The Skillful Teacher

Preparing Students for Discussion
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T
HE
S
KILLFUL
T
EACHER
claiming that learning to participate in discussion was integral to
the maintenance of democracy and, hence, to world peace.
When I read the words of Habermas and Lindeman, and then I
look at the discussions that occur in my own courses, the chasm
between their rhetorically uplifting vision and the reality of my own
classroom sometimes seems unbridgeable. Many times I have been
in nominal charge of classrooms where the students in my discus-
sions appeared distracted, bored, even actively hostile. In such class-
rooms uncomfortable silence was far more common than engaged
conversation. My brilliantly framed, teasingly provocative questions
were usually met with a complete lack of response. When this hap-
pened I would usually panic (after carefully and silently counting
off my wait time of fifteen or twenty seconds, which seemed like an
eternity) and then answer questions myself by producing a series of
elegant disquisitions on the topic of the day. In situations like these
the students quickly learned they needn’t bother actually answer-
ing my questions since I did such a good job of it myself!
This dark side of discussion is laid out in Michel Foucault’s
analysis of the microdynamics of power. Foucault (1980) argues that
in modern society people learn to internalize norms (including
norms governing discussion participation) that serve to keep exist-
ing structures intact. In higher education the norm of good discus-
sion equates participation with extraversion and intelligence with
an articulate command of academic jargon. It holds that discussion
is distinguished by garrulous and confident speakers who talk
cogently about ideas and concepts covered in lectures and assigned
reading, and who then testify as to how these illustrate central
themes of the content studied. If this norm is unchallenged by
teachers, it quickly establishes an unequal pecking order of contri-
butions in the group and creates a negative conversational dynamic.
Students who want a good grade will do their best to exemplify this
norm by taking up as much of the available airtime as they can.
They will monitor themselves, and others, to gauge how they are
doing in the discussion performance stakes, turning the conversation
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into a competitive intellectual game. In effect, they will exercise
what Foucault calls disciplinary power on themselves; that is, they
will watch themselves to make sure they are behaving in the way
they feel the discussion leader (the judge of what constitutes good