Abstract
Abstract
This thesis intents to view and analyze how discourses exist in the classroom of a specific class, and that these discourses contribute to the creation of categories which are constituent for the inclusion and exclusion of the students in the class. Furthermore it analyzes the understandings of student-behaviour that are created in the context of the class community and how these constitutions seem to interact with connotations that the local students find in the categories. The thesis takes a post-structuralist theory point of view that leads toward a discoursive psychology and places itself in the subject scientific paradigm. The thesis works with point of departure in the themes: Gender, body marking, power, positioning and categorizing and the possibilities of construction of subjectivity.
The thesis contains a discourse analysis of the discourses of power that can be found in the empirical data collected for the project. The discourse analysis argues that the class is split into several enclaves and categories, which cut across the constitution of sexes. Also it indicates a normality code that demands several skills of the students to be able to participate properly in the community and to be recognized, for example extrovertism.
In the analysis it is concluded that to be a part of the community in the class, as a boy you have to be a part of the footballers group. These boys define the normality code in the group. As a boy, the spoken language is an important skill for inclusion. Concerning the girls it is the ”barbies” who - with their body decoration, physical and sexual development, their circle of friends and the prestige in that - define the space in which to act and who are possible participators in the community. This is defined through contribution to the stories of the girls’ meetings and through the positions the others are allowed to take.
The thesis further discusses how body marking and discourses of power in several ways have a significant influence on the processes of construction of subjectivity through the changing of the distributing constellations of the discourses in the social environment. Finally the thesis discusses the students’ consciousness and understanding of themselves in relation to the categories and their hereby given positions of in- or exclusion.
This thesis argues that several of the students are not entirely valid members of the class community. The excluded students are not fully aware of this, but the other students do not act like these students are included, which is shown through excluding actions. The excluded students on the other hand fight against the excluding categories in which they are placed. Further it is shown that these students are spoken of as ”boundary figures”. They are different. Their actions are not understood by the others. And no one knows for sure what is hidden in their inside.
On a theoretical and methodological level the thesis shows how discourse analysis is used as a tool; the importance of using the needed time for observation (focus on the actual actions), analysis (the challenging of common sense comprehensions) and reflections about the signs and possibilities of action the students have. The empirical findings of this thesis implicate that using the analytical strategies of discourse analysis teachers have a tool to help them see the power relations, categories and discoursive structures, that constitute the class context. Using these insights adults - teachers - should help the students find a reasonable normality code by trying to influence the discoursive structures. Teachers can help shaping discourses so that the students can be together in the context of the class without having the feeling of exclusion or the feeling of being different – so that their experience of themselves does not get a negative character that potentially slows down personal development.
This thesis intents to view and analyze how discourses exist in the classroom of a specific class, and that these discourses contribute to the creation of categories which are constituent for the inclusion and exclusion of the students in the class. Furthermore it analyzes the understandings of student-behaviour that are created in the context of the class community and how these constitutions seem to interact with connotations that the local students find in the categories. The thesis takes a post-structuralist theory point of view that leads toward a discoursive psychology and places itself in the subject scientific paradigm. The thesis works with point of departure in the themes: Gender, body marking, power, positioning and categorizing and the possibilities of construction of subjectivity.
The thesis contains a discourse analysis of the discourses of power that can be found in the empirical data collected for the project. The discourse analysis argues that the class is split into several enclaves and categories, which cut across the constitution of sexes. Also it indicates a normality code that demands several skills of the students to be able to participate properly in the community and to be recognized, for example extrovertism.
In the analysis it is concluded that to be a part of the community in the class, as a boy you have to be a part of the footballers group. These boys define the normality code in the group. As a boy, the spoken language is an important skill for inclusion. Concerning the girls it is the ”barbies” who - with their body decoration, physical and sexual development, their circle of friends and the prestige in that - define the space in which to act and who are possible participators in the community. This is defined through contribution to the stories of the girls’ meetings and through the positions the others are allowed to take.
The thesis further discusses how body marking and discourses of power in several ways have a significant influence on the processes of construction of subjectivity through the changing of the distributing constellations of the discourses in the social environment. Finally the thesis discusses the students’ consciousness and understanding of themselves in relation to the categories and their hereby given positions of in- or exclusion.
This thesis argues that several of the students are not entirely valid members of the class community. The excluded students are not fully aware of this, but the other students do not act like these students are included, which is shown through excluding actions. The excluded students on the other hand fight against the excluding categories in which they are placed. Further it is shown that these students are spoken of as ”boundary figures”. They are different. Their actions are not understood by the others. And no one knows for sure what is hidden in their inside.
On a theoretical and methodological level the thesis shows how discourse analysis is used as a tool; the importance of using the needed time for observation (focus on the actual actions), analysis (the challenging of common sense comprehensions) and reflections about the signs and possibilities of action the students have. The empirical findings of this thesis implicate that using the analytical strategies of discourse analysis teachers have a tool to help them see the power relations, categories and discoursive structures, that constitute the class context. Using these insights adults - teachers - should help the students find a reasonable normality code by trying to influence the discoursive structures. Teachers can help shaping discourses so that the students can be together in the context of the class without having the feeling of exclusion or the feeling of being different – so that their experience of themselves does not get a negative character that potentially slows down personal development.
| Original language | Danish |
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| Publisher | |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |