School stuff: a pedagogical regime of enunciation?

Abstract

Although a large amount of ethnographic research has been conducted in schools, little is known about the particularity of the school, about what makes the school – as a school – different from other (learning) environments. As school ethnographies focus primarily on the perspectives and interpretations of pupils and teachers, the school itself remains largely ignored. Drawing on ethnographic research within six Flemish secondary schools, the particularity of the school is examined through its possible regime of enunciation. By focussing on both sociomaterial and discursive elements within school practices, we look for markers which point at a specific pedagogical regime of enunciation within these practices. Attention is then paid to the manner of speech, to the elements at stake when sayings occur, to the knitting together of objects, time(s) and space(s) as they are enacted through and as part of practices at school.

Keywords:

• School education
• ethnography
• sociomateriality
• regime of enunciation
• school practices

Acknowledgements

Special acknowledgment to the Flemish Fund – Flanders (FWO) and the Research Council of the KU Leuven (OT) for funding this research project. We are also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers as well as our colleague Stefan Ramaekers for their useful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. Referring to a book edited by Hammersley and Woods (1984) which collects significant contributions to the field of pupil ethnography.

2. Inspired by Mol (2002) who ethnographically studied the disease ‘atherosclerosis’.

3. As an extensive review of school ethnographies is beyond the scope of this article, a selection of ethnographies is made on the basis of their prevalence within the field of school ethnography.

4. The selection of specific school lessons was decided in consultation with principals and teachers.

5. Due to privacy concerns of the pupils involved, graphical note-taking through photographs was restricted to one lesson. Similar to sketching classroom maps, photographs were taken to capture the position of both humans and nonhumans.

6. Although unnoticed, other socks must have been present due to the wintry scenery outside. On 6 December 2012, temperatures barely climbed above freezing point.

7. A point which is also made by Masschelein and Simons (2013).

8. This particular room contains a whiteboard, rectangular and round tables, chairs, a fully equipped bar, a fireplace, four doors, atmospheric lighting and plants.