Abstract:
In this paper we employ Bakhtin's concept of voice to examine the notions of authorship, authority and identity as these are played out in the context of collaborative talk in the classroom. We examine a number of episodes of student talk that were collected in a primary classroom that has (as its goal) a culture based on collaboration, collective construction of knowledge, and explicit negotiation of classroom norms and practices. We apply analytical tools (derived from Bakhtin) to show how students adopt different speaking voices that subtly reveal their shifting identities as speaker and the changing basis of authority in their statements.