Everyday School Life Research Articles

Errare humanum est! A socio-psychological approach to a “Climbing Mount Fuji” PISA question

There is a consensus that the items proposed by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) program allow us to focus on the outcomes of the processes of appropriation and transformation of learning tools at the end of compulsory schooling, particularly regarding the key competencies for lifelong learning and citizenship in digital societies. Taking into account these assumptions, this paper focuses on a fine-grained analysis of the dynamics of students’ performance when they are confronted with a question from the mathematics domain in PISA 2012, through the example of the Climbing Mount Fuji item (question 1). In the context of the interaction dynamics (between a student and a research assistant), twelve 15-year-old students from Naples (Campania, Italy) were requested to think aloud when answering the question 1 of the item. Verbatim transcripts of the interactions are analyzed from the point of view of the PISA framework, the mathematical educational framework, and the socio-psychological approach based on didactic contract. The results show that the students involved in this task commit themselves in a complex reasoning, relying on mathematical requirements (e.g., different mathematical procedures) in an attempt to resolve ambiguities in the text, also referring to their everyday school life, activated by the didactic contract implied by the scenario of the question. The interweaving of PISA performances, mathematical procedures, and the socio-psychological approach to test assessment is discussed as a tool for a better understanding of teaching and learning activities.

Regulated and liberated bodies of schoolgirls in a Finnish short film from the 1950s

This article focuses on the bodies of schoolgirls as visualised and represented in a short film of Finnish secondary schools for girls in the 1950s. The film, Oma tyttökouluni (My Own Girls’ School) was released in 1957 and was screened in cinemas in advance of feature films. Although the short film was made in a documentary style, it also includes some filmic elements of a fictionalised narrative. This article explores the representations of schoolgirls’ bodies in the visual narrative of the film and examines how the imagery is interwoven with the social contexts and atmosphere of the 1950s and the tradition of Finnish short film production. The paper discusses how the filmic elements create an image of everyday life in schools and the visualised bodies of the schoolgirls. It examines how the film’s representations of female bodies and girlhood in the school context construct the imagery of middle-class values, acceptable appearances, and manners. In addition, the film depicts the sites where the female bodies were liberated from the choreography of schooling and the normative rules and routines of the school. The paper argues that the harmonious style of the film lacks contradictions and contains the ideological connotations and middle-class values of the Finnish postwar secondary schooling that girls received.

Emotions surrounding friendships of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in Japan: A qualitative interview study.

Emotions are embedded in culture and play a pivotal role in making friends and interacting with peers. To support the social participation of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) it is essential to understand their emotional life in the context of ethnic and school cultures. We are particularly interested in how anxiety and loneliness are experienced in developing and maintaining friendships in the daily encounters of adolescents with ASD in the specific context of Japanese schools, because these emotions could serve either as facilitators or barriers to social interaction, depending on how individuals manage them. The present qualitative study investigated perceptions of emotions related to friendship in the everyday school life of 11 adolescents with ASD in Japan. Data were collected by means of semi-structured individual interviews, which revealed a wide range of motivations for socialization, limited future prospects to deepen friendships, robust self-awareness of one’s own social challenges, and conscious efforts to cope with these challenges. An inductive approach to data analysis resulted in four themes: social motivation, loneliness, anxiety, and distress. To our knowledge this is the first study to uncover the rich emotional life of adolescents with ASD in the context of their friendships in an Asian culture.

The quality of experience of students with and without special educational needs in everyday life and when relating to peers

The aim of this paper is to investigate the quality of experience of students with and without SEN in everyday life in general and when relating to peers in particular: (1) How do they experience everyday school life vs. leisure time? (2) How much time per week do they spend with peers outside school? and (3) How do they experience those peer contacts? The data comprised 120 grade 8 (20%) and grade 9 (80%) students from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, with a mean age of 15.8 years (SD = 0.8 years). Of these students, 42 were diagnosed with SEN, of which 32 were taught in regular classes and 10 in special classes. Students were asked to report their current affective states on about 31 randomly selected occasions during one week, with a total of 3758 ‘snapshots’ of their activities and their emotional experience in everyday life. Data were collected using the experience sampling method. Momentary affective states were measured by the PANA short-scales. The findings show, first, that students with and without SEN from regular classes interact as often with peers during leisure time, while students with SEN from special classes are presumably more likely to interact with family. Second, adolescents experience leisure activities more positively than instruction. Third, social interactions generally have a positive effect on the quality of experience. The quality of experience is especially good for teenagers when they are with peers – best with peers during leisure time. There are no differences between the student groups.

Teacher Formation and Teaching Culture in Everyday School Life at University: The Area of Health Case

Teacher Formation and Teaching Culture in Everyday School Life at University: The Area of Health Case

Classroom management - pledoaje za efikasno delovanje u učionici

The development of teaching involves the totality of systematic tendencies to optimize teaching practice in the direction of meaningful and effective learning. Learning this way through the exchanges of guided and independent work often deals with open and authentic problems. These endeavors open up a series of questions that want to give an answer on what conditions the successful classroom management should take into consideration, which occurs in the school in the form of a wide range of direct and indirect activities that the teacher should realize in order to overcome various and unexpected tasks of school everyday life . The range of activities ranges from the perspectives of teachers through the perspective of students to the perspective of teaching and teaching process. Different elements and forms in which classroom-management appears vary with the intensity, the time and the duration, and occur in numerous combinations and with varying degrees of representation. In order to understand the effects of classroom management, we need transparent and challenging goals, understanding of the dynamics and structure of learning, success criteria, good will of students and teachers, logic and strategies to achieve the desired goals. In doing so, one should not ignore the multidimensionality of the teaching process: teaching and learning have their own focus, effect, tendency, types, their fidbek, as binding or complex interactions, communication and relationships mediated in the teaching and learning process.

„I have to be constantly disciplined” – a possible hypothetical model for pedagogical characters

How discipline the teachers in the primary schools in Hungary? How should they discipline tomeet the expectations, values and norms of our society? According to my research, in today’sprimary schools there are significant differences between discipline and conflict management.I analyse the differences and I set the behavior patterns of the teachers into three distinct types.These three characters are controlled from traditions, outside and inside. These three types aredistinctly distinct in everyday life of schools, with different effects on students’ socialization. Inthis paper, I present this hypothetical model, its operation in the dimension of discipline. Theinterviews that underlie the analysis were prepared by village teachers teaching in the Vásárosnamény micro-region.

A vida cotidiana da escola expressa um cotidiano? Aproximações ontológicas em debate

O presente texto, de natureza teórico conceitual, discute, a partir da ontologia crítica, a produção de conhecimento, os processos de conhecer, ensinar e aprender, bem como as bases ontológicas que consolidam tais processos. A partir de nossos estudos baseados na perspectiva do materialismo histórico-dialético – Lukács, Rubinstein Sheptulin e Heller – e do trabalho de formação que viemos desenvolvendo junto ao Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Ontologia Critica – GEPOC, defendemos como premissa preliminar a preexistência do mundo objetivo independente de nossa consciência, o que implica considerá-lo como possuidor de uma base material que o sustenta e permite, por meio dessa materialidade, que é processual e histórica, estabelecer um conhecimento objetivo sobre si, isto é, uma inteligibilidade do mundo. Nesta direção, em um primeiro momento, abordaremos algumas questões sobre o conhecimento e seu processo de apropriação a partir da base supracitada. Posteriormente, aprofundaremos o conceito de cotidiano escolar e de vida cotidiana, seus conteúdos e sua forma de transmissão e apropriação de conhecimentos, e a relação com a didática. Finalizaremos apresentando questões que nos possibilitem novas investigações.

Escritas que cruzam o tempo: dos diários de classe aos cadernos de anotações da Professora Maria Franca Pires (Juazeiro, 1957-1985)

In this article, we analyze aspects of educational memory, cultural and social development of the municipality of Juazeiro-BA, taking as a source of research two notebooks and a class journal produced by Professor Franca Pires and students, in the period that includes the 1950s and 1980. These documents allow you to build interpretations about education in different historical moments and seize them a number of situations, facts and unique experiences of everyday school life. The study raises theoretical and methodological discussions transiting in the areas of education history and cultural history, putting in evidence the multiplicity of themes and possibilities of research and knowledge production in the framework of personal files.

Pupils’ everyday transitions in school as a condition for social relations and activities in leisure time centres

This article focuses on how pupils’ everyday transitions constitute a condition for pupils’ activities and relationships, and how pupils understand and give meaning to their everyday transitions between different school settings (school and Leisure Time Centre). To examine this, we made participant observations in three different educational settings. The focus of these observations is on pupils in their everyday life in school and LTC, thereby gaining insight into the experiences of being a pupil in these settings. In regard to social relations, the changes brought about by daily transitions between educational settings create conditions for different activities and changes in the group. The changes in groups that occur in the different contexts of everyday transitions in school can be both an opportunity and an obstacle, depending on the situation and with whom pupils wish to engage in social interaction. Thus, it is clear that the transition from school to LTC often involves changes in the group, thereby changing the conditions of pupils’ opportunities to form relationships with each other.

2.SABERES E EXPERIÊNCIA: FORMAÇÃO DE PROFESSORES DA REDE PÚBLICA EM ATIVIDADES EXTENSIONISTAS

O objetivo do estudo foi analisar as tematicas oferecidas no Curso de Extensao Formacao de Professores: um desafio contemporâneo como indicativo para a melhoria da formacao de professores da rede publica. A investigacao foi realizada no Centro de Pesquisa e Estudos Pedagogicos da Universidade Estadual do sudoeste da Bahia. Foram participantes 20 professores da rede publica municipal e estadual que frequentaram os tres ultimos cursos. Foi utilizado como instrumento um questionario semiestruturado contendo 12 questoes versando sobre a contribuicao do curso para a formacao dos profissionais, as aprendizagens adquiridas e as mudancas oriundas a partir das experiencias/vivencias do curso. As tematicas foram divididas em cinco areas, trabalhadas de forma interativa, numa perspectiva multidimensional, possibilitando aos participantes uma visao de conceitos basicos com base em atividades teorico-vivenciais: a) historico da formacao de professores no Brasil, b) pratica e formacao de professores, c) memorias e formacao de professores, d) pesquisa em formacao de professores, e) o professor multirreferencial. Dentre as aprendizagens adquiridas identificamos a valorizacao do conhecimento e a compreensao da relacao professor e aluno; importância da continuidade da formacao, melhoria da atuacao profissional; reflexao da pratica pedagogica; valorizacao docente e subjetividade do professor. Foi constatada, tambem, uma necessidade da aplicabilidade das tematicas na pratica pedagogica dos professores. Em relacao a contribuicao do curso para a formacao dos profissionais e as mudancas oriundas a partir das experiencias/vivencias, foram relatadas a construcao teorica e o amadurecimento profissional, a ampliacao da visao sobre ser professor; necessidade de uma formacao continuada; saber fazer docente; conhecimento sobre o cotidiano escolar. Nesse sentido, a interlocucao entre saberes tem como consequencias a producao do conhecimento resultante do confronto com a realidade, como nos oriundos de um processo dialetico teoria/pratica/reflexao/pratica.

Redes sociais de internet numa escola de ensino médio: entre aprendizagens mútuas e conhecimentos escolares

O artigo resulta de estudo de caso em escola pública de Ensino Médio no Rio de Janeiro. No texto, contextualizamos a educação de jovens frente às mudanças societárias. Aplicamos questionário e realizamos entrevistas individuais e em grupos com professores e estudantes. Buscou-se compreender a presença das redes sociais de internet (RSI) no cotidiano escolar. Os dados permitiram ampliar a compreensão sobre as múltiplas interações, convergências e conflitos entre os sujeitos da escola a partir das mediações dessas redes. Encontramos movimentos diferenciados de interação entre professores e estudantes e distintos níveis de habilidades docentes e discentes. Frente às redes sociais, professores expressam práticas que ainda não lograram se constituir numa reconfiguração do Projeto Político Pedagógico da escola investigada.

Modern foreign language teachers – don’t leave those kids alone! Linguistic-cultural “give and take” in an ad-hoc tutoring scheme

This paper addresses the theme of social inclusion through language learning. The focus is on an ad-hoc tutoring scheme set up between newly arrived British migrant pupils and French monolingual pupils in a small secondary school in the south-west of France. Though the original objective of this tutoring scheme was to improve the English skills of the younger pupils, feedback reports indicated that it also had a positive impact on the relationship between the British migrant pupils and their French peers. Teachers believed that those involved participated more fully in class, and appeared more self-assured and generally happy thanks to the interpersonal relationships this scheme helped to forge. This study demonstrates the necessity of analysing the socio-cultural context migrants may find themselves in, in order to identify potential challenges. The ad-hoc tutoring scheme described here is an example of how language learning can support the integration and inclusion of “new generation” migrants into everyday school life.

An Examination of Distributive and Relational Justice in the Issue of Education Fairness for Urban Migrant Workers’ Children

Current arguments on educational fairness for the children of migrant workers in cities primarily promote the opportunity to enroll in local public schools. Drawing on current research, as well as discussions of fairness and justice from Aristotle in the classical period to Rawls, Dworkin, Walzer, and the contemporary scholar Young, we investigate educational fairness for migrant children on the two levels of distributive justice and relational justice. The study finds that some migrant children in more disadvantaged socioeconomic situations still attend simple private schools. Obstacles still hinder migrant children in public schools from accessing high-quality educational resources in cities, as they are mostly concentrated in lower-quality schools. Thus, the principle of distributive justice is not realized when examining the opportunities for migrant children to attend school. Even when they attend public school, due to stereotypes and systemic factors, migrant children are collectively marginalized and experience cultural oppression in everyday school life. Thus, relational justice is hindered as these youths feel powerless and without educational rights.

A BASE NACIONAL COMUM CURRICULAR E A PRODUÇÃO BIOPOLÍTICA DA EDUCAÇÃO COMO FORMAÇÃO DE “CAPITAL HUMANO”

Este artigo debate a Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) tomando, como ponto de partida, os enunciados discursivos expressos no site oficial do Movimento pela Base Nacional Comum Curricular. Trata-se, portanto, de uma pesquisa bibliográfico-documental. Problematiza como a BNCC, ao apresentar um conjunto padrão de conhecimentos e habilidades essenciais que cada estudante brasileiro deve aprender a cada etapa da Educação Básica, se afirma como um dispositivo de poder que busca controlar e/ou regular a vida, no sentido de estabelecer quais conhecimentos e habilidades são essenciais, em termos de competências individuais, para fundamentar as avaliações em larga escala, os processos de aprendizagem recognitivos, a formação do homo economicus neoliberal, ignorando os múltiplos contextos escolares não definíveis a priori. Conclui sobre a necessidade de buscar, no âmago da petrificação da vida, a sua afirmação, via um movimento de composição no plano de imanência do currículo que se contraponha ao biopoder, quer dizer, ao poder sobre a vida, pois a biopotência conecta-se ao desejo coletivo de conexão com os múltiplos contextos e cotidianos escolares, assim como com a ideia de currículo como corpo grupal que apresente consistência num plano de composição de um comum plural. Nesse sentido, a comunidade escolar necessita minimizar os fatores que induzem à passividade ou à potência mínima grupal e estabelecer conexões e/ou modos de associação que possibilitem, na grupalidade, o compartilhamento de ideias e experiências, agenciando a potência máxima de realização curricular.

Producing youth ‘Out of sync:’ the intersectional social relations of educational inequality

ABSTRACTThis article investigates intersecting institutional and policy relations that influence divergent developmental trajectories among young people. Beginning with young people’s experiential knowledge of key institutional contexts shaping their lives, the article illuminates socially organized disjunctures whereby young people come to see themselves as developmentally out of sync with institutional expectations for youth development, which organize everyday life in public schools. This institutional ethnography explicates the intersecting social relations that shape how young people grow up, the choices that are available to them, their participation in public sector institutions and ultimately, the race and class-based patterns of inequality perpetuated by public schools and other public sector institutions.

‘Doing your best’ in a London secondary school: Valuing, caring and thinking through neoliberalism

Focusing on pupils in the run up to their GCSEs exams, this article examines notions of success, worth and ‘doing your best’ as they emerge in everyday life in a London secondary school. This discussion is in critical dialogue with debates on neoliberalism and the particular interdisciplinary relations they entail. Whilst recognising that neoliberalism represents an important arena of shared exchange, the author also argues that we need to be wary of writing out the complexities of lived experience as we utilise these analytical framings. Drawing from 14 months’ ethnographic fieldwork, the author highlights how performance and audit shape everyday life in school. Whilst these practices rest on processes of commensuration – the production of equivalence – a focus on the emergence of different forms of value and worth draws attention to the incommensurable dimensions of selves also in circulation within school. Furthermore, a focus on the care extended by teachers to all their pupils, not just the ones defined as ‘successful’ within the terms of audit and performance, highlights the importance of an ordinary ethics within school that cannot necessarily be analysed in terms of broader political projects of inequality.

High Performance Education Fails in Sustainability? —A Reflection on Finnish Primary Teacher Education

Sustainability is internationally often emphasized as an essential aim of higher education, but more as a principle than on the practical level. This is also obvious in the academic education of primary teachers in Finland. Therefore, it is a great challenge for Finnish teachers to include sustainability in their teaching and everyday life in schools. The aim of this article is to critically analyze why the implementation of sustainability in teacher education is so intricate and to discuss possible solutions with Finland—a country highly valued for its education—as an example. The article reports outcomes from educational policy documents and research on educational, philosophical, scientific and social aspects of sustainability, including evaluation of how sustainability has been implemented in schools and at universities, especially among teacher educators. In addition, the article builds on analyses of comprehensive university strategies and primary school teacher education programs. We found these reasons for the ignoring of sustainability in the Finnish teacher education: sustainability is in conflict with overall trends in society and politics, teacher education takes place at universities and is based on separate academic disciplines. Sustainability is also intricate because it is strongly connected to ecological literacy and it is value dependent. Universities need to overcome these obstacles and become forerunners in the sustainability process.

Kontemplative aktiviteter i skolen i et livsverdensperspektiv – Observationer mellem åbenhed og refleksion.

This article deals with how contemplative activities in a public school setting and a Waldorf school setting emerge in a phenomenological inspired life-world perspective. It starts with a short introduction to ‘contemplative activities’ and how they can be understood in connection to school settings as a way for the teacher to direct the attention ofthe children and foster mental health and well-being. In the qualitative literature, contemplative activities in schools are often described as part of a mindfulness or yoga inspired intervention. The two schools presented in this paper both have contemplative activitiesas an integrated part of their everyday school life. In these settings the teachers use poetry, music and movement to direct the attention of the children either as an opening to the subject learning, between subject activities or when there is a need for a break duringlessons. The purpose of this article is to describe and discuss what emerges when the researcher applies a life-world perspective to these school settings with a phenomenological focus on the bodily becoming of the children in the classroom.

Przestrzeń aksjologiczna szkoły I. Konstrukt teoretyczny

The article is a meta-analysis aiming to create a construct of the axiological space of school, understood as a structure of the communications (transfers) relating to morality, experienced in everyday school life. Elements of this space create a set of factors which potentially affect students’ socio-moral development. This is a hypothetical construct which provides the basis for the operationalization of everyday school life and the study of its participation in the cognitive, affective and behavioral effects of school moral education programs.