self, the self as author,
socially available possibilities for self-hood and the discoursal self (Ivanic,
1998:330, 338). Also, we should not automatically expect students,
especially those requiring academic/literacy support to be able to engage in
autonomous and independent discourse without first going through the
stages described by Bakhtin (1981) and construct their own 'voice'. Aided by
theory and research, academic and literacy support staff should address
Ivanic's stages for developing writer identity, limiting technical and
mechanical exercises to transform study programmes of study by building
'the teaching of writing around writing tasks with real communicative
purposes for real readers' (Ivanic, 1998:338-339) that enables the
development of self, identity, voice, dialogue and discoursivity.
Outside educational institutions, individuals constantly engage in multiple

discourses and social practices which 'intersect, transverse, and challenge
one another' to create a transformed social being (Shuart Faris & Bloome,
2004:203). Educational texts encompass these social discourses and
discursive practices in which 'the purposes of the participants, the goals of
the participants, the power relations among participants, and many other
factors all have their effects on the forms of texts' translated and
constructed in classrooms (ibid:205). Constructing the self and an individual
voice is complex in face of conflicting or transformative ideologies that may
be juxtaposed or mutually affirmative depending on whether individuals wish

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to join, dominate or resist the dominant ideologies. These 'voices' (Bakhtin,

1981) reflect and form the social, cultural and ideological practices of other
individual voices; one way of understanding these processes is to seek to
understand the 'multiple functions and the interdependencies among these
functions' within educational institutions (Shuart Faris & Bloome, 2004:206).
Intertextual CDA research sifts these voices enabling deeper understanding

between texts and subjectivities and encouraging dialogue and participation.
In an educational organisational setting, CDA helps the researcher identify
the type of language being adopted by members of communities of practice,
especially by more vulnerable students who may engage with ideologies
through direct quotation, imitation/adoption, stylization, parody and hidden
polemic; some students are more susceptible to the idealisation of other
voices (Bakhtin, 1981; Shuart Faris & Bloome, 2004:213-214).
Therefore, to accept, resist, reject or transform these influences, 'new forms

of literacy pedagogy that encourage students to view both composing and
interpreting texts as practices of discourse analysis and social and political
negotiation' should be developed (Shuart Faris & Bloome, 2004:247). CDA
would allow students and staff to critically examine how society, culture,
economics and politics affect their own literacy and that of their community
of practice. Transformation of learning could thus start from dialogue which
discusses relationships of power, focusing on which discourses individuals'
College communities of practice are being expected to speak, write, value
and follow thus opening up the choice of whether individuals or groups would
rather be in conflict or alignment with such discourses.
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EdD Assignment 3 Josephine V Saliba

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Doctor of Education EdD Programme: ER2 Module 3 Processes of Educational

Discourse conflict or discourse alignment?

1. Introduction: a new world order

Evolving language and literacy studies, particularly New Literacy Studies

Traditional deficit models of education disregard equality of diversities and

This imbalance of power is displayed by how we mostly use Maltese to teach

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evidence 'an implicit curriculum that is conveyed to students through the

Globalisation dominates over small nation state development. Language is

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formed by other communities' reproduction of identity, creating perceptions

2. Transformation through participation

Currently, the College is attempting to increase the student application and

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local employers, hence the effort to introduce local standardised

The College Mission Statement (online) is 'to provide universally accessible

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learning and teaching without directly or indirectly reaffirming those past

As Haller (2003) warns about how corporate culture pressures institutions to

subjectivities are a continually evolving framework that both

Participation is hence pivotal within classroom interaction. Communication

In classrooms, 'people define and defend their selves and subjectivities

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explores how CDA can contribute to such transformational teaching and

value education and uphold a view of themselves and of literacy

This essay thus explores issues of participation, discussing whether

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College's Foundation programmes evidence discourse conflict, contradiction

3. Language, power and social structure

Previous assignments have illustrated how the Maltese educational system is

These ideologies remain steadfastly ingrained in Maltese education and

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Nevertheless, modern technology is creating a new social order, possibly

while there is apparently more space than ever before for

Today's new social order creates corporate identities and narratives.

In reaction, critical literacy and CDA challenges ‘utilitarian vocational

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Ideology has moved on from sovereign power over individuals to disciplinary

Institutional practices which people draw upon without thinking

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Thompson (1984, 1990, in Janks, 2009:37) identifies five general modes of

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4. Critical Discourse Analysis: method, theory and practice

Analysing relationships within diverse Discourses is never easy and clearcut.

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CDA is different from other discourse analysis methods because it

National and government institutions continue to espouse positivist, reliable,

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Inversely, researchers who engage in CDA as a genuinely critical social

5. CDA and discursive practices in bilingual communities of practice

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show their competence and familiarity beyond the restrictions required by

Students often come to my learning support classes declaring they do not

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learning needs occurs collaboratively in both languages leading to eventual

This professional discussion further linked my perspectives on oral literacy

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linguistic competences were less positively couched than staff's professional

The drawbacks of verbal communication particularly emerged with staff's

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a wide range of social practices, including written documents

Eventual intertextual research of spoken and written texts through a

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