Flustered faces and helping hands: the importance of teamwork in teaching

This article presents a dramaturgical analysis of social interaction in the university classroom, focusing on Goffman’s concept of teamwork. We observe a contrast between the display of normal appearances, upheld by a ceremonial and ritualised order, and the potential risk of disruptive ‘incidents’ that threaten to break through. Sharing this tacit awareness, tutors and students form a performance team, united by bonds of dramaturgical loyalty. Using avoidant and corrective processes, they cooperatively manage transgressive acts and restore the definition of the situation. We identify five strategies of teamwork through which this is accomplished, illustrated by examples from hypothetical vignettes. Tact and gloss involve the collective, pretend non-observance of embarrassing mistakes. Defensive facework occurs when one actor saves themselves from awkwardness while taking the view of the other. Protective facework spares a teammate’s blushes by servicing their personal front or assisting with backstage rehearsals. Remedial interchanges heal the damage of a perceived virtual offence, drawing actors together through ritual obligations. Finally, cooling the mark out is a pacifying response to those who publicly lose status. By showing how these teamwork strategies usually work but occasionally fail, we demonstrate the ethic of cooperation that underpins interaction (dis)order and repair.<p></p>