ABSTRACT
The trends of globalization and multi-culturalism emphasize that in such collaborative settings we might encounter voices different from and even contradictory to our own. Much work has been invested in better understanding and theorizing learning in collaborative contexts. Relying on M. Bakhtin’s dialogical stance, we propose the notion of Internally Persuasive Discourse (IPD) to describe an additional conceptualization of successful collaborative learning. The convergence metaphor might not align well with the educational goal of nurturing 21st-century skills, such as life-long learning skills and dispositions. IPD highlights that fruitful collaboration can be asymmetric in terms of the learning processes and outcomes. IPD is an especially suitable framework in our increasing era of multi-culturalism. The notion of IPD highlights the quality of collaboration as manifested in the dialogic agency developed by the discussants, regardless of whether the similarity between the discussants’ knowledge increased.
