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This paper reports on the first phase of the ARC Linkage Project “Clearing the path towards literacy and numeracy: Language for learning in Indigenous Schooling”, conducted in partnership with the Queensland Department of Education and Training. The project focuses on classroom interaction in the early years of schooling in a remote Queensland Indigenous school. Through microanalysis of Prep and Year 1 classes, we aim to provide a rich and detailed description of the ways knowledge and knowledge transfer are managed by teachers and children. In this project we address the impact of the children’s home language and communication styles on their interactions with their SAE speaking teachers, and how communication is managed in the classroom, leading to success or failure of knowledge transfer as one of the foundation for successful learning and engagement.

Early schooling classrooms are typically busy and noisy environments with frequent change of activity. Interactional configurations also change frequently, from whole class activities (eg. the teacher reading to the whole class), to small group activities (eg. a maths rotation) to individual work. The study of classroom interaction faces a range of methodological challenges for data collection, data management, and transcription. In this paper we focus on some of these challenges, including the optimisation of recording in classrooms, and the ways we have developed systems for aligning and transcribing multiple audio and video recordings.