Annual General Assembly 2005 - Malmö

Section 3

Extracts from conversations representing a social constructionist application on research.

Jan HORCK
World Maritime University, Sweden

ABSTRACT

With practical examples from the author's conversations with an international student body the aim of this paper is to illustrate a qualitative analysis used in social construction of reality. Constructionists focus on the meaning humans create in our world; how we understand it. Sometimes it is of interest to understand people's world and the meanings they put into it. Constructionists have to take words seriously because words categorize the concept of meaning. The examples aim to give additional understanding of challenges faced by students' and teachers' studying and working in an ethnic mix. The analysis does not prove anything but merely problematises phenomena in multicultural classrooms and shows the need for inductive research strategies.

The choice of research strategy is very personal. A constructivist approach is valid as long as the chosen method/strategy can be explained and justified.

Keywords: social construction, conversation analyses, multiculturalism, classroom context, ethnicity, postmodernism, transcription and excerpt.

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