A comparative study of disciplining boys as a scheduled activity in special classes during the 1960’s and today in the Swedish school

Author(s):

Eva HjörnePernilla LarssonYvonne KarlssonAnn-Carita Evaldsson

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

4. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 06C, Behaviour

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-11

10:30-12:00

Room:

AK2 138

Chair:

Artemi Ioanna Sakellariadis

Contribution

Several researchers demonstrate a relationship between disciplining, schooling and masculinity (Connell, 1989; Martino, & Meyenn, 2001). However, so far few researchers have focused on how masculinities are accomplished in regulative talk in everyday school activities (see Evaldsson, 2007). The present paper compares data generated from two studies in Sweden. One study draws on ethnography combined with AV-recordings of a group of 5 boys (7-12 years) in a special teaching group (Karlsson, 2008). Another study draws on a historical material of video-recorded lessons from remedial classes (12 years old, mostly boys) in the 1960’s (Larsson, 2008). In both studies we focus on following questions: In which ways are boys made accountable for disruptive school behaviour in a scheduled school activity? What strategies are used by the teachers? What are the consequences for the pupils?

Method

The work builds on a micro-ethnographic approach (Mehan et.al. 1986), where the talk and interaction in the classroom is documented and analysed. More specific, the analysis combines ethnomethodological principles for the study of talk-in-interaction (conversation analysis (CA) and members’ understanding of social categories (MCA)) (Sacks, 1972, see Hester & Francis, 2002).

Expected Outcomes

The preliminary analyses indicate that the regulating talk both in the 1960’s and today are characterized by personal references, illustrating examples and negative descriptions of children. For instance, as will be shown, categorizations, activity descriptions and person references are selected such that individual boys (Anton, you, he) are described as responsible for failing to perform the expected behaviours (“being angry”, “being impolite”, “using dirty words”, “teasing other boys”, “not doing the homework”, “exaggerating”, “not listening”, “smelling bad” etc.). Another interesting finding so far is that some boys are more frequently described in negative terms and pointed to as “failing boys” or “bad examples”. Simultaneously the boys are differentiated from another category, that of being “a good student”. The effect of this is to solidify their identity as ’failing boys’. This process has considerable consequences for the identity formation of the boys and thereby implications also for the educational careers of the pupils.

References

Connell, R.W. (1989). Cool guys, swots and wimps: The interplay of masculinity and education. Oxford Review of Education, 15 (3), 291-303. Evaldsson, A-C (2007). Making boys accountable for classroom disorder. Gender and category-work in regulative talk. Paper presented at the IPRA (International Conference of Pragmatics), Göteborg, July, 2007 Hester, S. & D. Francis 2001 (ed). Local educational order. Ethnomethodological studies of knowledge in action. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Karlsson, Y. (2008). Att inte vilja vara ett problem. Social organisering och utvärdering av elever i en särskild undervisningsgrupp. [Resisting problem talk – social organizatin and evaluation practices in a special teaching group.] (Phd) Linköping Studies in Pedagogic Practices No 6. Linköping University. Larsson, P. (2008). ”Vi får nog göra så att vi skärper oss nu!” En studie av tillrättavisningar i 1960-talets hjälpklassundervisning. [”I think we have to pull ourselves together right now!” A studie of corrections in the 1960’s remedial classes]. Manus. Martino, E., & Meyenn, B. (Eds.) (2001). What about the boys? Issues of masculinity in schools. Buckingham: Open University Press. Mehan, H., Hertweck, A., & Meihls, J. L. (1986). Handicapping the handicapped. Decision making in students educational careers. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Sacks, H. (1972) ‘On the analyzability of stories by children’, pp. 325-345 in J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds) Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Rinehart & Winston.

Author Information

Eva Hjörne

University of Gothenburg

Department of Education

Göteborg

186

Pernilla Larsson

University of Gothenburg

Yvonne Karlsson

Uppsala University

Ann-Carita Evaldsson

Uppsala University

Education

Linköping

186

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