Friendship as Potential? The Recognition of Teenagers’ Peer Relationships at School

Abstract

The starting point for this paper is that children and young people's friendships have, significantly, been neglected as a communal resource. While the importance to teenagers of their friends and peers is widely recognized, their friendships are more often seen as a cause of risk behaviour than a resource with which risk could be prevented. Hence, the purpose of this theoretical paper is to challenge this predominant view by looking at teenagers' spontaneous friendships as inclusionary potential. The paper deals with young teenagers' friendships from the viewpoint of student welfare and preventive social work at school. It raises the question of how and with what teenagers' wellbeing should be supported in their everyday living environments such as school. The paper introduces Finnish basic education as a site for the prevention of early youths' marginalization, and studies how young people's mutual relationships are commonly perceived at school. Drawing from the theories of recognition, it is then suggested that recognizing the meaning and practices of students' friendship at school could advance their self-confidence, self-esteem and self-respect and hence, support better student wellbeing.

Friendship barriers and supports: thoughts of young people with intellectual disabilities

“…Still in the educational context, the testimonies of people who claim to have suffered discrimination and have negative memories of their days in school or high school are relevant if one takes into account that the most important work to counteract the social exclusion of young people is carried out in schools (Ristolainen, Varjonen & Vuori, 2013, in Korkiamäki, 2016, and that the relationship established with classmates is one of the main elements when it comes to feeling included or not in the school context, as described by people with disabilities interviewed in the study of Ciénaga et al (2014).…”

“…Friendship can positively affect people's lives, and people with ID who have participated in research believe that having meaningful friendships is crucial for their well-being (Knox & Hickson, 2001). Friends can be an important source of support (Korkiamäki, 2016), which can help people with ID who experience loneliness than the rest of society (Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2014).…”

‘Positive recognition’ as a preventive approach in child and youth welfare services

“…Positive experiences in everyday environments involving affectionate relationships may hence contribute to broader resilience against difficult circumstances and increase engagement in the society. Along with familial ties, friendships are important drivers for such development (Korkiamäki, 2016;Korkiamäki and Kallio, 2018).…”

Experiencing and practising inclusion through friendships

“…This paper draws on recent interdisciplinary research projects where participation and inclusion among early youth were explored in Finland (for previous results see Bäcklund, Kallio, & Häkli, ; Kallio, , , , , ; Kallio et al., ; Korkiamäki, , ; Korkiamäki & Kallio, ). A part of the study was carried out in with young people in primary schools (11–12‐year‐old participants, n = 74) and secondary schools (15–16‐year‐old participants, n = 55) and involved two months of fieldwork.…”

“…During the preliminary analysis, the “geographies of friendship”, as introduced by Bunnell, Yea, Peake, Skelton, and Smith (), emerged from the research materials. We have hence analysed the participants’ communal lives, first, to identify where the friendly relations of Finnish early youths unfold and how they establish their friendships (Kallio, , ; Korkiamäki, ; Korkiamäki & Kallio, ), and then, to explore how young people identify, uphold and create inclusive communities through experiencing and practising friendship with their coevals and intergenerationally. This study brings together our research on two specific themes: young people's friendships (Korkiamäki, , , ; Korkiamäki & Tampere, ) and youthful political agency (Kallio, , , ; Kallio & Häkli, ).…”