ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on classroom discourse, and reports what students have to say about changes to classroom conversations. The importance of the discursive spaces of the classroom has been long recognized, especially when considered from an equity perspective. Interview and observational data indicated that many students like this openly recognized the impact a ‘learnful’ class had on their classroom behaviour, and gave them opportunities to move past oppositional stances to more beneficial educational responses. High levels of decontextualized classroom work have consistently been highlighted in the research literature surrounding schooling for students who live in poverty. The learning community described by the students in interviews appeared to engender very positive feelings about going to school. The interview data powerfully present what quite understandably might appear to be a straightforward aspect of classroom life. The interview data are persuasive, and say much about the importance of classrooms that spend the majority of time on the practice and discourse of learning.
