Aim
The individualization of the pupil in the learning situation is emphasized in national and international curricula (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). Drawing on a sociocultural perspective where learning as a fundamental social phenomenon, the study’s purpose was to explore and seek to understand the culture of pupils’ collaborative coping strategies in a goal-and-result oriented educational context, when pupils orienting in a system comprising self-regulated learning, formative assessment, grading and national tests.
The research questions were: 1. What collaborative coping strategies do pupils develop in relation to national tests? 2. How could these strategies be understood in a goal- and result oriented educational context?
The concept of “coping strategies” draws on Lazarus (1966) that three processes are comprised in dealing with stress; a) perceiving a threat to oneself, b) mentally preparing a potential response to that threat, and c) the “coping”, which is the executing process of that response. Pollard (1984) argues that the greatest potential threat at school to children’s coping is associated to the teacher’s power such as the incessant evaluation of their performances - and that pupils consequently orient their actions towards this.This ethnographic study was based on a long-term participant observation at a municipal school during 4 months in an 8th grade class with 25 pupils, followed by video recordings of lessons, and interviews with the same pupils a year later when in 9th grade. The findings in this presentation on national tests are based on data from interviews (conducted 2018). The Regional Ethical Review Board in Umeå, Sweden, reviewed the study.
Findings/Conclusions
The interviews revealed that some pupils had developed collaborative coping strategies in regard to lesson-related individual written assignments and test-taking. Using digital tools and social networks, pupils wrote parts of or entire written assignments for classmates to be handed in as individual assignments for grading, and forwarded national tests and the teachers’ answer keys to the national tests to peers. These strategies resulted in a behaviour of “knowing-how” to write assignments and perform well on national tests. Accordingly, these pupils may not get the requisite help from teachers in order to improve their own academic skills at school. A key-finding is that the coping strategies seemed unproblematic for the majority of the pupils who also showed a pragmatic and instrumental regard on academic performances, grades and national tests. Seen from a pupils’ perspective, these coping strategies could be meaningful responses to a performative school context in countries heavily relying on national tests. Exclusion mechanisms emerged; pupils less fluent in Swedish profited less from the developed strategies. The study could be a point of departure for further research on how pupils cope in an individualized goal and result oriented school contexts in the Nordic countries.
References:
Lazarus, R.S. (1966) Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Pollard, A. (1984) Goodies, jokers and gangs. In “Life in School – the sociology of pupil culture”, (Eds Hammersley, M. & Woods, P.) Buckingham: Open University Press.
Rizvi, F. & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing Educational Policy. Abingdon: Routledge.
2020.