Violence against teachers in Swedish schools, according to recent reports has increased and there have been many studies to investigate the situation for teachers. The surveys show that teachers are especially vulnerable to students. This study aims to examine the relationship between a number of teachers and their students to study the power relations that exist in the classroom. This is to see what violence is an expression of and also how violence is perceived by the teachers. The issues that are central in this study are:

• What is the importance of dialogue in the relationship between these teachers and their students?
• Is there power relations between teachers and their students?
• What is the violence against teachers and expression of?
• Is there any connection between dialogue, power relations and violence?

The theories of the materials in this study was analyzed using power relations theories of the historian of ideas Michel Foucault and Philosophy Doctor Anders Persson, who to some extent has his theoretical basis in Foucault’s power relations. The material is interviews with four teachers in upper secondary schools and analysis of the results is my interpretation of the material by applying the theories of power relations. The study shows that the dialogue is important for these teachers in their relationships with their students. There are power relations in the classroom and at school, in the form of disciplinary authority vested in the school. Violence is something that rarely occurs and the violence can be seen as a resistance of students against the exercise of power that occurs at school and in teaching.