This research investigates various purposes of teacher discourse moves essential to orchestrate dialogic discourse in secondary science classrooms. Data collected includes classroom observations and teacher interviews of two teachers teaching in an Indian school setting, whose classroom practices subscribed to a dialogic framework. A discursive move framework was developed, using a grounded, interpretative approach, to analyse teacher moves and their purposes at the utterance level. Iterative examination of the data led to the emergence of overarching goals being pursued for dialogic organisation of talk. These goals are conceptualised as three components of a schema characterising dialogic discourse in science classrooms: Foundation (F) aimed at developing a culture of discourse; Initiation (I) moves working towards sparking students’ multiple perspectives; and Perpetuation (P) moves, which engage …