Norm-transgression sequences in the classroom interaction at a Madrid high school

This paper studies high school classroom sequences, compiled through critical sociolinguistic ethnography, where norm-transgression is made explicit, and how authority is recovered by the teacher after an open period where class participants generally seize to digress. This way, we will be able to approach several dimensions of linguistic practices: First, the treatment given to the transgression in the classroom by the participants: how norms are generated, by whom, and in order to do what (norms here construct the frame within which evaluation arise). Second, how the fact of assessing a norm-transgression activates categories about students behaviours. And third, how these categorisation processes play an important role in the socio-academic lives of students, mainly of those constructed as transgressors along the sequence. These students are categorised as conflictive students, sometimes accepting and playing the role of the class clown and achieving all but academic or institutional success. The incidence and treatment of diversity in the classroom is crucial and will be also discussed.