A School Model that Supports Equality: Characteristics of the School Practice in Tröllaskagi Upper-Secondary School in Light of the Theories of Bernstein

Abstract

The Tröllaskagi Upper-Secondary School (MTR) was established in 2010 and has attracted attention for its innovative ways of organizing teaching and learning. Furthermore, it has repeatedly scored high in measurements of staff satisfaction with school management and working spirit. Student retention rate has been high and the students’ progress in their studies is generally good. In recent years, the number of distance students has increased and the student dropout rate is low in that group too. The goal of the research presented here is to illuminate the special characteristics of the model the school utilizes and the working spirit that characterizes the school culture. Since the 2011 National Curriculum Guide for Upper Secondary schools regulated the formulation of the school model, the study first identifies the curriculum focus and the way in which it supported the ideology and organization of the new school is discussed. Through a deeper understanding of what characterizes school practice where students succeed, this research sheds light on the relationship between the ideology underlying school work, such as visions for the role of education for individuals and community, and the organization of teaching and learning.

The British sociologist Basil Bernstein (1924–2000) developed theories for explaining how the mechanism of the school system prevents students from working class background from succeeding in schools. The theories shed light on how interaction between the regulative discourse which relays the social order in educational settings, and the instructional discourse which relays the organization of learning and teaching affects student success. In this paper, Bernstein’s theories are applied to analyze the pedagogical discourse in the National Curriculum Guide for Upper Secondary Schools 2011 and the pedagogical discourse that characterized school practice in MTR.

The research design was ethnography and data were generated from 2–3 day visits to the school at least twice a year for four years, yielding both formal and informal interview data as well as field notes from observations. Data also consisted of varied documents published on the school website providing rich information relating to school practice, including policy documents, yearly reports etc. In addition, the school website operates a newsfeed which presents a rich picture of the multifaceted school work. In ethnographic research the interplay of these two kinds of data, informal and formal, constitutes an important part of the analysis. The experience of the field visits supports the insight and understanding of the researcher in planning the analysis. The written documents are important in supporting the credibility of the results.

This paper analyzed the National Curriculum Guide, using Bernstein’s theory of the two models that regulate school practice; the performance and the competence models, and includes the relevant forms of visible and invisible pedagogies applied in each model. Bernstein argued for mixing characteristics of the two models in order to organize school practice that would also be favorable to students from non-middleclass backgrounds. Morais and Neves’ (2011) research, which supports Bernstein’s argument, postulates a model of mixed pedagogic practice suitable for supporting the achievement of these disadvantaged students. In the analysis of the curriculum guide, the strength of framing and classification of the pedagogic discourse is scrutinized and the results discussed through a model of mixed pedagogic practice. To understand the characteristics of the MTR school practice, the regulative discourse and the instructional discourse which form the pedagogic discourse are analyzed separately by evaluating the strength of classification and framing of the pedagogic discourse.

The results are presented in a model based on the Morais and Neves model and discussed in light of Bernstein’s proposal of mixing invisible and visible pedagogies. The results indicate that emphasis on the competence and empowerment of students in the National Curriculum Guide and the independence of the school in the setting of knowledge criteria has supported the development of a school model that focuses on student initiative and a high freedom of choice, highlighting community involvement. Weak framing of student–teacher communication, pace and study time and school–community relations, together with strong framing of the school structure and strong criteria for assessment lend support to continued progress and success in students’ studies.