A critical discourse analysis on power relationships in the classroom: the case of the school that turned Chinese.

Abstract

Our education system helps to build identities among teenagers. As is known to all, the Chinese education system is totally different from a western system. With the task of exploring which is the better teaching method, a documentary named The School That Turned Chinese was carried out. The documentary presents differences in many aspects, especially in classroom activities. In education research, teachers and students are in a relationship of power, as Benesch (1999) claimed that in class, even the class arrangements are signs of power. In the class, the language used by teachers and students may subvert, challenge, or distribute power. To examine that process, it’s important to do text analysis. To this end, this study adopts Critical Discourse Analysis that involves the uncovering of covert forms of power and domination that underlie discourse (Fairclough, 1989: 55). This makes it a process of uncovering issues of asymmetrical power relations…which are largely hidden in texts and require procedures of “unveiling or demystification” (Fairclough, 1989: 141), with ‘critical’ being concerned with making visible the interconnectedness between language, power and ideology (Fairclough, 1989: 5). To this end, CDA examines how people obtain and maintain power in society through language (Wodak, 2001). In the light of CDA, this paper utilized descriptive qualitative method to deal with samples----which are teachers’ and students’ utterance chosen from segments of the documentary. Verbal elements, participants and circumstances are instruments for analysing. Besides, context and discursive practice are also taken into consideration. To conclude, this research looks deeply into how power relationship is built and challenged by teachers and students through language.