The class of 1980: methodological reflections on educational high school narratives from Denmark in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

This paper is based on the author’s experiences of interviewing seven men and seven women who graduated from a Danish high school in 1980, at a moment when the upper secondary system underwent a process of democratisation. She questioned the informants as to the role education has played in their lives, and as to the sense their choice of education makes to them. In addition to providing extensive narrative data about the experience of going through the educational system in the 1970s and 1980s, her interview process also raised two fundamental methodological issues. The first regards the relationship between the narrative and its historical context. The second relates to how narrated truths can be understood more as split and divided between the interviewee and the interviewer than as negotiated, as is frequently argued. In the paper it is suggested that these narratives act more as a testing ground for the development of interpretations and reflections about the early years of the so‐called “educational explosion” that has taken place in Denmark from the 1960s until today than as ultimate truths.

¹ This article is an expanded version of a paper presented at the European Social Science History Conference in Amsterdam, March 2006. I would like to thank the participants in the session “Narratives of education” for very helpful comments. I would also like to thank my colleague Ida Juul for urging me to confront the methodological challenges related to my share in our research project “Schooling for Life: Educational System and Educational Narratives. Denmark 1945–2005”.

Keywords:

• narratives
• high school
• Denmark
• method
• 1980s

Notes

¹ This article is an expanded version of a paper presented at the European Social Science History Conference in Amsterdam, March 2006. I would like to thank the participants in the session “Narratives of education” for very helpful comments. I would also like to thank my colleague Ida Juul for urging me to confront the methodological challenges related to my share in our research project “Schooling for Life: Educational System and Educational Narratives. Denmark 1945–2005”.

² Karen Sørensen and Per Boje, Fra klondyke til moderne velfærdskommune. Gladsaxes politiske historie 1900–2000 [From clondyke to a modern welfare community. The political history of Gladsaxe 1900–2000], (Gladsaxe: Gladsaxe kommune, 2001), 39, 175, Ning de Coninck‐Smith, “Folkeskolen i de store forsøgsår 1960–1988,” [The public school during the years of the great experiments] in Gladsaxe bogen III [The Gladsaxe‐book III], ed. Ebbe Fels (Gladsaxe: Gladsaxe lokalhistoriske arkiv, 1991), 235–260.

³ Stephen Lassonde, “High School,” in The International Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood. In History and Society, ed. Paula S. Fass (New York: Macmillan, 2003): 419–421.

⁴ Erik Jørgen Hansen, En generation blev voksen, Rapport 95:8 [A generation came of age. Report 95.8] (København: Socialfor sk‐ningsinstiuttet, 1995).

⁵ http://www.uvm.dk/statistik/pctafslutudd.htm?menuid=551105 (accessed August 7, 2007).

⁶ The project The Class of 1980 is part of a larger three‐generational research project called “Schooling for Life: Educational System and Educational Narratives. Denmark 1945–2005” (see Juul, and Bjerg and Rosen Rasmussen in this issue). The larger project deals with lower secondary school students from Gladsaxe who were seventh graders in 1955, 1975 and 1995. The choice of Gladsaxe Gymnasium was therefore a consequence of this.

⁷ Given the limited sample of 21 persons who had responded positively to my first letter, I made my choice of the 14 interviewees randomly without reference to social or educational background. By coincidence I ended up with an equal number of men and women. The interviews lasted about 1 h 45 min. Five people have been interviewed twice. Two interviews have been transcribed full length; 11 have been transcribed in part. Only a summary exists from the interview conducted by phone. Two more interviews were conducted at the outset to test my question guide. These interviews are not used. As part of my background research I also conducted a focus‐group interview with four of the science class teachers.

⁸ Erik Jørgen Hansen, “Arbejderklassen, bondestanden og skoleeksaminerne. Nogle træk af det danske skolesystems selektive virkning,” [The working class, the farmers and the school exams] Økonomi og Politik 40, no. 4, (1967): 425–438.

⁹ Harry Haue, Almendannelse som ledestjerne. En undersøgelse af almendannelsens funktion i dansk gymnasieundervisning 1775–2000 [Building as a guiding star. An investigation of the role of building in Danish high school curriculum 1775–2000] (Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2003).

¹⁰ Sherry B. Ortner, New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of ’58 (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2003); Joseph E. Illick, At Liberty: The Story of a Community and a Generation. The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania High School Class of 1952 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989).

¹¹ Kirsten Hastrup, Viljen til viden [The will of knowledge] (København: Gyldendal, 1999); Margaretha Järvinen, “Accounting for Trouble. Identity Negotiations in Qualitative Interviews with Alcoholics,” Symbolic Interaction 24, no. 3 (2001): 263–284; Margaretha Järvinen, “Life Histories and the Perspective of the Present,” Narrative Inquiry 14, no. 1 (2004): 45–68.

¹² Jorma Kalela, “The Challenges of Oral History – The Need to Rethink Source Criticism,” in Historical Perspectives on Memory, ed. Anne Ollila (Helsinki: SHS, 1999), 139–154.

¹³ Jens Brockmeier and Rom Harré, “Narrative. Problems and promises of an alternative paradigm,” in Narrative and Identity: Studies in Autobiography, Self and Culture, ed. Jens Brockmeier and Donal Carbaugh (Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 2001), 51–53.

¹⁴ Ibid., 51.

¹⁵ Peter Altheit, “Historier og strukturer – metodologiske overvejelser over narrativitet,” [Stories and structures – methodological reflections about narrativity] in Livshistoriske fortællinger og fortolkende socialvidenskab [Lifestory narratives and interpretative social science], ed. A.S. Andersen, B. Dausien and K. Larsen (Frederiksberg: Roskilde Universitetsforlag/Samfundslitteratur, 2005), 130–132. Järvinen, “Accounting for Trouble”; Järvinen, “Life Histories”.

¹⁶ Ida Juul, “Den danske velfærdsstat og uddannelsespolitikken,” [The Danish welfare state and educational policy] Uddannelseshistorie no. 40 (2006): 72–99.

¹⁷ http://www.videnskabsministeriet.dk/fsk/rapporter/universitetsuddannelser_i_historisk_perspektiv201205.pdf (accessed March 3, 2006) and U‐90, Samlet uddannelsesplanlægning frem til 90’erne [Educational planning towards the 1990’s, vol. 2], bind 2 (København, Undervisningsministeriet, 1978), 117; http://www.uvm.dk/statistik/gymnasie/documents/Etnytkuldstudenter.pdf (accessed August 7, 2007).

¹⁸ Kruchow Chresten, “Socialdemokratiet og folkeskolen,” [The Socialdemocratic Party and the Public school] in Bidrag til Den danske Skoles Historie, 1898–1984 [Contributions to The History of the Danish School 1898–1984] (København: Unge pædagoger, 1985), 127–162.

¹⁹ Poul Villaume, Danmarks historie 1970–1985, Vol. 15 [Danish history 1970–1985. Vol. 15] (København: Politiken og Gyldendal, 2005).

²⁰ Politiken, March 22, 1979, Weekendavisen, March 23, 1979.

²¹ Cirkulæreskrivelse om ændring af Cirkulære af 16.02.79 om evaluering og meddelelse til hjemmene, 18. april 1979 [Circular letter of 18.April 1979 about changes in the Circular of 16.02.79 about evaluation and messages to the parents] (NCS translation).

²² Ning de Coninck‐Smith, “Politik, realitet eller retorik? Debatten om forsømmelser i det danske gymnasium 1967–1988,” [Politics, realities or rhetoric? The discussion about absentees in the Danish high school/gymnasium 1967–1988] unpublished manuscript.

²³ Undervisningsministeriet [The Ministry of Education], journalsag 1977, 232–214.

²⁴ J. Lange, “Student/HF’er – hvad så?, [Graduation – and then what?]” Gymnasieskolen (1979): 272–279; P. Marker, “Tilgangen til gymnasiet er steget med 25 procent,” [The number of high school students has augmented with 25 percent] Gymnasieskolen (1979): 16–24; R. Nielsen, Gymnasielevernes hverdag [Everyday life of high school students] (København: GLO, 1979).

²⁵ Stormen, [The Storm] April 1979, Weekendavisen, March 23, 1979, Ning de Coninck‐Smith, De store forsøgsår [The Years of Great Experiment], 265.

²⁶ Direktoratet for gymnasieskolerne og HF [The Directorate of the High Schools], journalsag 10‐31‐07/79 resolution of March 27, 1979.

²⁷ In 1979, 28% of all university graduates were unemployed a year after their graduation. Among the candidates with a degree within the humanities 30% were unemployed; 28% percent of all candidates no matter what academic discipline worked part time, whereas 44% had a found a full time job. Magisterbladet, 2 (1979): 11.

²⁸ Järvinen, “Life Histories,” 51.

²⁹ Ibid., 51.

³⁰ Järvinen, “Accounting for Trouble,” 278.

³¹ Järvinen, “Life Histories,” 53.

³² Camilla Hutters, Mellem lyst og nødvendighed [Between lust and necessity] (Roskilde: Roskilde Universitetscenter, Forskerskolen i livslang læring, 2004).

³³ Interview no. 13, tape 1, 18.42–20.06.

³⁴ De Coninck‐Smith, Politik, realitet eller retorik [Politics, Realities or Rhetoric].

³⁵ Steinar Kvale, “The Dominance of Dialogical Interview Research,” Impuls no. 1 (2005): 7.

³⁸ Interview no. 11, tape 3, 0.27–1.20.

³⁶ Ibid., 9.

³⁷ De Coninck‐Smith, Politik, realitet eller retorik [Politics, Realities or Rhetoric].

³⁹ Interview no. 5, tape 1, 20.2–21.54.

⁴⁰ Järvinen, “Accounting for Trouble,” 281.