Classroom bodies: affect, body language, and discourse when schoolchildren encounter national tests in mathematicsShow others and affiliations
2020 (English)In: Gender and Education, ISSN 0954-0253, E-ISSN 1360-0516, Vol. 32, no 5, p. 682-696Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The aim of this paper is to analyse how Swedish grade three children are discursively positioned as pupils when they are taking national tests in mathematics and when they reflect on the testing situation afterwards. With support from theories about affective-discursive assemblages, we explore children's body language, emotions, and talk in light of the two overarching discourses that we believe frame the classroom: the 'testing discourse' and the 'development discourse'. Through the disciplinary power of these main discourses children struggle to conduct themselves in order to become recognized as intelligible subjects and 'ideal pupils'. The analysis, when taking into account how affects and discourses intertwine, shows that children can be in 'untroubled', 'troubled', or ambivalent subject positions.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2020. Vol. 32, no 5, p. 682-696
Keywords [en]
affective-discursive assemblages, grade three children, ‘ideal’ pupils, mathematics tests, power
National Category
Pedagogy Nursing
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-147753DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2018.1473557ISI: 000545165600008Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85047142041OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-147753DiVA, id: diva2:1206439
2018-05-172018-05-172021-11-23Bibliographically approved