Session Information
23 SES 06 B, Youth Policies and Educational Transitions
Paper Session
Contribution
Dumont, Istance & Benavides (2010) described a new self-regulative learner who has responded to the new global performativity discourse by developing 21st century metacognitive skills and abilities to monitor, evaluate and optimise the acquisition and use of knowledge. The well adaptive self-regulative learner should 1) develop metacognitive skill, 2) monitor, evaluate and optimise the acquisition and use of knowledge, 3) regulate their emotions and motivations during the learner process, 4) manage study time well and 5) set higher specific and personal goals and be able to monitor them. The super-regulated human might be something to strive for within neoliberal marketization hegemonies, however there is also other perspective such as how pupils actually experience this type of discourse; we here refer to the performativity discourse (Ball; 2003; 2012). An important perspective that is often ignored when assessing the effects of performativity is how pupils actually experience the performativity discourse. Do they all have a passion for excellence and is it this passion that drives them to constantly try to improve and look good in order to make a success of themselves? This is not a problem only for the Swedish upper-secondary school; this is highly problematic also in an international context (Olsson, Petersson & Krejsel, 2015).
The performativity discourse are defined by Ball (2003) in terms of a new performative worker, that are a successful self-regulating enterpriser, with a passion for excellence that constantly tries to improve and to do better and at the same time also tries to look good instead of solving real problems, this in order to make a success of themselves. Beach and Dovemark (2009; 2011) showed that the performativity discourse generated alienation among pupils where the external pressure to learn or coercion estranged the pupils from learning itself. There research concerned mostly vocational pupils. However, it is a question how pupils from upper-middleclass are tackling this discourse, more specifically, if they conform to the performativity discourse or if they also use strategies of resistance (Jonsson & Beach, 2013; 2015). This is our first question. We have examined this by considering how some academically successful students on university preparatory programmes in the Swedish upper-secondary school are actually responding to the performativity discourse. Using a mixed methods design we have inquired into if and how they conform to the discourse or if they show ambivalence or resistance.
Our second question concerns if there exists relations between the different ways of handle the performativity discourse in relation to achievement goal theory, which deals with pupils’ engagement in learning processes. Achievement goal theory (Middleton & Midgley, 1997; Pintrich, 2000) is developed on the recognition of the relations of performances to mastery goals (that correspond to the will to improve), performance-approach goals (that correspond to the desire to demonstrate ability and outperform others), and performance-avoidance goals (that correspond to that correspond to the will to not be seen as outperformed by others). We have used the theory, and quantitative measurements traditionally used in this research, to examine the dominant market hypothesis about how students that conform to the performativity discourse will show higher performance approach and avoidance goals compared to others. This is our second question.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228. Ball, S. J. (2012). Performativity, commodification and commitment: An I-Spy guide to the neoliberal university. British Journal of Edcuational Studies, 60(1), 17-28. Beach, D & Dovemark, M. (2009). Making right choices: An ethnographic investigation of creativity and performativity in Swedish schools. Oxford Review of Education, 35(6), 689–704. Beach, D. & Dovemark, M. (2011).Twelve years of upper-secondary education in Sweden: The beginnings of a neo-liberal policy hegemony? Educational Review, 63(#), 313–327. Dumont, H., Istance, D., & Benavides, F. (2010). Analysing and designing learning environments for the 21 century. I H. Dumont, D. Istance & F. Benavides (red.). The nature of learning. Using research to inspire practice. Paris: OECD publishing. Erlandson, P., & Beach, D. (2014). Ironising with intelligence. British Journal of Sociology of Education, Volym 35 (4), Sidor 598-614. Jonsson, A-.C., & Beach, D. (2015) Institutional Discrimination: Stereotypes and social reproduction of “class” in the Swedish upper-secondary school. Social Psychology of Education, 8(1), DOI 10.1007/s11218-014-9279-1 Jonsson, A-.C., & Beach, D. (2013). A problem of democracy. Stereotypical notions of intelligence and identity in college preparatory academic programmes in the Swedish upper secondary school. Nordic Studies in Education, 32, 49-61. Laclau, E. & Mouffe, C. (1985/2008). Hegemonin och den socialistiska strategin. Keuro: Glänta/Vertigo Middleton, M., & Midgley, C. (1997). Avoiding the demonstration of lack of ability: An under-explored aspect of goal theory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 710-718. Midgley, C., Maehr, M.L., Hruda, L.Z., Anderman, E., Anderman, L., Freeman, K.E. et al. (2000). Manual for the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. Olsson, U., Petersson, K., & Krejsler, J. B. (2015). Elevcentrering som nutidshistoriskt problem. I S. Lindblad and L. Lundahl (red) Utbildning, makt och politik. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Pintrich, P.R. (2000). Multiple goals, multiple pathways: The role of goal orientation in learning and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 544-555.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.