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Transcripts
Context: Group discussion of a proficient, initiative-taking, rebellious young learner, and more generally, learners venturing beyond class rules (e.g. using phones in class despite a no-phone school rule)
Legend: TE & PST1, 2, 3...
Transcript 1
Course discussion 1
TE: Again, I see it as an act of being creative, you know… pushing the limits of the system. I
suppose all of us, citizens, should be doing that all the time. We do that, I suppose, with
regard to the government – we try to keep them in check… because we want the system to
function better, right? I do believe that if a system is strong, [it] can do with any kind of
challenge, so it’s our responsibility as citizens to continue to challenge the systems… to help
them improve. So, if there’s a system in place, I would always welcome people who
challenge it.
PST1: If you pressure something too much, you’ll break it. […] There’s a difference between
non-conformism and creativity. Those two things are not synonymous.
TE: They don’t have to be.
PST1: Just in this context… this is more non-conformism to me.
TE: Yeah, but again… what can you [possibly] do to this system… There is this no-phone
policy, OK? A student is challenging it. Can it crush the policy? I don’t think it can do anything
to the policy, but it’s a statement. It questions the […] system. […]
PST1 [scoffing]: Does education need this kind of challenge?
TE: Of course! It’s a sign of life: you’re not a robot, doing whatever the system tells you. You
question the system, you push the limits, you say that you don’t agree with the system.
PST4: It’s a sign that students are bored!
TE: And it should be possible [to push the limits in the classroom].
PST1: What do we [teachers] do with it [such contributions]?
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Transcript 2
Course discussion 2
TE: If you care about the system enough, then you’d genuinely welcome criticism so as to
improve it, wouldn’t you?
PST2: Yeah, of course!
TE: Imagine you have a [commercial] company. You know your company is not perfect,
you want to improve it, you welcome all kinds of feedback, including feedback by doing…
by people pushing their limits. […] That’s wonderfully constructive, isn’t it?
PST2: It depends on what the criticism is like. [Silence] If a person tells me and gives good
argumentation about why the system is wrong, that’s really good. That’s good criticism.
But if a person talks on their phone in the class, I don’t think that’s good criticism.
TE: Why not?
PST2: What kind of criticism is that? [Unclear]
TE: That’s a message. That they might have different needs, they might need something else.
Isn’t that a reason enough for you to dig deeper to find out what the issue is? They might
have had a family emergency – you don’t know! We don’t know the background to their
behaviour.
PST3: Then, you go out of the door [to take/make the phone call].
[Overlapping voices of multiple students]
TE: Not if you’re upset, [Student’s name]. Not if you have this mad emergency… no, you don’t.
Sometimes, in exceptional circumstances, we behave in weird ways. And that’s fine. We can’t
know everyone’s background to be able to judge.
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