Session Information
19 SES 03, Learners' Perspectives of Performativity and Identity Construction (part 1)
Symposium, continued in 19 SES 04
Time:
2009-09-28
14:00-15:30
Room:
JUR, HS 17
Chair:
Bob Jeffrey
Discussant:
Patricia Thomson
Contribution
Theoretical perspective
Two theoretical positions underpin this research, that of policy and identity. The first is concerned with the power of discourses and practices and the second with how social identities – those we share with others – are developed. The objective of this ESRC funded research was to investigate how teachers and for this paper learners managed the two policies of creativity and performativity.
Method
Methodology
The research on learners was carried out in two schools from urban working class areas by two researchers over 5 months and we talked to over 50 learners in taped conversations from age 7-11. One of us also carried out fieldwork in their classes and school environments with over 20 days of transcribed fieldnotes available for analysis.
Expected Outcomes
Conclusions and findings.
The creativity and performativity policies were integrated at an organisational level through the construction of a school culture of performance and institutional positioning in an open market but less integrated at the level of pedagogy. The progression narrative was a major feature around which curriculum and pedagogies were organised but where external performativity dominated such as national testing creative teaching was marginalised to ‘bolt on’ fun time slots.
Learners were amenable to the construction of both creative and performative identities and accepted the usefulness of targets as stepping stones to improved performance. In the main they lived with the differences in status that performative assessments placed upon them and felt it their duty and responsibility to improve although some created false descriptions of their place if possible to enhance their status.
References
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