| This qualitative dissertation of peer tutoring in several situations at the University of Utah builds upon previous conceptualizations of peer tutoring in order to reconceptualize the tutoring process from a perspective that emphasizes communication and interaction. The introduction of peer tutors into a classroom opens up a rift in the curtain of "this is how it's done." It then becomes possible to have students and instructors become reflective about how they see themselves and others in the classroom. It especially allows peer tutors to struggle with an understanding of where they stand in relation to the other students and the instructor.; Although each classroom group has its own personality and unique interactive pattern, there may be some predictable effects on classroom dynamics. This dissertation is an analysis of the effects of inserting the new subject position and role of peer tutors on everyone involved in the classroom.; This study provides a variety of implications for future research and reconceptualization of the peer tutoring process. First, peer tutoring is a social process which does not occur in a vacuum. All actors, including tutors, instructors, and students, need to have an understanding of how the peer tutoring role will be enacted in any particular situation.; Second, tutors came to understand their role and the enactment of that role as they talked amongst themselves, with instructional staff, and with students. Further, tutors, utilized impression management strategies to manage the perceptions of others as they performed their role. Finally, when relationships formed, risk, as well as obligation, occurred. Data from this study demonstrate that power and resistance take place in social space which serves as a base from which relationships can be formed.; This study highlights the fact the lines of obligations are continually laid down, and discursive patterns used, to establish the role of tutor. Ultimately, there are serious advantages to treating peer tutoring as a social process---and to doing this by using the social dynamics accessible in the classroom as part of the curriculum. |
