Mehan (1997) Students’ interactional competence in the classroom

A short chapter by Mehan (1997) gives insight into the hidden curriculum. While his chapter takes school learning as its object of research, his argument is relevant to study at more advanced levels, and to workplace learning.

 

Mehan is interested in ‘the social organization of classroom instruction’ (p. 235). He argues that success in classrooms depends upon appropriate enculturation as much as it depends on formal, cognitive skills: ‘… the academic dimensions of classroom instruction are embedded in an interactional nexus. To be competent members of the classroom commuity, students must not only master academic subject matter; they must also learn the normative demands of classrooms’ (p. 237). Alongisde the formal instruction that takes place in classrooms, therefore, students also learn behavioural norms, inculcated through context: ‘… students must infer the appropriate way to engage in classroom interaction from contextually provided information. To be competent members of the classroom community, students must be able to interpret implicit classroom rules and provide the proper action on the right occasion’ (p. 237).

 

The classification of students, therefore, may focus on the students who have successfully absorbed the classroom norms, rather than focus on subject competence: ‘those students whom the teacher independently rates as “good students” are those who are able to keep their appropriate behaviour in the eyes of the teacher, and their inappropriate behaviour out of sight. The students who are not rated as “good students” have not made that distinction’ (p. 239).

 

Mehan also argues that the behaviour of participants in a classroom is not a one-way process; it is not simply the case that the presence and conduct of teachers shapes students’ responses. Instead, there is a two-way process: ‘During the course of classroom activities, teachers and students mutually influence one another, and thereby jointly contribute to the social organization of the classroom. Indeed, students are structured and modified by adults in the classroom. But equally importantly, students modify the behavior of adults just as much as they are socially structured and modified by them…’ (p. 239).

 

Mehan’s argument suggests that successful classroom learning is as much about the development of a successfully functioning classroom identity as it is about the acquisition of subject knowledge. In this sense Mehan’s argument aligns with the Community of Practice learning theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991).  

 

Lave, J. And Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge, Cambridge University press.

 

Mehan, H. (1997) ‘Students’ interactional competence in the classroom,’ in Cole, M., Engestrom, Y. and Vasquez, O., eds. (1997) Mind, Culture and Activity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 235-41.