Makt, kön och diskurser: En etnografisk studie om elevers aktörsskap och positioneringar i undervisningen

Abstract

Abstract

Title: Power, gender and discourse. An ethnographic study of pupils’ positioning in teaching Author: Kristina Lanå Language: Swedish with an English summary ISBN 978-91-7346-837-4 (tryckt) ISBN 978-91-7346-838-1 (pdf) ISSN: 0436-1121 Keywords: Swedish upper secondary education, ethnography, power relations, positioning, discourse, gender, ethnicity

The thesis takes its point of departure in an understanding of power in the meaning of pupils’ possibilities of influencing teaching. Theoretically the analysis is in line with a poststructuralist tradition, which has been inspired by the works of Foucault (see e.g. 1987/2003; 1971/1993). His works are mainly used as a frame of the schools as institutions and the discourses in which they are embedded. The main part of the analysis is based on Walkerdine (1990, 1998), who interprets the works of Foucault in studies of social interaction in a school context, using the concept positioning by actualizing gender. Of interest in the study are gendered relations, as well as ethnic positions, and in what way these are important to enabling power positions when influencing teaching. An ethnographic study has been conducted including field observations and interviews, during an academic year in two classes, in two different upper secondary schools in urban areas. The two schools are introduced by an analysis of its pedagogies, intertwined with the architecture and the structure of time that produce the discourses of respective schools, the hierarchical discourse, the pupilcentred discourse that actualizes a caring discourse and the neutrality discourse. The pupils’ (and the teachers’) positioning are analyzed in relation to these discourses, whether they reproduce or challenge these. There is no formal system for the pupils to influence teaching in the two classes. The pupils have to find their own ways, which is achieved through different strategies, as positioning in groups or individually. One of the most central results of the study is that the pupils’ informal relations with the classmates are of great importance as well as doing of gender, to succeed in their positioning. The results show that doing of gender, as well as the absence of different ethnic positions when influencing teaching, to a great extent correlate with the local circumstances and the discourses of the respective school.