Narrating Gender in Interaction, between Dialogue and Monologue. A Research in Secondary Schools

Abstract

This article illustrates the main outcomes of a sociological research on communicative processes and results observed during a discussion activity on gender. This activity, carried out in secondary schools by two experts, aimed primarily at promoting discussion and reflection on gender differences and inequalities, opposing gender stereotypes, and fostering dialogue and positive relationships among classmates. The analysis here presented focuses the expert-adolescents interactions, in particular the forms of communication created and the narratives of gender order produced. Research had in fact two main objectives: 1) observing the relevance and the features of the gender orders constructed and narrated in these interactions, catching the reproduction, or negotiation and change, of traditional cultural models, somehow still hegemonic; 2) analysing the way in which the adults’ forms of communication – on one hand promotion and dialogue, on the other hand educational monologues – influence the constructions and the narratives of gender produced by the participants. Keywords: Gender, interaction, dialogue, monologue, narratives.