Il mediatore in classe tra azioni dialogiche e monologhi educativi: come cambiano i presupposti culturali e l'autorità epistemica nell'interazione?

This paper deals with a sociological analysis of some communicative processes that take place in schools and focuses in particular on a situation that is considered critical from many points of view, that is interactions involving preadolescents and a mediator in multicultural classrooms. Interactions were video-taped during an activity that was proposed with the aim to promote active participation and reflection on “diversity” and “intercultural relationships”, and to foster “dialogical” conflict management. The analysis will concentrate on the relationship between specific turns or actions sequences, on one side, and expectations orienting the interaction, on the other side, in order to describe the cultural presuppositions which emerge in communication, in particular when the mediator adopts “dialogical actions” or “educational monologues”. The analysis will then try to show techniques and devices used in the management of epistemic authority, and their consequences for the preadolescents’ empowerment.