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Masking directions: teacher instructions and COVID-19 protocols

  • Robert Jean LeBlanc

    Robert Jean LeBlanc (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Associate Professor and Board of Governors Research Chair in Literacy Studies (Tier II) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, and Coyle Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Literacy Education.

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Published/Copyright: September 7, 2023

Abstract

The arrival of COVID-19 disrupted the everyday life of the classroom. This interactional sociolinguistic research explores a teacher providing directions to students about COVID-19 safety protocols, delivered on the first three days of the students’ return to the classroom in August 2020 after a multi-month hiatus. Using audio-data collected over multiple hours as part of an ongoing long-term study of classroom interaction in a rural Canadian high school, it examines teacher strategies for delivering directives regarding COVID-19 safety policy, with particular attention to linguistic forms aimed at student compliance during the fraught early days of return. The findings outline strategies of delivering unambiguous directives regarding relatively mundane procedures, as well as strategies of avoidance—indirections—which were framed as negotiation and revoicing. This study explores the tenuous balance of risk and the everyday in the classroom, where the teacher attempts to reset the interactional order in light of new restrictions, new requirements, and new threats.


Corresponding author: Robert Jean LeBlanc, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Dr W, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada, E-mail:

About the author

Robert Jean LeBlanc

Robert Jean LeBlanc (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Associate Professor and Board of Governors Research Chair in Literacy Studies (Tier II) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, and Coyle Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Literacy Education.

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Received: 2022-07-08
Accepted: 2023-08-21
Published Online: 2023-09-07
Published in Print: 2024-11-26

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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