Browsing by Subject "osallistujanäkökulma"

This study enquires into the thought of feminist philosopher Iris Marion Young. Young proposes that in institutions committed to fairness and equality the differences between social groups get produced in interaction through gestures, facial expressions, reactions and ways of speaking. Conversation analysis is a method for studying everyday interaction between people. Finnish curriculum taking effect in autumn 2016 puts emphasis on respecting diversity and its understanding as part of every student. In order to reach these goals, it is necessary to better understand how students construct their diverse identities and group memberships in their encounters. Everyday interaction is a central context for the construction of identities and differences. In this study I ask, how Young's understanding of interaction combines with conversation analysis. I examine if conversation analysis is a suitable method for researching educational justice. I analyse video material produced in a Finnish upper secondary school. The study focuses on a sequence in which two students discuss using during recess, using categories associated with nationality and ethnicity. I use conversation analysis to analyse the sequence. I contrasted conversation analytical ways of understanding concepts of identity, social group, and interaction with ways informed by Young's theory. In this I utilized an understanding of the process of identity construction that was born through analysis, using examples from data together with theory. Both Young and conversation analysis share a common understanding of the social construction of identities and groups. Young's thought on interaction emphasises the unconscious aspects of human activity. In contrast with this, conversation analysis investigates only the visible aspects of action, making it unconcerned about the unconscious motives of action. From the viewpoint of conversation analysis that emphasises participant orientation, Young's way of approaching interaction through imagined examples proves problematic. Young suggests that building a more just society demands both an understanding of the diversity of identity and a making visible of repressive interactional practices. Conversation analysis can be seen as a way of making visible the processes of identity construction and interactional practices.