ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to lay the foundations of a more adequate model of pupil orientations. It focuses on pupil activity in specific contexts. The chapter provides a typology of pupil responses to teacher demands. While the pupil complies with the teacher's demand it is in such a manner that at the same time it expresses distance from the act of conforming. Typically pupils withdraw from a task when they find it to be too difficult or boring. There are also times when pupils become lethargic and thus easily distracted. In school, teachers and pupils have a variety of perspectives and do not necessarily share even very basic goals. There is a basis for negotiation, however, because as Pollard points out, despite their differences, teachers and pupils both have to coexist - they both have to 'survive' their daily classroom lives.
