School Bullying and Power Relations in Vietnam
Taking seriously the oft-made claim that power relations are central to school bullying, the dissertation focuses specifically on the interconnectedness of school bullying and power relations within the specific context of Vietnamese lower secondary schooling. The dissertation is based on extended e...
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| Format: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Linköpings universitet, Tema Barn
2011
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| Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-70540 http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:9789173930819 |
| Summary: | Taking seriously the oft-made claim that power relations are central to school bullying, the dissertation focuses specifically on the interconnectedness of school bullying and power relations within the specific context of Vietnamese lower secondary schooling. The dissertation is based on extended ethnographic fieldwork in two lower secondary schools in the north-eastern Vietnamese port city of Haiphong. Drawing on participant observations, group and individual interviews with students and teachers, and questionnaire data, the dissertation questions the hitherto dominant understanding of bullying as proactively aggressive actions and instead shifts the focus away from individual behaviour and actions towards a more in-depth consideration of power relations and the role bullying plays within the institutional context of schooling. Rather than understanding power as something which is held by some individuals who abuse their power when bullying others, the dissertation adopts a Foucauldian approach to power, wherein power is not held but is rather exercised in strategic situations. In doing so, the dissertation illustrates how schools provide not only the setting for school bullying but also the disciplinary framework within which school bullying gains currency. === Mot bakgrund av det etablerade påståendet att maktrelationer har en central betydelse i skolmobbning fokuserar denna avhandling sambandet mellan skolmobbning och maktrelationer inom den Vietnamesiska grundskolan. Avhandlingen är baserad på omfattande etnografiska fältstudier i två grundskolor i den nordöstra Vietnamesiska hamnstaden Haiphong. Fältstudierna består av deltagande observationer, enkätdata, gruppintervjuer och individuella intervjuer med elever och lärare. Avhandlingen ifrågasätter den hittills dominerande förståelsen av mobbning som avsiktligt aggressiva handlingar och skiftar fokus bort från det individuella till ett mer djupgående betraktande av maktrelationer och den roll mobbning spelar inom det institutionella skolsammanhanget. Istället för att förstå makt som något som vissa individer innehar och som de genom mobbning missbrukar, antar avhandlingen ett foucaldianskt perspektiv där makt förstås som något som utövas i strategiska situationer. På så sätt illustrerar avhandlingen hur skolor inte bara tillhandahåller miljön för skolmobbning utan också den disciplinära ram inom vilken skolmobbning ges mening. |
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