ABSTRACT
The word lies carries a connotative look that draws attention much as does a traffic accident: a glimpse tells the spectator that something is out of order but the horrific potential of investigation serves as a deterrent to all but the morbidly curious. In this chapter we attempt to set aside morbid curiosity with lies and discover them as integral parts of teachers’ repertoires of educational constructs. We were fortunate in securing the cooperation—and candor—of forty-eight classroom teachers. These persons wrote down verbatim accounts of very recent and evidently quite normal statements-other-than-fact made by themselves and also made by others. Luckily, too, our participants provided detailed data about themselves, the ‘audience’ and the setting of the utterances recounted. From this it became possible to develop a threefold model of the usage of lies in organizational life. Considering one’s professional security, personal awareness of actions and status relative to target audience, lies are possibly seen as an apparently acceptable mode of interaction, one that may well be construed as necessary to operate within the unwritten political structure.
