DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND THE STUDY OF CLASSROOM LANGUAGE AND
LITERACY EVENTS.David Bloome, Stephanie Power Carter, Beth
Morton Christian, Sheila Otto, and Nora Shuart-Faris. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum, 2005. Pp. v + 263. $34.50 paper.
The authors of this volume explore a microethnographic approach to the
study of classroom literacy events and provide useful models for analyzing
classroom discourse. The heart of the book centers upon close analysis of
transcripts of literacy events unfolding in various classrooms. These data
reveal three methodological “issues in research on classroom
literacy events: (a) classroom literacy events as cultural actions, (b)
the social construction of identity, and (c) power relations in and
through classroom literacy events” (p. xx). The final chapter
attempts to locate this microethnographic approach within new literacy
studies, “a broader intellectual movement concerned with
people's everyday lives” (p. xxii). Readers will find useful
models for how researchers might go about doing the kinds of analysis that
lead to connections between local classrooms and larger social and
cultural contexts.