The pedagogic structure and the proper citizen

Abstract

Within the project, ”Active Citizenship? On Democratic Education in Upper Secondary School”, that aims at exploring democratic education, the relationship between being and becoming is interesting. How is pedagogy organised to enable students to be democratically involved as responsible actors in their education? What are the students’ expectations of becoming proper democratic citizens and how does that affect their education? The pedagogic structure and understanding of students’ positions in school and society, i.e. to be and become proper citizens, affect their possibilities to influence in school. In this paper, these themes will be discussed in terms of classification, framing, rules and codes with a special focus on class and gender. The research data shows contradictions between policy texts, pedagogic structure and the students’ actions. The data that this discussion draws on was ethnographically produced during one year’s field work in a Social Science class in an upper secondary school in the West of Sweden. The data consists of research data from lessons, interviews with students, teachers and principals as well as local and national policy texts.