Session Information
19 SES 04, Learners' Perspectives of Performativity and Identity Construction (part 2)
Symposium, continued from 19 SES 03
Time:
2009-09-28
16:00-17:30
Room:
JUR, HS 17
Chair:
Bob Jeffrey
Discussant:
Patricia Thomson
Contribution
In spite of efforts in the 1990:s to equalise opportunity in Swedish upper secondary education e.g. by extending vocational programmes to 3 years (same as academical) and including a set of core subjects common to all programmes, students from (especially male dominated) vocational programmes often produce poor results in the core subjects and very rarely go on to further studies. An explanation often put forward (not least by students themselves and their teachers) is that this category of students have “manual” skills rather than “theoretical”. In this paper I will argue against this essentialist understanding of the issue and demonstrate that students might well engage in advanced cognitive activity in vocational courses but are restricted by teacher and peer expectations not to do so in the core-subjects, since these tend to be colonised by performativity pressures. The paper is mainly based on an ethnographical study (classroom and workshop observations during 5 months and interviews with 16 students) in a vocational program. It also draws on data from group interviews with approximately 30 students (vocational and academic) in a study of grading practises. It’s informed by theories of social reproduction on socio-cultural perspectives of learning.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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