Discussion in Practice: theorising structure and subjectivity in teaching and learning

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Abstract
A theory of discussion, as suggested by Stenhouse's genuine failure in this area, depends on an account of language which adequately embodies the relation of structure and subjectivity. This paper argues that describing the classroom as a language order opens up the nature of personhood and knowing as structural phenomena and that discussion focuses basic issues of domination, control and order. Emphasis on the social nature of language, which the work of Merleau‐Ponty achieves, demands transformations in assumptions about learning, power relations, and knowledge in the school context. Without changes in these areas, the practical implications of which are discussed, ‘oral’ work will be reduced to the level of skills of ‘talk’. Discussion, it is argued, can become the basis for the intellectual and moral emancipation that are heralded when language comes into play.