SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE, DISCOURSE AND LINGUISTIC EXCHANGES BETWEEN TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. IMPLICATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

The interruption of university studies is a problem which involves wide and various groups of young people in Jujuy, who attend National University of Jujuy and School of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHyCS). Consequently, we think that this is a problem which, as university teachers, we cannot avoid and requires investigation and analysis. The project called “Symbolic violence in communication, identity conflicts and university studies interruption”, aims is to investigate how symbolic violence in linguistic and communicative processes, can generate identity conflicts which are likely to turn into true obstacles for knowledge, for learning. From a methodological perspective, this research work is inside the field of qualitative studies which allow a permanent articulation of theory and empiricism, in a dialectic relation, theory and empiricism with the aim of signify and understand the research topic.
In this paper we will reflect on the hypothesis about de factors which generate the interruption of university studies. Our purpose is to reflect on one of the hypothesis about the factors which provoke the interruption of university studies. Among our assumptions, we have selected, the one related to the differences in cultural background evidenced in the linguistic exchanges between first year teachers and students. These exchanges usually show some features of symbolic violence, as they are structured on an academic linguistic habit. The importance of language use lays on the fact that it is through language that we represent action and experience as the result of how we interpret that experience. From a school perspective, a piece of discourse can be defined as “a system of regulated positions” which establishes differences between the work camp and the theories of education. The struggle of how to name and transform experience is estimated by Mc Laren as one of the crucial problems of critic pedagogy and the fight for social change. For that reason, we think that the topic, to inquire about the linguistic, discourse and interchanging aspects between teachers and students deserve to be investigated as it will produce knowledge regarding the new students’ reality.