Anti-schoolness in context: the tension between the youth project and the qualifications project

Abstract

In this ethnographic study conducted in two classrooms in Norway, grade nine (14-year-olds) in lower secondary school and the first year (16-year-olds) of upper secondary school, attention is drawn to how classroom culture is constituted through relationships between students. Through processes of power, dominance, hegemony and marginalisation, classroom culture forms the conditions for a learning environment, and has different opportunities, dilemmas and costs for the students. As classroom culture is negotiated in contextual and relational processes, classroom culture and ways of performing masculinities and femininities vary in the different classrooms, even within the same school. This article explores two classroom cultures, a "rule-breaking" classroom culture and a classroom culture in which the fear of being labelled a "nerd" dominates, to show how boys and girls use different solutions to balance the development of their identity as youths (the youth project) and the acquisition of academic competence and skills (the qualifications project).

An ethnographic study of participant roles in school bullying

“…These social processes coexist alongside the academic aspects of the classroom (Aasebø, ). Sometimes when locations and goals changed, often rapidly, we were able to observe actors moving between different participant roles.…”

“…Research into the social structure of the classroom has widened from focusing on the individual and how he or she interacts with his or her peers, to considering the social fabric and how it is transactionally modified by the individual's interactions with his or her dynamic environment (Stormshak, Bierman, McMahon, & Lengua, ). For instance, Aasebø (), in an ethnographic study, described classroom processes as involving power, dominance, hegemony, and marginalization. The purpose of the current ethnographic study was to further expand this focus into areas inaccessible through questionnaires or positivistic methodologies (Atkinson & Hammersley, ; Patton, ; Silverman, ).…”

“…The classroom provided a multitude of social interactions and contexts across different times and locations, each with differing goals and motivations. These social processes coexist alongside the academic aspects of the classroom (Aasebø, ). Sometimes when locations and goals changed, often rapidly, we were able to observe actors moving between different participant roles.…”

“…Bullying and aggression have received increased attention among qualitative researchers (Aasebø, ; Teräsahjo & Salmivalli, ; Thornberg, ; Thornberg, Rosenqvist, & Johansson, ) where the focus shifts from findings which are generalized to a larger sample or population, to an in‐depth understanding based on individual contexts. Research methodologies have varied from observational studies using behavioral coding (e.g., Boulton, ; Menesini, Melan, & Pignatti, ) to interview data (Teräsahjo & Salmivalli, ) to an ethnography (Aasebø, ). Recent research suggests that suppositions of the stability of participant roles may not be supported (Dempsey, Fireman, & Wang, ).…”

Popularity, Gender, and Social Inclusion Among Girls in Ethnically Diverse Contexts in Norway

“…Duncan and Owens (2011), in a study of the relationship between "bully" and "popular" in two English schools, found that popularity was highly related to attractiveness to boys in both schools, and also that popular girls tended to bully others. Regarding Norwegian studies of relevance, Aasebo (2011) showed that being high-achieving in upper secondary school did not qualify for popularity, while exhibiting heteronormative attractiveness and experimenting with alcohol and sex did. Heteronormativity (Butler, 1993) and the "male gaze" (Well, 2017) are implicit in the works of Duncan and Owens (2011) and Aasebo (2011). "…”