Identification and subjectivity in a Year-3 classroom: using Lacan's mirror stage to analyse ethnographic data

Abstract

This paper is a re-engagement with some ethnographic data, originally analysed using a sociocultural approach. It makes use of a recent proposal that Lacan's ‘mirror stage’ when applied to an analysis of classroom settings and interactions can offer a fruitful way of explaining and understanding classroom lives, identities and subjectivities. In this re-engagement, use is also made of Lacan's theory of subjectivity. An account is offered of the particular influence of the teacher in two learners' lives and the relationship of this to the learner identities, regulation, subjectivity and school achievement. The paper demonstrates and argues that psychoanalytic theory has a place in the analysis of ethnographic data, taking us beyond the rational, meaning-making teacher and learner to include the affective and emotional aspects of classroom life and their implication in identity and learning.