ABSTRACT
There is an emergent field of educational research that views classrooms and other learning situations as cultures, and teaching/learning processes as being social/communicative in nature (for example, Bloome, 1989; Cochran, 1991; Corsaro, 1985; Santa Barbara Classroom Discourse Group 1993; Weade, 1987). Collins and Green (1992) expressed the essence of this viewpoint:
As the members of this group (a culture) engage each other in the everyday events of classroom life, they develop common knowledge (Edwards & Mercer, 1987) and patterned ways of living together (Green, 1983). The patterns that are constructed include ways of (1) perceiving the actions, objects and social practices of others in the group; (2) acting and interacting with others across time and events of everyday life in this classroom; (3) interpreting the actions of members of the class and artifacts of the group; and (4) evaluating what is accomplished within and across the everyday events of classroom life of the group, (p. 6)
