All Together Now: Using Conversational Analysis and Muted Group Theory to Understand Gendered Classroom Discourse in a Cameroonian Primary Classroom

Using Conversational Analysis (Jefferson, 2004) and Ardener’s (2005) Muted Group Theory, this paper explores classroom data from an African classroom through the sociolinguistic lens of ‘gendered linguistic space’. Emphasis here is on one small village primary school in the rural area surrounding the city of Bamenda, North West, Cameroon and the embodiment of learning displayed by both boys and girls in this learning situation. Reflecting on an African classroom opens up necessary possibilities of understanding what occurs in classroom lessons around the world and ever-new ways of understanding how classroom talk impacts the learning environment in various cultural contexts. In particular, the use of choral responses heavily used in African education challenges current pedagogical ideas concerning classroom talk by offering a less gendered space to engage with learning.