Abstract
Resistance is described as oppositional behavior enacted as a dynamic cultural form which the author terms “rituals of resistance.” Describing resistance as a ritual mode helps to underscore the symbolic and ideological dimensions of student behavior. Drawing upon recent field work in a Catholic junior high school in Toronto, Ontario, the author focuses on the ritualized behavior of the “class clown.” The clown functions in the capacity of a meta-commentator who is able to resist the classroom instruction by penetrating in an often sarcastic fashion the formal and tacit axioms of propriety that help to sustain order and control during classroom lessons. The author concludes his paper by calling upon resistance theorists to strive for more conceptual precision in their articulation of the symbolic dimension of transgressive student behavior by utilizing a more multidisciplinary approach.
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