Negotiating Desired Trajectories of Participation and Pedagogical Preferences in Relation to Retention –

“Arh, nu løber de og spiller kroket, det var da bedre de sad og fik noget biologi” (?)

Abstract

This paper provides empirical insights into the practices of re-forming a school set- ting aimed at students thought to be at-risk of dropping out of a vocational educational training college. Inspired by the tradition of voiced research the paper reflects on the lived experience of teachers involved in facilitating the re-forming. Based on the analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews the paper shows how the teachers actively construct a desired and preferred participation “doing school” and “doing teacher” in a way that might re- engage the students and give them a more positive experience of schooling. However the re-forming also represents an interruption of existing institutional structures and prac- tices. The facilitation of a different type of school and a different type of teacher estab- lishes tensions and fractions among the teach- ers and their colleagues reflecting a discussion and negotiation of the boundaries of the practice of retention and education of possible drop-out students.