Conference Agenda

In Dialogic Self Theory (DST), interactional multiplicity manifests itself in dynamics of space and time, in which the self is understood as a dynamic process of internalization and externalization of collective meanings (Berteau, 2012). When we study the self in education and other spaces, the idea of territory as a passive setting, a mere backdrop for human action, still persists. However, we need to understand spaces as pulsating territories of meanings that channel, as alterities, the relational experience of subjects, delimiting their agency and projections for the future. According to Hermans (2015, p. 94), “the spatialization of dialogical relations allows for the treatment of a particular idea in the context of both interior and exterior dialogues, creating ever changing perspectives.” The objective of this work is to investigate how the multivocality of the self is experienced and negotiated by students in their developmental trajectories. The discussion is based on the theory of the Dialogical Self and is illustrated by two case studies: the first, based on narratives from a quilombola student on academic mobility abroad, and the second, which presents data from a culture circle composed of girls from a rural school. The analyses demonstrate how different voices and positions of self emerge in response to tensions caused by spatial scenarios and are renegotiated in the encounter of stories. By integrating spatiality into the TSD approach, this work expands the theoretical rigor of the field and provides a basis for a decolonial scientific perspective. The relevance of the work lies in valuing the role of territorial diversity in the constitution of the dialogical self, ensuring that human development is understood in its situated and relational complexity.