This paper deals with the basic practices that make up the pupils´ “job”. It asks in the manner of ethnomethodological workplace studies how the participation in school lessons as well as how the task of “doing pupil” are organized and managed in practical ways. Ethnographic studies of the 70s and 80s on pupils at school place themselves on the side of youths and their (sub-) culture. In these now considered classic studies both the influence and creative power of the peer world are described as complex scholastic counter-worlds with their own rules, including various ways of distancing themselves from scholastic requirements – even going so far as to question school itself. But the question still remains, how pupils deal with the day-to-day aspects of school, aside from giving weary assessments in interviews or getting into trouble in more or less spectacular ways. How are, beyond the sense and the senselessness of class, the practical requirements of class present in the behaviour of pupils? What does “doing pupil” mean for children and youths? The analysis presented in the paper draws on three years participant observation with 12 to 15 year old pupils in two different, contrasting classes in Halle (Germany). Our research project focussed on the 3rd and 4th year of high school, which is a crucial period in the formation of a pupil’s attitude towards school and its demands. From a pedagogic point of view, this is considered the most difficult age. The adolescent phase is the time when pupils “distance” themselves from school to the greatest extent. At the same time it seems that pupils develop a particular demeanour towards school that deepens and hardens into something what might be called “job mentality”: One does what has to be done without (fully) identifying with it. One does the tasks that are set without questioning their meaning or legitimacy. Routine and pragmatism become the central aspect of one’s everyday life at school. The paper examines observations from direct instructional settings as well as from group work. A closer look at the pupils´ practical proceedings when working on tasks reveals a strong orientation towards efficiency, pragmatics and aspects of production. School work materializes in exercise books, posters, papers an so on. The supposition is that these materials serve to demonstrate that something has been done and, at the same time, to confirm that all the efforts of schooling make sense. The materials which are produced in school lessons are much more robust and obvious than the always delicate and uncertain character of the process of “learning”. At the same time most of the routines and pragmatic strategies of the pupils´ job result in producing the materials which represent the effort of schooling, and which, in turn, make schooling accountable. The paper will work out these considerations by drawing on ethnographic data.

Ethnography, participant observation in two contrasting schools

Didatics and all considerations on learning at school have to take into account the pragmatics and routines of pupils. So it is important to take a closer look at the social practises that make up the pupils´ job.