Doing indiscipline in narrative performances

Abstract

The present paper concentrates on the narrative management of the teacher-student relationship. Focusing on students’ identities, the present study draws upon the social constructionism paradigm, thus considering identities as social constructs via discourse. The analysis of representative narrative extracts shows how students construct themselves as powerful enough to challenge teachers’ authority which is expressed in the Initiation–Response–Feedback structure. Their resistance is indicative of their will to free themselves from their teachers’ expectations, even if this can only take place during their conversations with their peers. In this context, narratives allow them to achieve interactional goals which may not always be fulfilled in class.