The aim of this doctoral thesis is to explore the position, and the restrictions and possibilities for action available to children in a mainstream school class. With focus on everyday activities the questions generated were: whether being a member of a specific school class has significance; how the children position themselves in negotiations of time and space; in what manner the children can claim, and be granted, command over their school day activities; and what happens when the adults’ right to control becomes visible.The main data are field notes generated through participant observation where the researcher was positioned as a student participating in the children’s activities. Two theoretical discussions underpin this study, the concept of generation which is used to explore the relationship between children and adults in school at a general level, and positioning theory which is used to understand the multiplicity and fluidity of this relationship on the individual and specific level.It was found that the children’s positioning in relation to the adults in school occurs within two relationships, generational and institutional, and that the two merge and reinforce one another. While the institutional relationship orders the staff–student positioning in school activities the participants are producing and reproducing the generational categories of children and adults…
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
The Institution of School
Children’s schooling in Sweden
Children’s participation
The social categories of children and adults
Research on children and their schooling
Children’s everyday life in school
Conceptions of children and childhood
Positioning children in school
The Aim of this Study
Theoretical approach
Childhood as a generational phenomenon
Positioning in interaction
Outline of Chapters to Follow
2. METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
An Ethnographic Study
The data generated
The researcher in analyses and text
Analysing the data
Naming
A Study among Children
Ethical considerations
3. POSITIONING THE RESEARCHER
Negotiating the Field
Joining the study class
Talking Dirty – the message of non-interference
Helping, cheating or withdrawing – the impact of non-participation
Being friend or researcher – attempting to help
Ambiguities of my Presence
Legitimising bad behaviour
Possible participation
Friendship in research
Reflections
4. THE STUDY CLASS – A COMMUNITY WITHIN HILL SCHOOL
A Close-knit Group
Symbolic and imagined community
Developing Community
Membership as boundaries
Territorial claims as boundaries
Creating boundaries through interaction
Summary ORGANISED TIME – TIME–SPACE PATHS AND MAPS
Being Subject to Time–space Maps
Negotiating time
Using space
Keeping time – mastering time–space maps
Supervising Time and Space use in the Classroom
Alternative time–space maps
Movements to and from the classroom
Time-shifting – seeking control over time
Summary
6. ACTIVE CHILDREN – POSITIONED AS PROFESSIONAL PUPILS
Being Participants in School Activities
Schoolwork activities
Negotiating competence
Loosely supervised activities
Upholding the positioning of Sandra and Peter
Positioning Sandra as a professional pupil
Peter’s positioning
Negotiating Break Time
Interaction sets
Exclusion
Summary
7. ADULT AUTHORITY – BEING POSITIONED AS CHILDREN
Talking about order
Asymmetries
Differentiating rules
Knowledge and information
Mitigating asymmetries
Redefining games as work
Overt authority
Keeping classroom order
Being questioned; protests and compliance
Complying to save face
Positioned as Child – Given a Wider Scope
Summary
8. LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES
Summary
Institutional Organisation and Generational Order
Positioning the children
An Ordinary School Child
9. REFERENCES
Author: Ayton, Katarina
Source: Linkoping University
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