Oracy for civic voice: Deconstructing practice through classroom vignettes

Abstract The importance of spoken language in education for curricular, pedagogical and societal purposes is well established and sometimes articulated as oracy education. This article draws on Shulman's work on learning from cases to explore critically the use of oracy to promote civic values and voice. Realising the ideals of deliberative dialogue in everyday practice in an equitable, context‐sensitive way is not straightforward. There is a role, therefore, for learning from the analysis of real classroom examples as a means of particularising theory and promoting pedagogical reasoning. The article argues for the potential of learning from cases in the form of vignettes of practice and presents two vignettes based on field notes from oracy‐based lessons in primary school classrooms in juxtaposition. The subsequent comparison and commentary illustrate how oracy education practices might be used to develop civic voice and show the importance of moving beyond standardised pedagogies. The common practices noted include developing authentic contexts for talk, valuing a range of linguistic registers, the creation of dialogic space and the teacher's willingness to cede centre stage. It is argued that the analysis of vignettes in this manner affords valuable opportunities for professional learning in the field of oracy and beyond.