Dialogism: the relation of one utterance to other utterances as the context informing all writing¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 2 studies (1 qualitative, 1 theoretical), q1–q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Dialogism, sometimes translated as intertextuality, is Bakhtin's term for the relation of one utterance to other utterances. It is not dialogue in the usual sense but "the context which informs utterance," without which utterance cannot exist. Ewald uses dialogism to argue that composing is never the writer working alone but always interaction with the world, readers, and subjects, making all writing sociohistorical and collaborative.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Utterance must be understood as inseparable from its social and historical context

Constraints¶

• Dialogism is not dialogue in the usual sense of the word

Target Learners¶

• college composition students

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding writing as a social, collaborative act

Claims¶

• Dialogue underpins networked learning: thinking in networks means thinking through collaborative dialogue [+W]
• A collective unit of subjects emerges when two utterances form a dialogical pair in SCMD [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Dialogism: Bakhtin's dialogic reconceptualization of architectonics as a philosophy of interrelations mediated by language and texts
• Dialogism, intertextuality, and hypertextuality: the language-centered genealogy leading to connectivism
• The Kantian Effect: a metaphor and paradigm linking intertextuality and interdisciplinarity through four dialogic principles
• Architectonics: the philosophical tradition of building and relating meaning, knowledge, and experience
• Kantian architectonics: a theory of the systematic, constructivist organization of relations in cognition and higher education

Examples¶

• Use brainstorming questions that probe a subject's social life and prior discursive handling
• Embrace pedagogical strategies that emphasize openness rather than closure and posit change as the norm

Key Sources¶

• Ewald, Helen Rothschild. (1990). Mikhail Bakhtin and "Expressive Discourse." Paper presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED318031