1. Introduction

The United States is in the midst of a dramatic demographic shift that may necessitate similarly striking changes in how education is conceived [1]. Although historically a nation of White, European ancestry that privileged English-language speakers, twenty-first century America abounds with unparalleled diversity. Fortytwo percent of the U.S. population, 142 million Americans, now self-identify as ethnicities other than White, non-Hispanic [2]. This compositional shift is due, in part, to international migration; nearly 14% of the current population was born outside the United States [3]. As of July 2014, nearly half (49.7%) of the nation's children under 18 years old are identified as other than White, non-Hispanic [4]. By the year 2030, it is predicted that international migration population growth in the United States will overtake that of the natural population consisting of more than 60% of the school-aged children identifying as other than White, non-Hispanic [4].

It is within this kaleidoscopic cultural context where we consider the ways in which teachers and students communicate. The students that schools must serve have changed markedly in terms of their world experiences, first languages, readiness for school, and range of learning needs. The teaching population, however, has not. While the actual number of teachers in the workforce has steadily increased over the past 10 years, the demographics of the teacher population have remained essentially homogeneous and unchanged. They are overwhelmingly White (82%), female (77%), monolingual English-speaking, and middle class [5]. Although teachers and administrators have acquired specialized knowledge of curriculum, assessment, pedagogy, data-driven decision-making, and learning theory, researchers note that they remain ill-equipped to address the manifest rift in understanding between school-home and teachers-students [6]. Today, educators have less in common than ever with the students, parents, and communities they serve, and more is at stake than perhaps ever before.

educational institutions, and how those perspectives can be leveraged to foster

Tourist or Traveler? Unpacking Informal Conversations between Teachers and Young Children…

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways teachers engage in informal conversations with young children who come from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, around the child's own photos of home. Specifically, conversations were interrogated to identify what impacts teacher-student interactions across differences. Using Gee's [1] discourse analysis, this study explored how the teachers built or lessened what the children viewed as significant, how they distributed their social goods—influence, power, or status—and how they created or positioned identities within the conversations. The findings inform the mission of enhancing teacher-student relationships and content relevance through providing new insights into how teachers and young children interact, connect, and

This study is framed by a sociocultural approach to teacher-student relationships

as understood through the writings of Vygotsky [19] and later neo-Vygotskian researchers such as Kozulin [20] and Wertsch [21]. Because social interactions within conversations, or dialog, are the primary point of investigation, Bakhtin's

The focal point in the sociocultural meta-narrative is that social interaction, embedded within social, cultural, and historical contexts and mediated by language and sign systems, is where shared activities are transformed into internalized processes and knowledge, or learning [19] For Vygotsky, semiotic mediation is the foundation for all manner of knowledge construction. Tools such as language, mathematics, diagrams, and works of art are products of the cultural, historical, and social contexts in which they exist. Language, according to Vygotsky, is central to learning as talking precipitates thinking [23]. Wertsch [21] added that these semiotic means comprise the tool kit that shapes individual cognitive development.

The diversity inherent in these tools, the contexts from which they arise, and the manner in which they are brought to bear on new settings is of particular consequence to educators working in diverse settings. The sociocultural approach hinges on the fundamental belief that internalization—that is to say learning—is a process of cognitive development rather than transmission. According to Vygotsky [19], students learn through making connections to new information using their tools

In addressing the needs of students from diverse backgrounds, researchers have identified an opportunity for dialog and interaction to span the distance between the cultural models (experiences gleaned from everyday life) and Discourses (the socially acceptable use of language) [1] of students and teachers [24–27]. According to Gee [1], "A Discourse is a socially accepted association among ways of using language and other symbolic expressions, of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, and acting" (p. 154). Language allows individuals to take on socially significant identities as they express who they are, what they are trying to do by saying it, and

[22] dialogism was chosen to further inform the research.

within social interactions with teachers and peers.

3.1 Discourses and social language

171

mutual understanding across differences.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80699

2. Purpose/objectives

change within their conversations.

3. Theoretical framework

## 1.1 Teacher-student relationships

In an attempt to address the causative conditions for the aforementioned rift, researchers have studied the effects and significance of the teacher-student relationship [7–13]. One genre of studies focuses on understanding communication and interactions between teachers and their students. Nearly 20 years ago, Howes et al. [10] found that positive teacher-student relationships promote engagement in learning tasks and assist students in coping with the demands of school. Research has repeatedly confirmed that a positive teacher-child relationship is fundamental to a child's healthy development and academic success [14]. Effective communication is a key component of positive teacher-student relationships—essential for young children's healthy development and academic success [8, 9]. Roorda et al. [12] inform this study's focus in its aim to understand teacher-student interaction and communication and improve the quality of relationships in the classroom.

#### 1.2 Teacher-student communication

Effective communication is a key component of productive relationships. Researchers have identified several areas in which communication between teachers and students can be compromised. First, misunderstanding between teachers and students is unsurprisingly widespread as teachers filter their interactions with students through the lens of their own culture values, beliefs, and practices [15, 16]. Miscommunication and misunderstanding is the result of differing cultural norms and reference points, linguistic norms, and norms of engagement with schools or what could be identified as what is valued or positioned as significant [17] Heath [15, 16] found that student cultural or subgroup norms may differ widely from institutional values of the school or personal values held by staff and faculty. Other families may hold active or passive views with respect to their participation in their child's education. Parents or caregivers may have a mistrust of authority and institutions or incomplete knowledge about how best to help their child [18]. Finally, incongruences may exist between school expectations and values and home realities [18]. The school or teacher may assume or expect a home to have a computer, Internet access, quiet time for and adult help with homework, and bedtime stories read by a parent. Those conditions may or may not exist. When schools fail to understand the students they serve, research notes that communication breakdown, disengagement, and school failure may result [18]. As such, researchers continue to call for research that explores discourses critical to enhancing relevance in the classroom: those of teachers, students, family, community, and Tourist or Traveler? Unpacking Informal Conversations between Teachers and Young Children… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80699

educational institutions, and how those perspectives can be leveraged to foster mutual understanding across differences.
