The Janet Duffin Award is presented annually for the most outstanding contribution to the Research in Mathematics Education journal.
We are delighted to announce that the 2017 Janet Duffin Award goes to Susan Staats for her paper ‘The poetics of argumentation: the relevance of conversational repetition for two theories of emergent mathematical reasoning’, which appeared in RME Volume 19, Issue 3.
Dr. Susan Staats is based at the University of Minnesota, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Unfortunately Susan is unable to attend the BSRLM Summer Conference 2018 at which the Janet Duffin Award lecture is traditionally delivered by the winner. However, we hope she will be able to attend next year’s spring conference to receive the award.
Abstract
Poetic structures emerge in spoken language when speakers repeat grammatical phrases that were spoken before. They create the potential to amend or comment on previous speech, and to convey meaning through the structure of discourse. This paper considers the ways in which poetic structure analysis contributes to two perspectives on emergent mathematical reasoning: Toulmin’s model of argumentation and Martin, Towers, & Pirie’s theory of collaborative coactions in multi-speaker discourse. Poetic structures appear in varied argument types and at varied educational levels. They appear to facilitate speakers’ expression of warrants, backings, qualifications, and coactions.