The fluctuation of power relations among high school students

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study is to show the findings of a Feminist Post Structuralist Discourse Analysis study (Baxter, 2003) conducted in an EFL class. The main goal of this research was to reveal how the phenomena of power relations are inherent to students’ discourses and therefore to unveil ways in which students struggle over power while working on task based activities (Willis, 1996). To understand these tussles, the concepts of Power (Foucault, 1982, Sadan 1997) and Discourse, (Bloemaert, 2005) are explored and situated in context. The investigation was developed in a school in Bogota, Colombia; the participants in this study were twenty tenth grade students with a beginner level of English. The qualitative data was collected through video recordings (Dufon M., 2002) while students discussed and planned the assigned tasks (their interactions in Spanish were recorded), and sociograms (Hubbard and Miller, 1999) that were used to obtain information about students’ social relations. After analyzing students’ speech through the scope of the Feminist Post Structuralist Discourse Analysis, findings reveal that power among students is given in terms of control of interaction (Barnes, 2005), students assuming a teacher-like discourse (Castañeda, 2008), opposition and alliances (Goodwin, 2002), and silence as submission to power. (Leander 2002). These findings allow teacher-researchers to reflect about the effect of power relations in class and hence how to use them in a positive way.