ABSTRACT
This chapter probes the power of teachers in classrooms, with reference to their daily interactions with pupils. It considers what is omitted from current literacy policy in the form of the National Literacy Strategy. The chapter suggests that the notion of culture or the ways in which children appropriate literacy within socio-cultural contexts is insufficiently recognised in the current policy. Studies of classroom interaction illustrate the ways in which teachers and pupils co-construct positions for themselves and each other and show how the type of interaction that is facilitated can empower or depower pupils. Classroom language or pedagogical discourse, therefore, shapes learning opportunities for learners. Discourse positions participants as they engage moment-by-moment with others. A teacher who manages to be highly authoritarian and authoritative cannot be so unless pupils are highly compliant, obedient and passive. The chapter concludes with a discussion on issues around the necessary shift from a monologic to a dialogic classroom.
