Firstly, for educational research and curriculum theory it is of vital importance to find ways to describe and analyze pedagogical processes over time and space. This is carried out here – over four decades and in specific and changing contexts, questioning the thesis of the persistence of recitation and the predominance of basic IRE-sequences. Second, relations between classroom interaction and social and organizational context is vital in curriculum theory and in educational theorizing. Classroom interaction is here conceptualized as a “social fact demanding historicization”. Given a communicative turn in understanding interaction we argue for a position of “contingent autonomy” of importance when designing studies of curriculum enactment and pedagogical devices opening up for more specific analyses. Thirdly, our study is based on the specific settings for classroom interaction presented as a Nordic welfare state education in transition, but point to the general importance of theorizing educational processes as changing social facts with their own qualities – of societal as well as political ingredients – giving new insights for curriculum theory as well as for educational policy analysis. Fourthly, we have highlighted the importance of reflexivity in research and in the construction of research objects as part of a communicative turn in education. This is also assumed to increase a socially robust communication of research in society.