The classroom as a stage and the teacher's role

Teaching is a profession in which teachers are accustomed to being in the spotlight. In this paper we meet "Tina"(1)- a newly employed teacher at a Norwegian public junior high school-who is engaged on an hourly basis to teach Arts and Crafts, including a seventh-grade class which has been called "challenging" by other members of the staff. Enthusiastic, committed, and focused educators who can serve as role models for their students are much in demand at this school. Her own challenge is to find a good balance between the many cultural roles she has to perform in an inclusive education-one that works toward a goal of servicing an integrated student body-as manager, administrator of materials, initiator, facilitator, reflection partner, and mentor. In this paper we describe how she shapes a learning environment characterized by clear and unambiguous signals about what is acceptable behavior, while at the same time insisting on creativity and originality in art work. The guiding question is: How does the teacher achieve the double task of keeping order and maintaining creativity? The study is based on ethnographic field work conducted over several months in the Arts and Crafts class of "Berge" school. We describe how the children try to sabotage the tasks, and analyze critical episodes using sociocultural theory. With its emphasis on cultural and creative activities, the Arts and Crafts subject provides a special opportunity for what sociocultural theory calls using mediating artefacts or elements (mediated action 2). What makes the subject particularly interesting is that it is not only a matter of using linguistic mediation, but rather also mediation based on external factors, such as the use of specific objects or model learning. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.