Premium
Philosophical and Historical Perspectives on Student Boredom
Author(s) -
Scribner Campbell F.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
educational theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1741-5446
pISSN - 0013-2004
DOI - 10.1111/edth.12387
Subject(s) - boredom , dialectic , epistemology , period (music) , convention , documentation , sociology , agency (philosophy) , psychology , aesthetics , social science , pedagogy , social psychology , philosophy , computer science , programming language
. In this article, Campbell Scribner applies insights from history, philosophy, and reader theory to marginal inscriptions in nineteenth‐century textbooks, providing a conjectural explanation of student boredom during the period. He contends that boredom was a dialectic and contingent experience, based on shifting notions of childhood and education, in which students navigated between public and private space and between spontaneity and convention. Ultimately, Scribner concludes, despite difficulties in documentation, that boredom constituted a crucial element of children's self‐education.