The analysis of the relation between social contexts and forms of intersubjectivity has to consider the fact that the actions of the subjects are a result of their social stand. This study aims at analyzing what meanings subjects give to their social stands when negotiating the signification of the enunciative position they assume. In order to do so, episodes of interaction between teachers and students were videotaped in a formal school context and a microetnographic method was used to analyze the data obtained. A clash between the teacher and the students' social stands was observed in the arena of the production of meaning. The processes of making such social stands meaningful were shown to be lying on historical and cultural contradictions that influence social relations between teaching and learning, among which is the dichotomy knowing/not knowing. The analyzed verbal exchanges are marked by tension, opposition, and resistance, revealing variations in the production of meaning from the teacher and students' social stand.
Social stand; Formal education; Language; Enunciation; Subject