Children's experience of the rituals of schooling : a case study
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research is concerned with children’s experience of the repeated procedures and \nactivities in schooling, for example, registration, dismissal, assembly, discipline and \nsanctions. Built on a critical review of previous studies on school ritual, the current \ninvestigation deals with two sets of issues: ritual in the context of schooling, and \nchildren’s experiences of the rituals of schooling. Without being initially constrained \nby any theoretical framework or any particular conceptualisations of ‘ritual’, the \nresearch emphasises the exploration of real-life phenomena, and attempts in this way \nto achieve better understanding of children’s experience of the ritual aspects of school \nlife. \nA case study is carried out with a Year Four class in an English primary \nschool. Detailed classroom observations and extensive group interviews with children \nare employed for the inquiry. Children’s experience of routines, collective activities \nand classroom management are depicted through the researcher’s observation and by \ntheir own accounts through interviews. Focusing on registration, dismissal, assembly, \nclass organization and grouping, discipline, the teacher’s instructions, children’s \nattention-seeking, and children’s distractions and disruptions, the current research \nprovides an in-depth examination of the normal life of the classroom, putting \nchildren’s everyday schooling experience under the microscope in order to identify \nand analyse its authentic significance. \nThe inquiry falls into three stages in its exploration of children’s experience of \nthe everyday realities of life. Firstly, normal teacher-child interactions and children’s \nresponses to their trivial everyday experiences and the fleeting moments that are \nusually ignored or taken for granted by adults are examined through detailed \nobservation and critical reflection by the researcher. Secondly, the children’s accounts \nand descriptions in their interviews gradually present their own versions of the \n‘normal day’, thus revealing the way they themselves understand schooling, the \nteacher’s role and relationships among themselves, as well as the specific aspects of \nschool life in question. The final step in the researcher’s interpretation identifies three \ndifferent but co-existing responses on the part of the children to the rituals of \nschooling: acceptance, resistance and reflectiveness. The research arrives at an \nunderstanding of children as autonomous or potentially autonomous agents against a \nbackdrop of the taken-for-granted ‘structuring’ power of the rituals of schooling
Author: Xiao Jiamei
Institution: University of Huddersfield
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W155421198