The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge on teachers' experiences of developing dialogic discourse in their classrooms as part of a research-practice partnership project. Initiating dialogic classroom discourse has long been promoted by educational researchers for developing better learning and democratic qualities in education. However, earlier research has pointed at several obstacles in developing dialogic features in classroom discourse, which both seem to stem from resilient monologic school traditions and the top-down design of the research projects which has hindered teachers attaining ownership of their changing practice.
Thus, developing dialogic features in classroom discourse has been a joint enterprise of the researchers and the teachers involved to enable sustainable change within classroom practices. In this article, the teachers’ reflections on their experiences from the project are in focus. These reflections took place in ten meetings during three semesters (2021-2022) and were recorded and transcribed. Through a thematic analysis five major themes were discerned: dialogic participation, the teacher’s role, student positions, students and the literary texts, and instructional modifications. The first four themes cover possibilities and challenges that teachers experience during the project, while the fifth theme emerges from the other four themes. Furthermore, the analysis shows how the teachers gradually during the ten meetings take didactical ownership of the dialogic space, and thereby broaden their teaching repertoire, for through using their professional judgement when searching for new ways of igniting dialogue.