Educational Intentions and their Negotiation—A Symbolic-Theoretical Sketch of the Socio-Pedagogical Realm of Action

Abstract

The object of this inquiry is the micro-analysis of a (socio-)pedagogical interaction sequence in a counseling center. Starting point is the assumption that professional concepts of action are not straightforwardly adopted by the client who is seeking advice, but are the outcome of a reciprocal negotiation process between the counselor and the client. In order to answer the question how this occurs, I adopt a psychoanalytically oriented approach (in-depth hermeneutics). My focus is on patterns of action that either underlie the speech practice or are performed in metaphorical terms between the lines. Starting from the client’s enactments that partly exceed the frame of the socio-pedagogical realm of action, I show how sensual-symbolical projects are constructed that can consecutively be transformed into expressions in language form and can subsequently be communicated within the counseling contact. I conceptualize the reciprocal negotiation process as a process of symbolic construction. The resulting forms of construction are then reconstructed as a model in terms of stages. They constitute the specific intermediary quality of the socio-pedagogical realm of action. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0801523