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The meaning of boredom in school lessons. Participant observation in the seventh and eighth form

2007; Routledge; Volume: 2; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17457820601159133

1745-7831

Georg Breidenstein,

Education Practices and Challenges

Abstract Spending just a few hours in the classroom situation as a participant observer, one definitely recognizes 'boredom' as one of the main features of this situation. In spite of the obvious relevance of boredom in the classroom situation there is almost no research on the topic of boredom at school. Boredom seems to be a taboo of sorts in school research. The paper first deals with methodological problems concerning the exploration of boredom. How can boredom be analysed by the means of ethnography assuming that the ethnographer himself is not bored? On the other hand in the classroom situation boredom becomes a collective phenomenon. Boredom is shown and is communicated in the context of the students' peer culture. What is the meaning of boredom? Analysing ethnographic data, the paper suggests that 'boredom' is a powerful sign distinguishing oneself from the specific task or the whole surrounding. Being bored means being detached. Concerning the teacher–student interaction there seems to be a tacit consent about the normality of boredom in school lessons. Everybody knows that school is (sometimes) boring, but the problem of boredom may not be made explicit. Notes 1. The research project of which I was the director was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and has taken place at the Center for School Research in Halle (Germany) from 2001 to 2005. Hedda Bennewitz and Michael Meier worked as ethnographers on the project, the author of the field notes is mentioned, where it is not the author of this paper. 2. The field notes of one-day observation run up to 10 or 15 pages, so all in all our data consist of more than 1100 pages of field notes. 3. The lack of treatment concerning boredom within school pedagogy and school research is itself enlightening for the reflection of the meaning of boredom at school. I will come back to this point later in the paper. 4. This differentiates ethnography from other forms of empirical social research. The analysis of social structures is not expected to be entertaining. Likewise, one will expect strenuous work when going through a conversational analysis. In contrast, the quality of ethnographic studies depends on their entertainment value, and rightly so. 5. To meet the challenge of 'the silence of the social' could also mean an important leap forward in the way the social sciences view things: Because we lack the fixation upon verbal data, our view of the social changes (see Hirschauer, 2001 Hirschauer , S. (2001) Ethnografisches Schreiben und die Schweigsamkeit des Sozialen. Zu einer Methodologie der Beschreibung [How to put things into words, ethnographic description and the silence of the social] , in: Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Jg. 30, Heft 6 (2001), S. 429 – 451 . [Google Scholar]). 6. A very famous expression of such weariness can be found in Faust, where the scholar Faust is tired of his studies (Goethe, Faust I, verse 354 ff.). 7. At the same time this episode may be interpreted as a male performance in the classroom—as the boys struggling about hegemonic positions. (see Mac an Ghaill, 1994 Mac an Ghaill , M. (1994) The making of men ( Buckingham , Open University Press ). [Google Scholar]; Kehily & Nayak, 1997 Kehily, M. J. and Nayak, A. 1997. Lads and laughter: humour and the production of heterosexual hierarchies. Gender and Education, 9(1): 69–87. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). 8. In the presence of the ethnographer, teachers have sometimes remarked to yawning students that they are teaching 'foundations of knowledge'. 9. The fact that boredom is usually not thematized in the everyday school routine is most likely the reason for its deficiency as a topic within school research. 10. This fundamental observation is true for all of the interviews: we did not find any positive references to 'boredom'. 11. Thus, every interview of students about their classroom experiences will (also) include reference to 'boring' classes. 12. It is, however, possible that both teacher and students together share boredom, when external factors (e.g., the lesson plan) are responsible for the situation. 13. There is a growing suspicion that the schools cannot afford to take a real look at boredom within this realm. The risk is just too great that the reasonableness of the entire enterprise might be called into question. It appears that school pedagogy participates in the consensus to neither address boredom nor disturb the passing of time by the students. 14. 1) I want that it becomes Wednesday at last! – Me too, then half of the week has passed already! – Help me, otherwise, I won′t survive the lesson. – Of course! I dont′t want that you die! – Thanks! 2) Please!! I′m soo bored! – Who not in this room (besides Mr XX)? Even the ants which don′t understand him are bored when he is near!