A case study of emergent leadership in whole-class discussion of controversial issues

Teachers are increasingly called on to employ dialogic practices to promote active and equitable student participation in academically challenging classroom discourse. However, vocal students who dominate whole-class discussions might threaten or even overthrow the ideal of equitable participation. Situated in a fourth-grade Chinese elementary classroom participating in an intervention seeking to implement dialogic teaching of controversial issues in Morality and Law, the current study examined the discursive patterns of an emergent student leader to reveal her attempts and struggles to actively take part in discussions, the teacher's management of her dominant participation, and the scaffolding she provided for her less capable peers. We suggest that future professional development on dialogic teaching should better prepare teachers to effectively manage discrepancy in students' oral participation, focusing on both vocal and silent students. We also call for more research to investigate the possibilities and strategies for students and teachers to share or co-manage leadership in dialogic teaching.