Contribution
Description: In this paper I will discuss the concept of inclusion in my project Between pupils. Interaction, support and tensions in an inclusive peer culture. My main research question is:
How do pupils cultural interaction, support and tensions affect their study work in arenas of learning at school?
Subquestions:
" What do the pupils regard as including and excluding features in the peer culture they are a part of?
" How do they describe their own and other's acceptance for and resistance against study work at the arenas of learning at school?
" What are the crucial relations between peer culture and study work?
My purpose is to investigate if the concept of culture might contribute to new comprehension of inclusive and exclusive features in classrooms and school. The concept of culture is often used as a theoretical frame for studies in different areas, but has seldom been used in the study of peer groups in school.
The background is how educational institutions may have a considerable potential for contributing to participation and belonging for everybody in society. Almost the whole population attends school every workday for many years, and the school's terms of reference emphasise everybody's development towards being an adult and responsible member of a pluralistic democracy.
I understand inclusion and exclusion in the classroom to be fundamentally dialogical phenomena. The relation between the individual and the community implies individualising and adapting processes as contradictory, but at the same time mutually productive phenomena. But to be inclusive, relations must to some extend take care of several conditions:
" Participation, which has to include mastering, recognition and co-determination
" Belonging, which has to be part of both the individual's experiences and the norms of the community
" Confidence, which means that the individual is expecting interaction with these qualities and is trusting the others to be both willing to and able to live up to this in daily life in school
Methodology:
I will investigate the research questions by using fieldwork and interview in four school classes. I use video recordings as part of this work. The sample is two first grade classes and two eight grade classes. Empirical material from accomplished observations in 2005/2006 will be used to illustrate the discussion in the paper.
Conclusions:
Research in the area of inclusion and exclusion is usually focussing pupils with disabilities or pupils having an ethnical minority background. My concern is how the combination of concepts and ways of understanding the field from both of these research areas might contribute to develop the concept of an inclusive peer culture. To investigate the interaction between the pupils in addition to the interaction between the pupil, the teacher and subject content, may be a contribution to increased understanding.
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