A good student subject

A Foucauldian discourse analysis of an adolescent writer negotiating subject positions

Bibliographic Data

ID12905946
AuthorsChristopher Worthman (DePaul University, corresponding author), Beverly Troiano (Elmhurst College)
Year2016
Volume60
Issue2
Pages263-280
Publication date2016-10-24
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Studies in Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-8487 • E-ISSN: 1750-8495
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17508487.2016.1246372
OpenAlexW2537557977
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

In this article, we draw on the work of Michel Foucault to analyze one student’s subject development in an expository writing classroom. James, the participant, was embarking on the project of becoming a good student, as he understood it, after struggling and leaving school previously. Drawing on interviews, classroom observations and written artifacts, we use Foucauldian concepts and discourse analysis, along with one James Gee’s discourse analysis tools – the identities building tool – to conduct a microanalysis of James’s efforts to objectify himself as a good student subject. The data show how James acquiesced to the truths and practices of the regime of school, including how he mobilized truths of the regime through a process we call masked confession. That is, he negotiated his good student subject position by masking or silencing other subject positions. James’s masked confession was his way of negotiating the realm of ‘multiple truths,’ or multiple subject positions

Discourse analysis · Linguistics · Negotiation · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Literacy, Media, and Education · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy

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