Positionings: Structures and the instances they model

This presentation is based on Ray McDermott's work, particularly on McDermott, Gospodinoff, and Aron (1978) and expands his figures 1, 2, and 3.

A further analysis is available in Chapter 8 of Successful failure: The School America builds by Varenne and McDermott (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998). It focuses particularly on a sub-sequences within the longer sequence originally studied by McDermott. Various transcripts and frame grabs from the sub-sequence are available from this page. The table also appears in the book as Figure 8.2 (p. 190)

The Formal Features Some instances
Positioning I: Reading the book
Positioning II: Getting a Turn to Read
Positioning IV: Waiting for the teacher