49. årgang, 6 December 2012 Tema: Skoleklassen – krav, kriser og kammeratskaber

Beskrivelse

Abstracts til nr. 6 – 2012

Andersen; Peter, Østergaard (Lecturer at the University of Copenha-gen).Examining Classes as a Matter of Course. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol.45, 6, 367 – 379. – The article points out that the classroom as a social organization and structure to a large extent functions unnoticed. Teaching is nearly always organized in classes, but this does not attract much attention. The article addresses how such matters of course may be examined, and the challenges emerging when methods of observation and studies of school structure are being implemented. Pupil perspective defined as the position and the thinking in the classroom of pupils is presented and discussed. – Peter Ø. Andersen.

Winther-Lindquist, Ditte (Lecturer). About being Quiet in the School – Illustrated by the Passing of two Boys from One Class to Another. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 45, 6, 380 – 391. – The paper argues that silence and shyness in the classroom has become inappropriate in the Danish edcuation ethos, so that children who are not participating verbally in the classroom context are sanctioned by both peers and teachers. It is suggested that the expectation towards active verbal participation increases in the primary school years because the child is supposed to develop in the social identity of a proper pupil. Through examples with two silent boys in transition between primary and secondary school a model of social identities in transition is suggested. As a part of the demands of arriving at a new school and into a new classroom active self-presentation is required, which is a tremendous challenge for silent/shy pupils. It is shown that the complex environment-person relationship shapes developmental pathways that can hinder or faciliate the boys to break the silence and become verbal participants in the classroom. Ditte Winther-Lindquist.

Stanek; Anja, Hvidtfeldt (Lecturer at the University Center of Roskilde). Unconcentrated or Concentrated on Other Children. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 45, 6, 392 – 399. – This article addresses children’s concentration difficulties from the perspective of social practice theory (Dreier, 1979, 1997, 2008; Klaus Holzkamp, 1985; Tolman, 1994).  Children’s ways of participating in teaching are analysed as connected to their life across different places, with different participants and their different ways of participating. The article argues in favour of an understanding of concentration difficulties in teaching settings as connected to difficulties in children’s communities. In that way the article substantiates difficulties as social rather than belonging to the individual.
Furthermore the article points out that Children’s lack of concentration does notnecessarily disturb the teaching, and in situations with non-disturbance the lack of concentration can potentially be overlooked or at least not noticed before the Children later on might show inadequate academic results. Anja Hvidtfeldt Stanek.

Larsen; Maja, Røn (Lecturer at the University of Aarhus). The Anecdotal Meaning of Everyday Life – When the Life of Children Disappears From the Comprehensive View. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 45, 6, 400 – 412. This article investigates interdisciplinary professional practice about “children in difficulties”. The article reflects findings from a study applying participant observation and interviews in composite compound cross-professional practice handling children in difficulties. With an onset in the boy Storm, and his course during a period of three years, the case is an analysis of the relation between the everyday life of Storm, and the professional descriptions of the difficulties surrounding him. On this background the articles claims, that knowledge from children’s everyday lives and analyses of the children’s perspectives often slip out of focus, in spite of intentions of developing a holistic approach with a many-facetted and con-textualizing gaze on children’s difficulties. In the case about Storm, it is shown how an unintended consequence of this can be professional blindness to the way interventions sometimes work to complicate the life situation of the child even further. Maja Røn Larsen.

Morin, Anne (Lecturer at the University of Aarhus). The Family Class – Between Contextualizing and Individualizing. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 445, 6, 413 – 422. – In this article, I will on the theoretical and methodological ground of critical psychology Dreier, 1993, 2008; Højholt 1996, 2001 and practice research present an analysis of empirical material from the research project: “Across family work and inclusion in school”.
In relation to the focus on the family class construction the article is a reflection of a central theme grown out of the empirical fieldwork. The main point of discussion is a dilemma concerning the support given to children in some kind of educational and/or social difficulties in school.
An empirical example of an intervention in relation to a girl in 5th grade is presented to discuss this tension. The analysis shows that the intervention in the family class seems to reproduce a classic split between general education and special education since the organisation of the work contributes to an abstraction of the work in the family class from the work in the general class instead of relating it to the general class.
This dilemma can be said to mirror a tension at a larger societal scale when looking at the relation between the rhetoric in educational policy and practice. On the one hand policy rhetoric takes an outset in values of inclusion on the other hand the school system still inhabits different types of compensatory interventions as special schools and learning arrangements where individual pupils or smaller groups of pupils are split out from the general system. Anne Morin.

Skovlund, Henrik (Lecturer at the University of Aarhus). Voices from Diag-nosed Children About Relations Within Special Needs Communities. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 45, 6, 423 – 437 – This article is based on interviews and observation of eight children between seven and eleven years old about their views on themselves in regard to their diagnoses. The children were from different special schools and had diagnoses like ADHD, Autism and Non Verbal Learning Disorder. The investigation showed that the children’s understandings of their diagnosis were not stigmatizing within the context of the special needs schools. If the children had problems, these were explained with reference to general issues with teachers and peers and not grounded in their understandings of the diagnosis as such. In contrast, the children used their diagnose to explain their former problems in the public schools from which they came. Basically the children understand themselves as suffering from an invisible handicap that makes their behavior uncontrollable and unwanted to an extent where they are unable to participate in common learning contexts and have to be medicated. However, within the special school the children’s self-understanding is basically positive and unaffected by the diagnosis. The question is whether this understanding can be transferred as motivational basis to public school at the end of the special need program. This paper argues that such a transference can not solely be based on empowerment of the children themselves, because their self understandings rely on conflicting practice between special schools and public schools with regard to the diagnoses. Thus the problem of transference has to be solved at an organizational level across the institutions as well as from within these institutions. Henrik Skovlund.

Ringsmose, Charlotte (Professor at the University of Aarhus).The Effects of Comradeship and the Difficult Social Unequality. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 45, 6, 438 – 444. – This article addresses how peer effect affects learning environments and learning outcomes in classrooms. The United States is used as an example being a country with a long history of policies attempting to solve problems of diversity in classrooms. In Denmark we face some of the same problems, and may profit from these experiences. Social background and achievement is strongly connected. Peer effects in the classroom may help children from poor social backgrounds perform better, and peer effects have social and academic impacts beyond school. Charlotte Ringsmose.

Hansen; Helle, Rabøl & Henningsen, Inge & Kofoed, Jette (Lecturers at the University of Aarhus). Classroom Cultures and Patterns of Bullying. Pædagogisk Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 2012, Vol. 45, 6, 445 – 454. – The more bullying in a class, the more anxiety, loneliness, and school disgust. These are findings from a survey from a number of classes for 14-15 ys. old children. The results show that experience of bullying rarely stands alone; when bullying is reported one also finds negative scores on other social parameters, i.e. anxiety, loneliness, and school disgust. The investigation suggests that the culture of the class is a decisive factor for the amount of bullying taking place in the classroom. – Helle Rabøl et al.