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‘Wet children’ and ‘little actresses': going sick in primary school
Author(s) -
Prout Alan
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.1986.tb00028.x
Subject(s) - ethnography , context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , psychology , school teachers , sick child , pedagogy , sociology , social psychology , medicine , pediatrics , history , anthropology , archaeology
Abstract The material presented here is drawn from a wider ethnographic study of children's sickness absence in a primary school. The particular aspect deals with concerns how children's claims on sickness are handled by teachers and other school staff. Teachers' typifications of the childrearing practices of the parents, especially the description of the children as ‘wet’, and the project that flows from it, are suggested as the framework in which teachers interpret the children's claims. These are shown to be differentiated according to gender and age and placed in the context of the move to secondary school as a key symbolic moment in the transition to adulthood. It is suggested that an ethnographic approach can significantly illuminate the processes and practices underlying (mainly American) questionnaire and attitude studies of the acquisition of sick role conceptions by children.