The Danish school reform: A methodological framework for the discursive study and development of participatory plurivocal practices

The paper presents a methodological framework for the study of the discursive emergence of the recent Danish School reform (2014). The framework will enable discourse scholars to hold an actively involved position in changing and furthering plurivocal processes of translations, negotiations and implementation of the reform. The framework is operationalized through research-based participatory collaborative processes involving local actors in two Danish public schools. It interlinks diverse discourse strategies and perceptive distances that traditionally belong to separate branches within discourse studies. As a point of departure we study the discourse formations that emerge in specific media texts applying a Foucauldian archive analytical strategy. Concurrently, we study processes of how political ideas and discourses are translated through plurivocal dialogue (Bakhtin) and translation processes (Latour), e.g. civil service and municipal practices and texts, into the organizational practices of two local schools. On the basis of these analyses, we will establish a participatory process in which local actors are involved in the co-creation of new plurivocal and egalitarian dialogue designs and practices. In relation to the field of organizational communication, we would argue that the methodological framework has potential to bridge the gulf that often exists between approaches studying local accomplishments of identity and action and approaches focusing on more abstract discourses. Moreover, the framework positions discourse researchers simultaneously as both distant analysts and as actively involved in change processes.