Mocenské konstelace ve výukové komunikaci

This paper addresses the question of power relations between teacher and pupils at lower secondary schools. As her starting point the author takes differences in social power as bound to the institution of school and individual power as bound to the personality and communication style of the teacher, showing how in reality both these types of power merge and cannot be separated from each other. Although communication in the classroom is to a great extent asymmetrical, pupils, too, have a certain amount of power at their disposal; they may resist the teachers’ demands, or even urge their own agenda and demands. The aim of this contribution is to show – based on data obtained from fieldwork research on educational communication – how teachers and pupils are placed in certain power constellations in relation to each other that depend on how relations between them are defined and formed.