The superior intention of the Norwegian national curriculum is the notion of an inclusive school. My interest is how inter-human relations affect and define teaching and learning.  How can I by focusing on the role of the teacher expand my knowledge and understanding of the teacher-pupil-relation in an inclusive school-perspective? In this paper I will show how I analysed a class-room dialogue in connection with the theory of the the in-between-space (Arendt, 2012; Biesta, 2004; Tislevoll, 2010).  The dialogue is selected from an extensive material consisting of videotaped and transcribed observations and interviews. This particular study is based on a part of a math-lesson. The transcription shows how the teacher is having a dialogue with her second grade pupils about the number eighteen. I study how the teacher act and speak (Arendt, 2012) through the dialogue as an in-between-space.

According to Biesta (in Sidorkin & Bingham, 2004) the communication and meaning production traditionally has been studied in two ways. Firstly he speaks about the approach of transmission, where we understand the communication associated to the sender-receiver model. In this model the information is transmitted more or less clearly and unhindered from A to B. Secondly he refers to the transformative approach. On the basis of participatory theory this model aims to bridge the subject-object distinction and transform meanings into shared understanding through participation. The third way of analyzing communicative settings is when we focus on the room between the participants and the passage to the other. Biesta calls the third alternative the performative theory of communication where the individuals interact in a space of both risk and opportunity. It’s a fragile situation which is connected with existential anxiety. This risky area is described by Arendt as the place between us and “the space of appearance in the widest sense of the word, namely, the space where I appear to others as others appear to me, where men exist not merely like other living or inanimate things but make their appearance explicitly” (Arendt, 2012, s. 204).

When my assumption is that meaning and learning is located in between the people, I consequently build my concept of the-in-between-space on Biesta’s third way; the performative theory of communicationandArendt’s concept the space of appearance as analytic tools in this study. Arendt’s main work deals with the human condition and one of her core concepts is acting which contains of both acting and speaking. In addition to these two contributions I also bring my own work with the in-between-space into this study when I formulate following research question: How does the teacher utilize the in-between-space by acting and speaking?

Arendt, H. (2012). Vita activa: det virksomme liv. Oslo: Pax. Bengtsson, J. (2005). Med livsvärlden som grund: bidrag till utvecklandet av en livsvärldsfenomenologisk ansats i pedagogisk forskning. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Sidorkin, A. M., & Bingham, C. (2004). No education without relation. New York: P. Lang. Tislevoll, S. (2010). Praksisskolerektor som lærerutdanner: en studie av mellomrom : triadiske samtaler som utgangspunkt for reflekterende empirisk forskning. 2010:167, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Trondheim. (Abstract in English)