Micropolitics in the Year 4 classroom

Abstract

Through this research I endeavoured to analyse classroom interactions through the micropolitical perspective. My research considered classroom interactions political as they are sustained by participants who embark in such interactions in order to further their interests. The classroom situation is one, which is marked by discrepancies between ends and means and it is in the attempt of mobilising the means to reach the ends that micropolitical interactions come into being. Therefore my research adopted the analysis of the ends, means, participants and the ensuing strategical micropolitical actions as its own principal foci. Tills meant basing my study within the classroom context while linking it to the wider contexts that were to be found contributing to the definition of ends and means or relating to the micropolitics of the classroom. In order to furnish the data for the subsequent analysis I observed two year four classes as participant-as-observer. I also conducted interviews with the two involved class teachers and consulted school-printed material. This offered a proper ground for comparative analysis as I neutralised the age factor (both classes were year four) and the educational setting (both school were governmental). My research provides an understanding of power, interests, strategies, making of roles, institutional bias and how these intermingle to establish the 'structure' of classroom interactions, delineating the contours of classroom micropolitical actions.