En-gendering democracy: a study of online academic discourse

In this article, gendered communication in computer-mediated conferences used as part of two education classes at a small liberal arts college is discussed. The authors maintain that attempts to create democratic classrooms are undermined by the conventional gender-marked dynamics of face-to-face dialogue, but that these dynamics show potential for being transformed in some positive ways when the dialogues move to a virtual space. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of Bourdieu and postmodern feminisms, critical discourse analysis is used to examine two extended online conversations in which issues and performances of gender were central. It was observed that sometimes in their online interactions students replicated familiar patterns of face-to-face gender interaction, but at other times they engaged in markedly different kinds of communication in which conventional patterns were disrupted. The authors conclude by seeking to understand the relationships between those aspects of the observed conversations that reproduced conventional gender dynamics and positions, and those that appeared more transformative and liberatory