Students with Difficulties, Difficulties with Students and an Ideal Lesson. Teachers’ Narratives on the Meaning of Their Work

The article presents results of phenomenography research on teacher’s work experiences. Meanings imparted to labour show vocational ideology of that group. “Students with problems” phenomenon appeared from interviews and – as interviewed teachers describe it – refers to students’ lack of subordination, obedience and discipline. That allows to spot a crucial problem of jouissance stealing committed by “students with problem” but this problem is much more profound. “Students with problem” conceptualization covers real problem of teachers: “problems with student”. Those who are troublemaker for teachers are considered as those who are form lower social classes and are lost not only for educational system but also for social system at all. Interviewed teachers find work with “students with problems” pointless and claims that students and their families are only one to blame. However essence of this conceptualization are teachers’ problems with students which expose “horror of the Real” of capitalist educational system. Jouissance of teaching is stolen by “students with problems, what makes teachers’ work nothing more than disappointment.