On the Habitus of Students - Reconstruction of Explicit Self-concept and Incorporated Norms in Mental Images of the Future Profession

Abstract

Looking at specific characteristics of a photographic image, different aspects are noticeable, such as the constructed reality captured by the camera’s one-eyed viewfinder respectively the designed cut-outs of world. These viewing regimes conserve patterns, which in turn can be reconstructed with methods of empirical social research. In detail, cultural values can be exposed, as well as subjective and social reality, but also hidden rules and stocks of knowledge. Since the photo fixes perceptual customs of the photographer, it therefore serves on one hand as a source of qualitative social research (cf. Burkhart 2013); on the other hand, it is a didactic method within co-constructive situations in class (see also Moser & Rummler 2017). To uncover both the viewing regimes and the related structures concerning career choice, adolescents at the age of 14 to 16 are asked to photograph as many professions as possible for three days. The subsequent moderated discussion is about choosing professions they can imagine practicing and those that are beyond imagination. Within the narratives of the self, incorporated norms or institutionalised behavioural expectations, theories of the self, and constructions of social identity are elaborated on the basis of the documentary method according to Bohnsack (2014). The results mirror facts that can be collated with the experience-based concept of habitus according to Bourdieu (1997). For instance, a child’s habitus acquired in the core family is always carried into school and appears in that different social space as a representative of his or her origin (Helsper et al. 2014).