HHCP Conference 2023: Dialogue as a Social Practice – Fiona Maine

Fiona Maine, Professor of Language and Literacy in Education at the University of Exeter, UK. Much has been written about talk for learning and the important role that language plays as a tool for thinking. Dialogue is more than just talk, however. It is about learning to listen to other ideas, to consider and critique them and to build mutual understanding. Sometimes it is about disagreeing or accepting that there are many differing perspectives about an issue. Classrooms where authentic dialogue is valued involve teachers and children working actively to include each other, to tolerate the ambiguity of not having definite ‘answers’, and to empathise with other positions. In these classrooms, emphasis is not only on the presentation of ideas but on ‘thinking in action’, the process of collaborating and creating new thinking together. As such, dialogue can be seen as a social practice, following the seminal work of Brian Street who emphasised the fluid and culturally-bound nature of