Nuoren miehen toimijuus ammattioppilaitoksen virallisen kulttuurin kehyksessä
Keywords:
vocational school, ethnography, young man, agencyAbstract
The cultural and social structure/framework of a vocational institution set limitations to a young person’s life and everyday habits. The framework becomes concrete in the curriculum and in a school’s
rules and regulations, into which the official culture of the school is condensed. The young man studying the field of metal work and machinery, values himself - in his own world - from a different perspective
than the representatives of the official culture. Living in the moment, having a slow-paced lifestyle, having an abundance of free-time, getting-by doing as little as possible, and friends are important to the young man. The norms in the immediate culture are preconditions for becoming accepted. Consequently, the young man has to often act according to collective consciousness in order to stake a claim and to strengthen his own position in the immediate community. Thus, he needs to be interested in women, drink alcohol by choice to become drunk, to smoke, and internally grasp the polychronic time. The spices of life and the norms of the immediate culture are reflected at school and can be seen through large absence numbers, shorter school days, and not being committed to school work. The choices made in everyday life and free-time are subjectively pleasant and culturally meaningful for the young man. The young man shakes the institutional framework of school through his actions in school surroundings. A power struggle is established, and the young man fights constantly against the official authorities of the school.
