Disenchanted Evenings: the social organization of talk in parent-teacher consultations in UK secondary schools

Parent-teacher consultations represent something of a 'black hole' in our u nderstanding of educational practices. This study, based on audio-recording s, examines the structure and the fine detail of these brief encounters. We identify, some similarities with doctor-patient consultations. Teachers ar e accorded the right to give an uninterrupted 'diagnosis'; and they maintai n knowledge differentials through their use of specialist vocabularies and professional registers, while down-playing parents' deployment of their own 'privileged' knowledge of the student. However, we argue that teachers do not unequivocally have the upper hand: that issues of power identity compet ence and moral conduct are at stake for all involved. The complex negotiati ons and skirmishes that take place during these encounters testify to their precarious location on the boundary between the two institutions of home a nd school. In requiring homes to Tender themselves visible, schools also, f leetingly, expose themselves to the risk of critical scrutiny from those on the outside.