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Modernization of upper secondary school in Denmark

Headmasters’ reform interpretations and constructions of students

Jakob Ditlev Bøje is a PhD student at the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, section of Education, University of Copenhagen. His research interests include sociology of education, professions, youth policy, childhood studies, welfare programmes and transitions between youth and childhood. He is a participant member of the research programme PUR — Pedagogical Discourses, Practices and Educational Policies — at the University of Copenhagen, and a member of the Centre for Childhood and Youth Research (CeBUF) at University of Roskilde. Address: Institut for Medier, Erkendelse og Formidling, Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet. Njalsgade 80, 2300 KBH, Denmark. [email: jakobb{at}hum.ku.dk]

The Danish upper secondary school is currently undergoing a hyper complex process of modernization where new organizational forms, teacher-student roles and principles of management are introduced. The process is set-off most directly by a new reform. This article explores the implementation of that reform by focusing on how it is interpreted locally and put into practice by the headmasters of two different schools. On the basis of that analysis the article discusses the consequences that different ways of interpreting and managing the reform might have for the students — how do they understand, recognize and execute the new pedagogical discourses and constructions of students that the headmasters are launching? The theoretical and methodological approach of the article is based on Basil Bernstein's sociology of education. Empirically the article draws on qualitative interviews with the headmasters under analysis.

Key Words: Basil Bernstein • constructions of students • discourse • modernization • recontextualization • upper secondary school • young people

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