Dilemmatic conversations: Some challenges of culturally responsive discourse in a high school English classroom

This paper reports findings derived from a qualitative research study focused on seven English teachers at a hyperdiverse high school as they learned to analyze their classroom talk for moments of conflict. Using methods derived from interactional ethnography and systemic functional linguistics, the author analyzes the ways that one teacher uses a “heroic White teacher” text, LouAnne Johnson's autobiographical novel Dangerous Minds, to talk about the societal significance of “the n-word” with her students, attempting to navigating ideological dilemmas of race and difference in her discourse. The study ends by calling for further description, analysis, and careful consideration of the culturally responsive discourse and interaction of teachers from all backgrounds, which can be useful for helping researchers, teacher educators, and policymakers understand how identities and social subjectivities are negotiated in and through talk and action.