Contested spaces: Power and authority in an introductory undergraduate course

Introductory undergraduate courses are meant to induct learners into a field of study and prepare them for advanced courses. This requires a delicate balance between presenting learners with canonical interpretations, and giving learners opportunities to engage in their own interpretive work (Tabak and Baumgartner, 2004). An emphasis on presenting the canon of the field can result in monologic instruction, where learners are expected to strictly assimilate knowledge (Gutierrez, Rymes, and Larson, 1995). In contrast, an emphasis on student self-expression can result in a cacophony of individual student voices, that do not engage with each other nor with the intellectual capital of the field (Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark, 2006). In both cases, learners are likely to emerge from these educational experiences untransformed intellectually.