Habitus, speech genre and genre of activity: constructs for comprehending teachers' work

Abstract

This text presents a dialog between the concepts of habitus (Bourdieu), speech genre (Bakhtin) and genre of activity (Clot) in order to contribute to the analysis of teachers’ work. These three concepts address the dialectic tension between the social dynamics and the action of agents/subjects/individuals. Bourdieu, Bakhtin and Clot have held a dialog with the authors of their respective fields of knowledge and criticized the dichotomous vision of this social-individual relation. They highlight subjects who act and constitute themselves from a history of socially produced practices and speeches. We thus investigate possible conceptual approximations and distinctions that may favor a conceptual and theoretical refinement and contribute to the analysis of teachers’ work: a professional activity that occurs amidst a history of practices and speeches that already exist and have been constituted by those who live(d) this profession.