A socratic dialogue in the classroom

To create a good debate climate in the classroom the following elements are important to be aware about. The following is a translation of criterias for a “socratic dialogue” which aims at making a good debate climate that is made by Dorete Kallesøe [i].

Dialogical teaching: The children are supposed to think for themselves and formulate their own opinions. Preferably it is supposed to happen between the pupils and not between the teacher and the pupil. The teachers role is to ask “open questions” that have more than one answer and not necessarily a right answer which enables dialogue. It is important that the appreciate the pupils contribution.

 

The teacher as leader of the conversation: The teacher is supposed to be in the background and (only) structure the dialogue. This enables the pupils to argument with each other. Preferably the teacher has the role of summarizing arguments and being “the devils advocate” that asks questions that force the pupils to give nuances if they agree to fast.

Active listening: The pupils are supposed to learn to listen to each other. Without a willingness to hear others opinion it is not possible to talk to each other in a sensible way. A way to train this is by letting the pupils repeat opinions of others.

Analysing concepts: It is important that everyone discuss the same subject. The teacher has a role of explaining definitions of concepts that are the core of the dialogue (what is culture for example). It is also possible to include different opinions on the concept in play and even let the pupils argument for the opinions that they may not share

The importance of argumentation: The children has to learn that they have to argument about their opinions. (“if you don’t know why you have an opinion, you may not know at all if you actually have it”). The teacher should urge the pupils to challenge each others opinions by asking why the pupils has that particular opinion (for example “what are the consequences of that opinion?” or “why do you think that?”). It is something that have to be trained and small children will not be as good at argumenting as older children.

Pluralism in the classroom: It is important that everyone listens to each other and respect opinions of others as long as long as there is good reasoning for the argument.

Now we now that, let´s say an example in which a teacher shows her pupils how to maintain a Socratic dialogue:

Maria has organized her class sitting their pupils forming a circle, so they can see each other. Then, she points a mediator (who has to write who raises his/her hand first and says who can talk next according to that). After this, she asks them to discuss about the way we greet people in the different cultures. To do it she sets out the next problematic situation:

John, who is a Japanese guy and also has a Japanese background, has a new girlfriend, whose name is Laura. She is Spanish and has a Spanish background as well. When John introduces Laura to his parents, the first thing she does is kissing them in both cheeks. Suddenly, they take a step backwards looking shocked.

Once she has said the conflict, she starts the dialogue by asking this question:

·       

•    Why did John parents act like that?

When the pupils finally say the correct answer, she continues guiding the dialogue asking other questions like theses ones:

• ·         Who do you think is the right way of greeting, the Spanish or the Japanese´s ones? Why?
• ·         Do you think it is important to know something about the other´s culture when we are introduced to someone new? Why?

While the discussion is taking place Maria lets them know that no comments are validated if they do not wait until their classmates have finished to talk, either if they do not argue them. Apart from this, after the dialogue Maria asks her students to write a summary about the conclusions they have arranged.

In order to answer Thomas´ question, if we use Iben Jensen´s “Analytical Model” to analyze this situation, we could say that Laura´s Cultural Pre-Understanding about John parents was incorrect. According to Jense´s description, “Cultural Pre-Understanding is the general knowledge, the experiences, emotions and approaches we have towards a group of people with whom we do not share cultural community”[1]. So probably, when Laura met her boyfriend she greeted him the same as she did with John´s parents, but he did not acted the same.  Consequently, unconsciously she created her own Pre-Understanding, which consisted of thinking that Japanese people greet the same as the Spanish ones. Moreover, John parents also had an incorrect Pre-Understanding about Spanish way of greeting and did not expect receiving two kisses instead of an inclination of the head.

Apart from this, not only the members of this conversation have Pre-Understandings but they also have Cultural Self-Understandings. Jensen says that, these both are inter-dependent, as “when constructing “the other”, people  automatically produce a narrative about themselves- particularly how they are not”. Cultural self-understanding is therefore almost always idealized. Society is not depicted as it is but as it “ought to be” (Jensen, 2007).

In case we want to use Cultural Pre-Understanding and also Cultural Self-Understanding as Analytical Tools with our pupils we can do the following activity, based on what Jensen says in his book “Introduction to cultural understanding”:

Exercise: Imagine that after the greeting, Laura and John´s parents have this conversation:

J.P: How can you dare to greet us like this?

L: Here, in Spain, we always greet kissing people in both cheeks. I thought that everybody in the world does the same.

J.P: Please do not do it again as we, the Japanese people, consider your way of greeting as disrespectful and unhygienic.

L: Sure, I am so sorry I did not know anything about it. Every Japanese people I know greet me the same as I do, even your son. Maybe it is due to the fact that they have a lot of Spanish friends and are used to it.

J.P: That is ok, we arrived from Japan yesterday and nobody had tried to greet us like this before. We did not know anything about it and thought that you also greet people the same as we do. Because from our point of view, inclining our head is the best way for greeting people.

Now that you know more about what happened with John´s parents. Can you answer these questions?

In relation with the Cultural Pre-Understanding Analytical Tool:

1.      How are “the Others” depicted? Where in the conversation do you find descriptions of groups? Are positive or negative terms used to depict “the others”? 

  

2.      What is the status of “Normal We” values when “they” are depicted? Is something characterized as evidently correct? Are particular values expressed?

 

 

In relation with the Cultural Self-Understanding Analytical Tool:

1.           Who belongs to a “we”? Who certainly does not? Is this a national “we”? 
2.     Is the individual´s own cultural community idealized?

---

[1] Jensen, Iben (2007): Introduction to cultural understanding. Roskilde University Press, pp. 103-117

---

[i] From: Bækgaard, Birgitte H. et al (2011): Livsideer, ViaSystime, p. 38-39

"El Lazarillo de Tormes" a folk Spanish novel

"El Lazarillo de Tormes" is a folk Spanish novel written by an anonimous Spanish writer.  It talks about the life of a child, Lázaro Tormes, who lived in the sixteenth century. The novel relates his life from his birth and miserable life until his marriage. "Lazarillo de Tormes" is an ironic and ruthless sketch of the society in that period of time. It also shows the hipocresy of the cleric and religious people.

Lazarus was born in Salamanca, right next to the river Tormes. Was very poor and since childhood had to fend for himself, since he lost his father and her mother. He did not live in a happy world, but he was smart and witty, and he managed to get by. Lazarus had to serve a number of masters who had to cheat in order to survive, what happened much hunger and hardship. "
 

The first version of the book was written for adults, however, there are many things in it that may appeal to children, because a child is the protagonist. That is why each author will speak to him, but always simple terms so you can understand everything easily. So you can teach it to children for ages 9 to 12.

Here you can find both, the Spanish and the English version of the book:

• http://www.elhuevodechocolate.com/cuentos/lazaro.htm (Spanish version adapted to children)

• http://www.lazarillodetormes.com/ingles.htm (English version)

While reading this book with our pupils we can teach them about the Spain of the 16^th century. For instance, we can ask them to answer this questions:

1.   This book reveals that because of the Inquisition many servants were forced to die with their masters on the battlefield (as Lazarillo's father did), thousands of refugees wandering from town to town, poor beggars flogged away by whips because of the lack of food. This is the reason why this book was forbidden by this strict organization until the 19^th century.

However, nowadays in Spain people are allowed to say whatever they want and also to write a book against the church. Do you agree with this? Why?

2.     Lázaro is a boy of humble origins from Salamanca. Do you know any typical monument from Salamanca?

3.     “El Lazarillo de Tormes” is an important novel for Spanish literature of the Golden Age. Do you know why Spanish people call this age like that?

With this question they would find out that the Spanish Golden Age (Spanish: Siglo de Oro, Golden Century) is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain.

4.      Lázaro had to work since he was a child in order to be able to survive. Do you think it is fair that a child work?

With this question we can develop the sense of critical in our pupils. Moreover, it is a way to encourage them to empathize with the character.

Notice that these questions can be adapted to children age. The most adult they are the more they can get into the topic of the questions.

In order to answer your question, Thomas, I have taken a look to the text you suggested me and I think that we could do the next activity:

First of all, we ask our pupils to find a folktale or a novel belonged to their own culture ( for instance they could use "El lazarillo de Tormes". Then, once they have brought them to the class, we choose three from different cultures. After that, we divide the class in three groups and ask each one do the following exercises based on their own novel or folktale:

1.   Could this story be happening in your culture? Why (not)? Support your opinion with examples (similar or different attitude, value systems, festivals and celebrations, rituals, history etc).
2.   Select a passage that you find particularly interesting. Rewrite it as if it were happening in your culture.
3.   Choose a passage from the novel and illustrate it. Compare the illustrations as far as the cultural details are concerned (landmarks, clothes, position of the characters etc)[1].

The purpose of this activity is achieving the intercultural competence in our pupils. It can happen both things that they have to investigate their own culture or a different one. In both cases they will learn about culture. Once the activity is finished, they will talk about what they have done and learnt in front of the class.

---

1 file://D:/html-for-web/en/methods-materials-12.htm