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‘It would help if the teacher helps you a bit more… instead of going to the brainiest who don't need a lot of help’: exploring the perspectives of dissatisfied girls on the periphery of primary classroom life
Author(s) -
Fisher Helen
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1002/berj.3034
Subject(s) - feeling , neglect , psychology , literacy , observational study , position (finance) , sociology , observational methods in psychology , mathematics education , pedagogy , social psychology , medicine , finance , pathology , psychiatry , economics
This study explores the perspectives of three girls, identified through progressive sampling, from an original study of over 100 children's behaviour in, and feelings towards, literacy and, in the latter stages, all subjects, across one academic year. Through observational and semi‐structured interview data, the girls’ dissatisfaction, veiled behind compliant behaviour (Fisher, 2011), emerged, but also revealed their peripheral classroom position (Francis, 2005), relative to the more central position of masculine pupils and/or those ‘working above the expected level’. This article argues for an emphasis on the classroom ecology, both within policy and practice, so that in our desire to raise standards, we do not neglect the values which the teacher inspires and encourages, both in the classroom and throughout the school day, values so often witnessed, anonymously and silently, by children. Through the identification of these values, and the ecologies which they encourage, it is argued that a peripheral position can be exposed and challenged.