Adaption and resistance related to place. An ethnographic study amongst students in a rural Swedish secondary school
Author(s):
Monica Johansson (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2016
Network:
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

14 SES 10 A, School Related Transitions Among Young People in Urban and Rural Settings (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 14 SES 11 A

Time:
2016-08-25
15:30-17:00
Room:
OB-E1.17 (ALE 1)
Chair:
Joana Lúcio

Contribution

There are few studies researching rural youth and issues related to education more generally (Hargreaves, Kvalsund & Galdon, 2009). Recent research from Eastern European and Nordic countries show that young people from outside metropolitan regions more often express a lack of confidence in government and political institutions than other youth do (Ungdomsstyrelsen, 2010). The analyses in this paper relate to this research by presenting preliminary results from an ongoing research project named “Rural youth – education, place and participation”. The project focuses on education and participation for youths in Swedish rural (and urban) areas and investigates how schools in different places address student’s social inclusion.

Theoretically the analysis is based on Doreen Massey’s (1994) conceptualization of space as stretched out social relations. Particularly Massey’s (1995) thinking on power related to place (and space) brought a wider context into the analysis of the student’s adaption and resistance. The particular interest in this paper in this respect is the student’s agency and their adaption, resistance and confidence in society on a local, regional and national level. The specific analysis focuses on identifying themes, in both observations and in students’ statements about agency, connected to the local school and the community but also to a wider regional and national context.

Method

Six different rural municipalities were selected for the research project. This was done in order to obtain a variation in e.g. demography and production relations so both sparsely populated areas, tourist’s municipalities and small industrial villages are a part in the project. The research started in 2014 and ends in early 2016. It included compressed mode ethnographic fieldwork (Jeffrey & Troman, 2004) at each site. Observations of classroom interaction and teaching content formed the data produced, together with field conversation and observations in the neighbourhood. Totally about 140 students were formally interviewed in the project and some interviews were also made with teachers and other school staff. However, the analysis in this particular paper is case specific and connected to Forberg, one of the project municipalities. Forberg is geographically situated in the middle of Sweden and here lives about 5 000 habitants. The Forest school, where the fieldwork and the interviews were conducted, is a small village school with totally 120 students from grade 1 to grade 9 (age 6-16 years). The school is situated about 100 kilometres from the town that is the administration centre for the municipality. The fieldwork and interviews were conducted in the grade 8th class. Twenty students were interviewed: 10 boys and 10 girls.

Expected Outcomes

The analysis tentatively points to a variation of adaption and resistance related to different levels of place. On a school and a local level the students often express both an acceptance and an adaption to the circumstances that they, their teachers, their parents, their family and friends are living in. The students are critical toward the lack of transportation (e.g. very few busses) that leads to isolation. When there are no busses or other transportations the students drive different sort of vehicles, even if they don’t have a legal right to do that. The students express resistance against both the bigger town in the area but also against the smaller town in the municipality. This resistance also leads to that the police not are a popular group from these students perspective. On a national level the question of hunting or not hunting wolves is a clear question for resistance. Many of the students express very strongly that the debate and the national restrictions on wolf-hunting is an example of “when people in Stockholm [the capital in Sweden] decide over our lives“. To summarise, the tentative analysis in this paper connects to Massey’s (1994) understanding of space as stretched out social relations connected to power and agency. The student’s expressions point to how such relations are important for agency.

References

Hargreaves, L, Kvalsund, R & Galdon, M. (2009). Reviews of research on rural schools and their communities in British and Nordic countries: Analytical perspectives and cultural meaning, International Journal of Educational Research, 48(2), 80-88. Jeffrey, B. & Troman, G. (2004). Time for ethnography. British Journal of Educational Research, 30(4), 535-548. Johansson, Monica. (2009). Anpassning och motstånd. En etnografisk studie av gymnasieelevers institutionella identitetsskapande. [ Adaption and resistance. An ethnographic investigation of the development of institutional identities amongst upper secondary school pupils] (Doktorsavhandling. Göteborg Studies in Educational Sciences 281). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Massey, D. (1994). Space, place and gender. Cambridge: Polity Press. Massey, D. (1995) The Conceptualization of Place. In A Place in the World?: Places, Cultures and Globalization. Doreen Massey and Pat Jess, eds. Oxford, UK: Oxford, University Press. Ungdomsstyrelsen (2010). Fokus 10. En analys av ungas inflytande. [Focus 10. An analysis of young people’s influence]. Stockholm: Ungdomsstyrelsen.

Author Information

Monica Johansson (presenting / submitting)
University of Gothenburg, Sweden

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