Project Details
Projekt
The development of deviant careers in school interaction processes
Subject Area
Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 556329022
The study examines how rule-breaking behaviour by primary school pupils can develop into a deviant pupil career (Carprara & Zimbardo 1996; Dodge & Pettit 2003). It is based on an interactionist approach that assumes that both students and teachers interpret rules and the behaviour required by the rules within situations. Accordingly, rule-breaking behaviour often cannot be clearly determined and therefore often remains without consequences (Thiel 2016; result of our preliminary study 2). If behaviour that is interpreted as deviant is assigned to a student, this can be referred to as ‘labeling’. This means that the student is described by this behaviour and the further interpretations and interactions related to this student are structured by it (Becker 2018/1963; Lemert 1951). Labelling can be informal (Rochelau & Chavez 2015), e.g. by assigning the student the category of ‘troublemaker’ (Hofer 1986), but it can also be formal (Rochelau & Chavez 2015), for example when imposing sanctions that require documentation, such as exclusion from class or school. Such labeling can have an impact on the student's school career by gradually reducing the accepted options for action, and a deviant career can develop (Cicourel 2020/1968; Faupel 2012). Based on a theoretical multi-level model, we consider the interaction processes: The sequence of events (including turning points and stagnations) and their interpretation, 2) the participants and their perspectives (pupils, teachers) and 3) the contextualisation of the events (composition of the student body, socio-cultural characteristics of the pupils). This is achieved empirically through longitudinal classroom observations with regard to student behaviour that could potentially be assessed as deviant and teacher reactions, interviews with teachers and students, and the recording of sanctions requiring documentation. Our project is based on two preliminary studies in which we tested our instruments and collected initial results. With this study, we will contribute to a better understanding of the processes in which a high proportion of primary school pupils stand out as disturbed - with potentially far-reaching implications for the children concerned (e.g. SWK 2022).
DFG Programme
Research Grants
