Interview with Derek Edwards: some comments on psychology, language and education

Abstract

Derek Edwards, professor at the University of Loughborough (United Kingdom), is a prominent psychologist, especially known for his research on language development, memory, and classroom communication. He has been well known in educational circles since the 1988 publication of the translation of his book Common knowledge: The development of understanidng in the classroom (Edwards and Mercer, 1987). We took advantage of his visit, on the occasion of the VII Study Conference on School Research, held in Seville in March 1990, during which he presented the paper entitled The role of the teacher in the social construction of knowledge (Edwards, 1990), to conduct this interview, in which he discusses his scientific career, current projects, ideas on theory and method in psychology, and findings from his research on classroom conversation, memory, and the reconstruction of reality in discourse.

Beyond a mere presentation of biographical or scientific data, this interview aims to provide insight into his overall perspective on psychology and psychological research, and into his work as a discourse analyst through his own discourse. To lighten the substantial transcription of almost three hours, we have simplified the text by removing the interviewers’ interventions and the usual comments and repetitions present in any informal conversation, while fully respecting the interviewee’s contributions.