Teachers’ representations of school indiscipline

Abstract

In this article we analyze a set of teachers’ representations of school indiscipline and its implications for pedagogical practices, particularly related to the resolution of problems in the classroom. Initially we explore three teachers’ representations on the genesis of school indiscipline. The first representation attributes prominence to the student as the singular subject in the production of indiscipline and who will be the center of the pedagogical intervention. The second representation attributes the genesis of the indiscipline to the context of the relations among the subjects in the classroom. The third representation suggests that the indiscipline would be something socially constructed in the schools, where it is intrinsically related to its nature and social function, and is an intrinsic part of its institutional culture. This third representation is distant of the previous ones, and provides an understanding of the indiscipline as a cultural message. In the second part of this article we analyze a set of implications of the teachers’ representations in relation to their pedagogical practices. At the ending of the text, we present some notes that put in evidence some issues that seems to be at the center in the study of the representations regarding to school indiscipline, in relation to the roles teachers are supposed to taken in contexts of indiscipline.