Dialogic or dialectic? The significance of ontological assumptions in research on educational dialogue Rupert Wegerif * University of Exeter, UK (Submitted 3 November 2005; conditionally accepted 10 March 2006; accepted 16 March 2006) This article explores the relationship between ontological assumptions and studies of educational dialogue through a focus on Bakhtin’s ‘dialogic’. The term dialogic is frequently appropriated to a modernist framework of assumptions, in particular the neo-Vygotskian or sociocultural tradition. However, Vygotsky’s theory of education is dialectic, not dialogic. From a dialogic perspective the difference between voices in dialogue is constitutive of meaning in such a way that it makes no sense to imagine ‘overcoming’ this difference. By contrast, due to the implicit assumption that meaning is ultimately grounded on identity rather than upon difference, the dialectic perspective applied by Vygotsky interprets differences as ‘contradictions’ that need to be overcome or transcended. A case study of research on exploratory talk is used to illustrate the potential for a fruitful relationship between ‘high level’ theory and research that is relevant to classroom practice. Introduction The relationship between philosophical frameworks and educational practice has been a topic of debate within the British Educational Research Journal (e.g. Edwards, 2001; Torrance et al., 2005). According to Hodkinson (2004), discussion of the role of theory is particularly urgent now because of attempts to close down the variety of perspectives which inform educational research in favour of a single empiricist orthodoxy. In this article I contribute to this debate by exploring one way in which ontological assumptions enter into research on educational dialogue. Ontology, enquiry into the ultimate nature of being, or ‘what there really is’, might appear to some to be a metaphysical concern of little relevance to education. However, I argue that a failure to question ontological assumptions has led to a widespread misunderstanding of the nature of dialogic and that adopting an ontological *School of Education and Lifelong Studies, University of Exeter, St Lukes College, Heavitree Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 2LU, UK. Email: r.b.wegerif@exeter.ac.uk British Educational Research Journal Vol. 34, No. 3, June 2008, pp. 347–361 ISSN 0141-1926 (print)/ISSN 1469-3518 (online)/08/030347-15 # 2008 British Educational Research Association DOI: 10.1080/01411920701532228