Everyday School Life Research Articles

‘I don’t think that it’s play. Because we have to play’. Norwegian six-year-old children’s understandings of play when they start in primary school

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore how Norwegian six-year-old children talk about and show their understandings of play when they have just started primary school. The research design is a focused ethnographic fieldwork, reporting on participant observations and group interviews with children in the first year of primary school, and interpreted through a thematic analysis. The analysis indicates that the children consider play as important to the transition process and their everyday school life. They express and show their understandings of play in various ways, thematized as freedom of choice, resistance, and community. The article suggests that children’s joint play can be understood as an underlife in school and introduces the term playful (re)production as a theoretical approach for exploring children’s understandings of play. The study raises awareness of the role play has for children’s well-being, agency, and relationships with peers in the transition process and in general activities in school.

When do pupils talk about their problems? Explaining pupils’ intentions to seek help from school social work services

School social work aims to be a low threshold point of contact and advice for pupils. In practice, however, pupils often avoid seeking help when needed. Although the factors that influence help-seeking are well established in the literature, there has been very little research on this for school social work. Adapting the behavioral model of health services use, the present study addresses this gap by examining individual and contextual factors promoting or inhibiting pupils’ intentions to seek help from social work services directly integrated into their schools. A total of 4,420 pupils (grades 5 to 9) from 32 schools in Switzerland completed a questionnaire in which they were asked how likely they would be to seek help when they face a family problem, peer problem, or difficulties in everyday school life they cannot solve on their own. Results from the multi-level analysis reveal that, overall, pupils’ intentions to seek help are rather low. Predisposing factors and enabling factors influence willingness to seek help, with trust emerging as the most important facilitator. It is therefore important that all pupils can establish a trusting relationship with their school social worker and gain positive experiences with him or her.

A History of Everyday Life in Female Schools within the Kharkov Educational District (1860–1862). Part 1

A History of Everyday Life in Female Schools within the Kharkov Educational District (1860–1862). Part 1

The Evaluation of the Final Stage of the Teaching Practice Program by the Students of the University of Western Macedonia

Teaching practice is an integral part of the teachers’ education program met in every Department of Primary Education. Through this, prospective teachers acquire a wide range of experiences from their contact with school, both by observing and by conducting lessons, while they focus on the practical as well as the theoretical aspect of their studies. In the Department of Primary Education of Florina, teaching practice program is divided into three phases, initially in the form of observation (Phase I) and then with personal hourly teaching in the classroom (Phase II). Phase III is the conclusion of the teaching practice and aims at acquiring direct experience of the daily work and life at school, at developing prospective teachers’ ability to self-evaluate their work as well as at becoming aware of their pedagogical responsibility towards students through teaching a school class for about two weeks. This paper presents students' views on the extent to which the main objectives of Phase III are met, on how significant it is in guiding and supporting their work and on the difficulties, they have encountered in conducting it. This research approach is part of an on-site long-term research which examines the overall teaching practice program, using all prospective teachers (126) throughout their studies as a control group, and questionnaire and semi-structured interview as research tools, providing us with both quantitative and qualitative data. By analyzing the research data, we find that students: a) consider Phase III one of the most important parts of their practical training, b) acquire direct experience of everyday school life, c) develop the ability to reflect on and self-evaluate their work, d) design and prepare teaching under real working conditions, e) develop the ability to deal in a personalized way with children with particular teaching problems, while f) they encounter significant problems with the time-consuming process of preparing the next day's lesson plan.

BOYS' AND GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOLS IN BURGAS - 1904 - 1944

In the history of education in Burgas high school education occupies a special place and the boys' and girls' high schools in the seaside town were its mainstay in the first decades of the last century. Their development goes through various vicissitudes, reflecting the changes in the educational legislation. The problems the managements of the two educational institutions have to deal with are:- staff turnover, low payment, problems with professional growth;- stuffing of party leaders empowered to take decisions that are not within their competence;- mobilization of students during the wars.At the beginning, the high school education in Burgas was catching up with the other cities in the country, at the end of the given period it trained specialists for the needs of the region and provided personnel for the Bulgarian universities and institutes.The following techniques were applied within the scope of the study:- biographical method;- historical-pedagogical analysis of educational information of a national and regional nature;- cultural-historical retrospective.Emphasis is placed on the high educational qualification of high school teachers who graduated from prestigious European universities: Dr. Minko Adzharov, Raina Kostenceva, Maxim Rajkovich, Sanda Yovcheva, Dimitar Radev, Roman Spatarev, Gencho Kirev. They formed the urban intelligentsia, and subsequently some of them became iconic names in national culture, science, and art. The names of Dimitar Radev, Zheko Radev, Petar Petkov-Osogovets, Tsvetan Minkov can be added to the above. The public appearances of personalities whose life and creative path remained connected to the seaside city began in the high schools in Burgas - these are Stefan Maksimov, Maxim Rajkovich, Georgi Popayanov, Panayot Vodenicharov, Gencho Mitev and a number of others.The review of high school annals, the personal archives of teachers and the published memories of students from this chronological period allow us to say that despite the stormy political events of public life, which resonated in high school everyday life, teachers and students were looking for something that could unite their efforts, and they found it in public events and activities, with which they contributed to the heightening of the authority of educational institutions in front of the citizenry.

Morningness and state academic self-concept in students: Do early birds experience themselves as more competent in daily school life?

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of circadian preference for students’ state academic self-concept (ASC). We focused on students’ tendency to be morning-oriented (i.e., morningness) and examined the association between morningness as a trait and mean levels of state (momentary) general-school ASC in everyday school life using intensive longitudinal data collected among N = 285 (Nobs = 6,140; Mlessons = 21.54) German ninth and tenth graders. Furthermore, we tested whether the strength of this relation between morningness and state general-school ASC was modulated by the time of day (i.e., synchrony effect). Results of multilevel analyses showed that morningness was positively related to students’ mean levels of state general-school ASC. However, our results refuted a synchrony effect on state ASC, as higher morningness related to equally high mean levels of state general-school ASC both early and late in the school day with respect to a typical school schedule with lessons occurring in the morning to early afternoon. The present findings contribute to our understanding of ASC and provide relevant information about how morningness should be positioned with regard to ASC in everyday school life.

The school in the virtual era: alerts and potentialities

This article addresses digital culture and its relationship with education. The objective is to discuss the role of the school in contemporary times from the challenges and possibilities for digital inclusion in the classroom. It is a bibliographical study based on concepts involving Anthropology and Sociology, relating them to studies on education and technology. Topics are discussed about teacher exhaustion in the face of the intensification of the use of digital technologies in the classroom with the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for critical training of students in digital culture and the challenges of the school in fulfilling its social function. through technological transformations and the feeling of constant connection at any time and place. As a result, the importance of appropriating digital culture at school and the need for educational institutions to act as protagonists in a critical formation of the technological age are pointed out, both in the sense of exploring its potentialities and identifying and refuting its harms. Finally, the importance of researchers, management teams and public policy makers to face the digital culture in educational institutions as an opportunity for dialogue between this and the everyday school life.

White racial ignorance and refusing culpability: how the emotionalities of whiteness ignore race in teacher education

ABSTRACT This article builds on Charles W. Mills’ foundational concept of white racial ignorance to expand his work by exploring the inner dynamics and practices of teacher education (its rationales, student teaching, practicums, pedagogies, curriculum) and explaining how the emotionalities of whiteness play a significant role in the ways that whiteness persists perniciously in teacher education. In order to hold whiteness accountable and culpable, it is argued that teacher education needs to stop emotionally deflecting anti-racist critiques by over pontificating their lackluster commitments to race, a practice which only ignores, and diverts attention away from the hegemonic presence of whiteness. It suggests that teacher educators need to help pre-service and in-service teachers be attentive to how racial politics are felt, acted upon, and reproduced, and how emotionalities of whiteness become ‘ordinary’ in everyday life in schools. The article concludes by outlining some implications for research and theory in critical whiteness studies.

How to select interventions for promoting physical activity in schools? Combining preferences of stakeholders and scientists

BackgroundThe failure to scale-up and implement physical activity (PA) interventions in real world contexts, which were previously successful under controlled conditions, may be attributed to the different criteria of stakeholders and scientists in the selection process of available interventions. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate and compare the criteria applied by local stakeholders and scientists for selecting amongst suitable school-based PA interventions for implementation.MethodsWe conducted a three-round repeated survey Delphi study with local stakeholders (n = 7; Bremen, Germany) and international scientific PA experts (n = 6). Independently for both panels, two rounds were utilized to develop a list of criteria and the definitions of criteria, followed by a prioritization of the criteria in the third round. For each panel, a narrative analysis was used to rank-order unique criteria, list the number of scorers for the unique criteria and synthesize criteria into overarching categories.ResultsThe stakeholders developed a list of 53 unique criteria, synthesized into 11 categories with top-ranked criteria being ‘free of costs’, ‘longevity’ and ‘integration into everyday school life’. The scientists listed 35 unique criteria, synthesized into 7 categories with the top-ranked criteria being ‘efficacy’, ‘potential for reach’ and ‘feasibility’. The top ranked unique criteria in the stakeholder panel were distributed over many categories, whereas four out of the top six criteria in the scientist panel were related to ‘evidence’.ConclusionsAlthough stakeholders and scientists identified similar criteria, major differences were disclosed in the prioritization of the criteria. We recommend an early collaboration of stakeholders and scientists in the design, implementation, and evaluation of PA interventions.

EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL E O USO SUSTENTÁVEL DA ÁGUA NA AMAZÔNIA: UMA ANÁLISE DAS PERCEPÇÕES AMBIENTAIS DE ALUNOS DO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL II NA ESCOLA MUNICIPAL FRANCISCO GUEDES DE QUEIROZ SITUADA NA CIDADE DE MANAUS-AM/BRASIL

The process of industrialization and urbanization development has led to environmental degradation and a gradual decline in the quality of life of the world's population. In the Amazon, this process acquires fundamental importance, especially in the context of water resources in urban spaces and one of the most necessary actions to build water management mechanisms is educational action. In this sense, environmental education reflects the importance of assigning relevance to individual and collective participation in maintaining the natural cycle of life in all its construction and application dynamics. In this way, educational institutions have the responsibility to train and guide students and communities to better understand their cultural concepts and expand the meaning of actions in the context of environmental education practices. Considering this context, the theme selected for this research was the sustainable use of water, with the main objective of analyzing the environmental perceptions of elementary school students in Manaus, Amazonas, on this theme in the Amazon. The descriptive research had a qualitative-quantitative approach and was carried out through digital platforms with students from the Francisco Guedes de Queiroz Municipal School. The work developed comprised a total of 89 students from the 6th and 7th year and a smaller group with 5 students from the 6th year. A questionnaire was applied, with structured, objective and subjective questions, sent by the Google Forms platform to the cell phones of the students' guardians. The results showed that students' perception on the subject is still limited, but it already reflects a view on the need for environmental protection. Environmental Education activities are fundamental for the insertion of themes experienced by students in the construction of knowledge and citizenship. This theme emphasizes the current need for environmental education in a systematized environment, which arouses the interest of students, bringing benefits to society, and which aims to form a responsible citizen. Therefore, in order to carry out environmental education in everyday school life, teaching and learning must be based on real knowledge, on the experience and coexistence of students, and seek to develop critical awareness and skills in the school community.

“The oversensitive, demanding parent” vs. “the professional teacher”- the ongoing struggle for the common ground of parent-teacher collaboration in Poland

The starting point for this article is the contradiction between research results and policy recommendations on the one hand and the school reality of collaboration between teachers and parents on the other one. My point is to underline the importance of parent-teacher cooperation and obstacles preventing it in everyday school life in Poland. Notwithstanding the obvious benefits of such collaboration, this area seems still to be neglected in the majority of Polish schools. In the article I will comment on the results of research conducted in Poland in recent years, which testifies to the discrepancies between the theory and practice. I will also share the results of my own qualitative action research, in which I work to overcome the existing boundaries – the resistance of teachers and schools towards parents on the one hand, and a lack of involvement of parents on the other.

Музыкальность эстетики М. М. Бахтина в создании актуальной образовательной модели

New educational models will have to respond to the need for a person to preserve himself as a living holistic being and as a person with an “inner Logos” growing spiritually. When there are no “pattern” like the “musical ethos” and “paideia” that are philosophically meaningful in ancient culture, it becomes a matter of theory to create an actual educational model and determine in its space the corresponding “value center” related to the “infinity of the universal culture-creative task”. The article argues that a productive step in this way can be the understanding of the experience in the history of the national school of creating educational models with a pronounced «value center». This is, first of all, the project of the “school of the dialogue of cultures”, defined by the authors (V. S. Bibler) in relation to the ideas of M. M. Bakhtin, and carried out at the end of the 20th century by a circle of humanities scholars and domestic school practices. The author believes the quality of M. M. Bakhtin’s aesthetic terminology is its “musicality” that will help to preserve the practical (project) potential and the ability to inspire the creation of relevant educational models in the new Russian conditions. The corresponding conclusion is drawn from M. M. Bakhtin’s explanation of the “speech genre of lyrics”, based on its musical basis (from the “spirit of music”) and consideration of the concept of “architectonics” in the analysis of music as an art form. The main “value center” in Bakhtin’s textes is a person in the “uniqueness” of his being; and the definition finds its resolution in the “musicality” of thought in the essay “On the Philosophy of Act” when M. M. Bakhtin talks about the “architectonic center of aesthetic vision”. The project of an educational model with such a “value center” (while retaining all the practical significance of real educational procedures, including, as today, in the form of digital educational platforms) appears as a “unity” that affirms: integrity, creativity, authenticity, dialogue, understanding, “participativeness”, “principles of humanitarian thinking” (opening, among other things, opportunities for a better understanding of the terminology by the project executors). The musicality of thinking in the design of an educational model means not only an appeal to human feeling, it implies not only “musical education” in an elementary and formal educational sense, but also refers to one of the key conditions for education and “educationality”, the formation in school everyday life of what Bakhtin formulated as “the architectonic center of aesthetic vision”.

Emotional demands in children’s transition from kindergarten to school

This article aims to explore how children are exposed to emotional demands in the transition from kindergarten to school. Psychosocial research and Hochschild’s work provide the underlying theoretical inspiration for the study. Hochschild’s concepts are used to frame the emotional demands children experience in everyday life in kindergarten and school, settings that can be seen as a workplace, albeit for children. Hochschild’s concepts and researchers inspired by her are often referred to when the work-life of adults is being studied, also when exploring stress and burnout at work. My study shows how children react to the emotional demands in their everyday lives in and across kindergarten and school and indicates that the emotion work they perform can sometimes cause emotional dissonance for children, just as it does for adults. The empirical basis for the discussion and conclusions consists of participatory observations conducted with children in the transition from kindergarten to primary school in the context of the Danish welfare state.

Reading the schoolchild: teacher perspectives on equality under Danish inclusion reform policies

ABSTRACT The Nordic education system centers ideologically on the idea that schools should be comprehensive and ‘for all’. A central dilemma however exists between ‘including all’ while still finding the means to differentiate in the same school. This article explores how the concept of the child has materialised into particular figurations of the schoolchild, by examining what produces the boundary-making practice between the normal schoolchild and the not-fully-schoolchild. The empirical example used for the analysis constitutes debates regarding two educational reforms in 1993 and 2014 targeting the Municipal primary and lower secondary school [Folkeskolen] in Denmark.Using posthuman theory and critical childhood studies, I explore how teachers debate the differences associated with inclusion and exclusion. The analysis shows that the figurations of the not-fully-schoolchild are intertwined with ideas of irreparable damage, lack of family support, and being harmful to themselves and other pupils. The not-fully-schoolchild has problems greater than their teachers and school can handle and therefore cannot be included in mainstream education. The figuration of the normal schoolchild does not include those with behavioural and emotional problems, and the effects of not viewing such children as fully schoolchildren involve the risk of exclusion from everyday school life.

Школьная повседневность старшеклассников в университетском лицее и гимназии: опыт сравнительного исследования

The study appears to be relevant since it addresses the research gap in the question how the way school life is organized influences students’ perception of various aspects of everyday life at school. Notably, the subject of this research is not the objective facts of school everyday life, but their representation in the minds, opinions, and assessments of high school students. The article suggests the model of school everyday life as a research object; this model is based on the investigation of various approaches to the analysis of everyday life (socioanthropological, socio-psychological, socio-pedagogical). The goal of the study is to identify the influence external organization of school life has on the peculiarities of senior high schoolers’ everyday life. The hypothesis of the study is as follows: The forms of school life organization as well as the specifics of the school community are reflected in the importance of the topics students discuss outside the classroom, their “attachment” to the functional tools of the Internet, and the prevalence of Internet slang and obscene language in the speech of tenth-graders. The participants were the tenth-grade students (N = 143) of the gymnasium (n = 75) and the lyceum (n = 68) (the city of Ulyanovsk) aged from 16 to 17 years. The following methods were used: “The Circles Test” (Thomas J. Cottle) was used to determine the characteristics of school t ime perception; “The Test of Color Relations” (A. M. Etkind, N. M. Platonova) was used to fix the parameters of the socio-physical space of school everyday life; a questionnaire was utilized to identify the main demographic characteristics and characteristics of the personalized material “world” of school everyday life. The results of the research are as follows: Tenth-graders’ past school experience influences the personal value of the “school past, present and future”; The perception of the physical space of an educational organization depends on its “appropriation” and psychological safety of use; The data are presented on the differences in the content and styles of high schoolers’ communication outside of the classroom depending on the characteristics of their educational organizations; Tenth-graders’ attitude towards the norms of “a school look” as well as the use of gadgets is shown to be linked to the extent to which “school behavior” is regulated in their educational organization. The article concludes that the form of school life organization is a factor influencing some characteristics of the everyday life of senior high schoolers. The study emphasizes the practical application of further research on the issues of interest.

Training teachers to work on racism, prejudice and racial discrimination in early childhood education

Early childhood education is absent from the legal regulations, so that there is an advance in an education free of racism, prejudice and discrimination. It is known that racism is a problem that permeates the Brazilian society, being present mainly in the school environment. With the enslavement of Africans, several myths about the supposed inferiority of blacks in relation to whites emerged as a way to show that they were and still are below whites. "Being white was considered a normal human condition, but being black required scientific justification" (Munanga, 1984). As a result, various prejudiced expressions were disseminated in the interaction between blacks and whites, leading to racial discrimination and racism. Even in early childhood education, it is important to be aware of racist practices, even if they often seem unconscious. Thus, the purpose of this article is to examine instances of prejudice and racial discrimination among young children in the context of early childhood education and the coping strategies used by teachers. Following a methodology based on qualitative research, using bibliographies, it brings the reader first-hand accounts from teachers about prejudiced and/or discriminatory situations involving young students in everyday school life.

Worldview literacy as a part of teacher professionalism

ABSTRACT This article, based on a mixed-method study, examines which dimensions of worldview are addressed by a group (N = 134) of Finnish students and in-service educators when interpreting a written imaginary case from everyday school life. The findings are interpreted in the framework of worldview literacy, derived from the concept of religious literacy and defined as an ability to decipher situations with aspects of worldview diversity. Data from open responses to a survey were approached in two ways, quantitatively, where worldview literacy was seen as an ability to recognise the impact of worldview in the case and argue for it, and qualitatively, where the different aspects of worldview mentioned by the participants were analysed. In terms of the quantitative analysis, the survey revealed a tendency to avoid explaining situations through worldview. From a qualitative point of view, the participants most often mentioned worldview as beliefs and something deeply significant and emotional. Furthermore, the data raised questions about essentialist attitudes towards worldviews and cultures, and recognising power issues. The case-based open question yielded multifaceted data, pointing to the fact that this method could be developed to measure worldview literacy.

Socialist Egalitarianism in Everyday Life of Secondary Technical Schools in Czechoslovakia during the Normalization Period (1969–89)

This article focuses on the realization of official government regulations of egalitarianism policy in secondary technical schools, especially on the informal practice that was “quietly” tolerated by the communist regime. The research is based on the historiographical approach of the history of everyday life. The primary research method is the oral history method based on interviews with witnesses—teachers who worked at secondary technical schools in the period under review. Research using the oral history method is further supplemented by the study of period legislation, periodicals, and the study of archival materials obtained in the National Archives in Prague and the Brno City Archives. The study provides a unique illustration of the application of the policy of egalitarianism in the everyday life of secondary technical schools in the normalization period in Czechoslovakia. In particular, the witnesses’ recollections reveal a practice toward some students that went beyond government regulations and influenced their studies in various ways, including admission procedures, dealing with disciplinary offenses, graduation, and obtaining a school-leaving certificate.

REFLETINDO SOBRE O COTIDIANO ACADÊMICO: UMA EXPERIÊNCIA NO INSTITUTO TECNOLÓGICO DE AERONÁUTICA

ABSTRACT This report addresses the experience instituted at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica called Reflita, whose proposal was to promote meetings to discuss topics relevant to graduation, in order to provide opportunities for collective reflection on academic norms and their application in everyday school life. As a starting point for the meetings, current legal documents and the experience of the participants were used. The strategy was implemented and endorsed by an opinion poll, which indicated the feasibility of continuing the proposal. Some developments were perceived, such as, for example, the proposition of the new counseling project and the implementation of a protocol for assisting students in crisis, adapted to the reality of ITA. It is therefore concluded that the strategy was valid, beyond the prescriptive and normative approach, pointing to the importance of a dialogue process with the academic community, intentionally bringing the legal aspects closer to the school routine.

Exploring the potential of eye tracking on personalized learning and real-time feedback in modern education.

Eye tracking is one of the techniques used to investigate cognitive mechanisms involved in the school context, such as joint attention and visual perception. Eye tracker has portability, straightforward application, cost-effectiveness, and infant-friendly neuroimaging measures of cognitive processes such as attention, engagement, and learning. Furthermore, the ongoing software enhancements coupled with the implementation of artificial intelligence algorithms have improved the precision of collecting eye movement data and simplified the calibration process. These characteristics make it plausible to consider eye-tracking technology a promising tool to assist the teaching-learning process in school routines. However, eye tracking needs to be explored more as an educational instrument for real-time classroom activities and teachers' feedback. This perspective article briefly presents the fundamentals of the eye-tracking technique and four illustrative examples of employing this method in everyday school life. The first application shows how eye tracker information may contribute to teacher assessment of students' computational thinking in coding classes. In the second and third illustrations, we discuss the additional information provided by the eye-tracker to the teacher assessing the student's strategies to solve fraction problems and chart interpretation. The last illustration demonstrates the potential of eye tracking to provide Real-time feedback on learning difficulties/disabilities. Thus, we highlight the potential of the eye tracker as a complementary tool to promote personalized education and discuss future perspectives. In conclusion, we suggest that an eye-tracking system could be helpful by providing real-time student gaze leading to immediate teacher interventions and metacognition strategies.