Noomi Christine Linde Matthiesen

Methods of materiality: participant observation and qualitative research in psychology

ABSTRACT This article challenges the hegemonic status of “language” as the primary substance of qualitative research in psychology, whether through interviews or recordings of naturally occurring talk. It thereby questions the overt focus on analyzing linguistic “meaning.” Instead, it is suggested that researchers should start paying attention to the material world (consisting of both human bodies and material objects) and what it means for how people live their lives. It is argued that this can be done by incorporating the concept of material presence to capture embodied and material layers of existence, and the method of participant observation is suggested as a viable approach to achieve this end. An empirical example of how authority is produced in a parent-teacher conference, not only through language but also through material objects and embodied being, is then presented. The article concludes by suggesting practical guidelines for incorporating attention to materiality in qualitative research.

Understanding Silence: an investigation of the processes of silencing in parent–teacher conferences with Somali diaspora parents in Danish public schools

This article questions the dominant understanding that immigrant and refugee parents in parent–teacher conferences are silent because they come from a culture where one does not question the authority of the teacher. Instead, it is argued that they become silent through certain interactional processes. Building on material from an explorative case study of the home–school relations of Somali diaspora families in Danish public schools, the article argues that while these parents have many opinions about their children’s education that they wish to convey, there are institutional and interactional processes in the parent–teacher conference that systematically silence their voices. The understanding of culture as a stable structure that persons are situated within in a top-down manner is thus challenged, arguing that dynamic here-and-now interactions unfolding in a specific practice result in persons becoming, rather than being, silent.

Working together in a deficit logic: Home-School Partnerships with Somali Diaspora Parents

Abstract Drawing on discursive psychology this article examines the understandings teachers and principals in Danish Public Schools have regarding Somali diaspora parenting practices. Furthermore, the article investigates what these understandings mean in interaction with children in the classrooms and with parents in home–school communication. It is argued that in a society with increased focus on parental responsibility the teachers and principals draw on a deficit logic when dealing with Somali diaspora parents and children which consequently leads to teachers either transmitting their expertise by educating parents or compensating for perceived deficiencies in parental practices. Both these strategies result in significant marginalizing consequences where ‘difference’ is understood as ‘wrong’ or ‘inadequate’.

Confessions of a Procrastinator

This chapter chronicles a detour that was the result of the authors struggle to find a suitable ending to a single recalcitrant sentence while writing an article manuscript. The text narrates both the emotional labor connected to these writing struggles, the behavioral flights away from the discomfort of being stuck, as well as the cognitive flights of inattention. The text weaves between descriptions of embodied discomfort, the reflections these discomforts gave rise to and a tale of practical activities such as answering emails, drinking coffee, and being seduced by memories of childhood and youth triggered by the pervasive discomfort. In addition to describing the concrete difficulties and discomforts of academic writing, the text illustrates and addresses the social and relational nature of this practice.

Control and Responsibility: Taking a Closer Look at the Work of Ensuring Well-Being in Neoliberal Schools

This paper argues that the neo-liberal work of schooling includes a focus on producing subjectivities with a high level of well-being. This is done by drawing on evidence based therapeutic techniques that are adjusted to a school setting. These are termed ‘therapeutic socio-educational technologies. It is argued that these practices adhere to the neo-liberal logic of increased competition, standardization and testing, focusing on the individual child. There are a number of problems connected to these well-being enhancing technologies. These include the risk of producing passive and submissive subjectivities, that are understood as needing therapy by default; pathologizing the discomfort and struggles that are an inherent part of learning; the fragmentation of the child, focusing directly on the child rather than on the content matter at hand; producing an overly mechanic and technified pedagogy, focusing on output, as well as laying claim to much control in a risk-filled relational endeavor.

A question of access: metaphors of the field

ABSTRACT This article takes a closer look at the issue of access by describing the author’s process of access during an ethnographic study on the home–school collaboration between Somali diaspora mothers and teachers in Danish public schools. The article is structured around metaphors of the field and unfolds as a progressive narrative of these metaphors; field as landscape, field as labyrinth, field as marketplace and field as coming to be. It is argued that the field is not a place one can get into but rather a social world comprised of people living their lives entangled with one another. The process of negotiations of access is considered as much a part of developing an understanding of the social world as more formalised research practices such as participant observations and interviewing. Furthermore, our understanding is created through concrete participation as well as our exclusion from participation.