The tension between dialogicality and interobjectivity in cooperative activities

The context of a vocational e-learning project is used to explore the relation between dialogicality, intersubjectivity, and interobjectivity. By means of narrative analysis, we show that human mediation is sometimes directed outwards (interobjectivity) and sometimes directed inwards (intersubjectivity). Some interactions are closer to the intersubjectivity polarity because participants focus on a shared understanding of the world, whereas others are oriented to the interobjectivity polarity because subjects direct their efforts to what is shared ''out there in the world.'' We claim that this positioning between the two polarities influences the type of interaction occurring between the subjects. Whenever subjects engage in dialogical interactions, where the other's collaboration is sought to redefine a shared understanding of the present state of the activity, the intersubjective polarity is put in place. In contrast, when the other's position takes on an instrumental function, the interobjectivity polarity is chosen.