Masculinities and ethnicities at play: a discourse analysis of conflict in a Norwegian classroom

Abstract

Empirical research into the complex field of teachers' work is an important basis for teacher education. Although there exists a large literature of school-based ethnographic research, relatively little empirical research has been dedicated to research on the intersection of masculinities and ethnicities at play in school. Even fewer provide insights into how teachers act as agents of such processes as seen from their own perspective. Teachers' accounts of students can provide an insight into complex institutional and discursive practices of school. In this article, I demonstrate how everyday discourses of discipline and control, as well as professional discourses of problem behaviour intersect with ethnicity and masculinities. This involves a detailed examination of the way a male teacher describes a boy in his class