Bilingual students in classes of psychical education at Langkaer Gymnasium and Hf
- a qualitative study of how gym teachers and bilingual students experience conflicts in classes of
psychical education at Langkaer Gymnasium og Hf
Annie Fehr Therkildsen, November 2012
Abstract
This thesis examines how gym teachers and bilingual students experience classes of psychical
education at Langkaer Gymnasium og Hf, a school located near Aarhus. As a point of departure,
this thesis looks at a prevailing tendency within the media: Portraying nothing but conflict when
covering bilingual students in gym classes. Through a qualitative study, combining observations
with semi structured interviews with six gym teachers and eight group interviews with twenty-four
bilingual students, the thesis differentiate that tendency by providing a how and a why the
teachers and the students experience conflicts in the gym. My focus is divided into two main
areas:
- How the two parts experience challenges in the gymnasium and what the consequences
are for the current lessons
- Which factors affect the conflict-ridden meeting between bilingual students and their
teachers
In the search of understanding why there are more conflicts in the gymnasium, I use Pierre
Bourdieu’s theoretical terms habitus, capital and field as an analytical frame.
My thesis concludes that the teachers experience that the bilingual boys participate in gym class
with enthusiasm and without notable problems, all though the teachers underline that the
bilingual boys can be dominating in their behavioral patterns. This dominating tone can result in
tense situations, caused by the strong religious Muslim boys' psychical restrictions towards the
female teachers as well as the male teachers’ dominance towards the bilingual boys. Despite these
episodes, I conclude the boys’ actions are not in contradiction with the notifications and
regulations of the course, and therefore the teachers experience that the bilingual boys bring
positive energy to gym class. In contrast to the boys, the bilingual girls’ lack of showering after
class, changing clothes and participating actively, are the main sources of conflict with bilingual
students in gym class. The girls express the same experience of conflict and underline that nobody
showers and that the bilingual girls, in general, are psychically more restricted then the ethnic
Danish girls.
The bilingual girls accentuate that the reason for their reluctant participation is due to their
cultural and religious background – an explanation the teachers also tend to use in their model of
explanation. Never the less, this thesis demonstrates that this explanation is not comprehensive
for the situation and underline that it is important to look upon the students’ actions in a broader
perspective. It is important to draw attention to the interaction between the students’ three social
fields (family, teachers, friends), the expectations hereof and, subsequently, the different capitals
of the fields. The students attempt to adapt and balance these three fields, which is less
contradictory for the bilingual boys in comparison with the girls. This originates from the fact that
there can be big discrepancies between the different capitals and in the expectations of family,
teachers and friends, for the bilingual girls.
Given that it is a relatively new situation for the gym teachers, they have not yet come to a mutual
agreement on how to address and deal with the conflicts with the bilingual students. The thesis
concludes that the teachers try to include the bilingual girls by negotiate and trying to reach
compromises in the gym lessons. These actions are led by the teachers’ aim to be nondiscriminating, an aim that in emphasized by teachers’ remarks: that there are no actual
differences between the bilingual boys and the ethnical Danish boys. I conclude that these
remarks are said by the teachers in their intent to give all the students the same options and
possibilities, but as the situation is now the teachers’ purpose is not brought to action. Instead the
teachers paradoxically discriminate against the bilingual students but in reverse. This is seen by
the fact that some teachers either turn a blind eye on the conflicts or disregard talking about the
scale of the actual conflicts. These actions lead to the essential result and conclusion of my thesis,
which is that the gym teachers seem reluctant to deal with and discuss the specific problems
evoked by having bilingual students in gym class.
The students’ interactions with their surroundings and their constant attempt to navigate in their
different social fields show that the students are neither passive victims of their culture or religion
nor pure products of the structures of the gym lessons, its regulations or its requirements. Instead,
they have an active influence on the teachers’ understanding of them as bilingual students and on
the gym lessons contents. In this perspective, it is important that the teachers stop viewing the
bilingual students as culturally determined, and likewise, the bilingual students have to distance
themselves from using their culture or religion as their explanatory model for conflict. If the two
parties want to have a positive meeting in the gymnasium, the teachers have to start accepting
that there are differences between the bilingual students and the ethnical Danish students and
that there, in fact, are some conflicts that the gym teachers have to acknowledge, face and deal
with as a collective group.