2.8 Moving from “Interesting Data” to a Publishable Research Article: Some Interpretive and Representational Dilemmas in a Linguistic Ethnographic Analysis of an English Literacy Lesson

Abstract

Adam Lefstein (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) I have fundamental concerns with the match of the data episode being presented with the theoretical constructs being explored, with the presentation of data collection and analysis methods, and with the contribution being offered in this draft of the article, and so I'm recommending rejection of the manuscript. However, because I value the theoretical concepts being explored in this article and because I was intrigued by the episode, I do feel some regret about rejecting. This quotation comes from one of the four reviews received on the first draft of an article submitted to (and later published in) Reading Research Quarterly 2 . The article was based on linguistic ethnographic analysis of a video-recorded literacy lesson in which an English Primary School teacher invoked the televised talent show X-factor 3 as a way of organizing the class to provide feedback on pupil writing. Like the reviewer, this lesson intrigued us. In particular, we were drawn to a seven minute segment in which patterns of classroom talk shifted in line with the (sometimes conflicting) demands of X-factor versus the