Abstract

PORTUGAL E MELO, Benedita; MATIAS DIOGO, Ana  and  FERREIRA, Manuela. How to be a good student? From school models to children's points of view. Rev. Port. de Educação [online]. 2022, vol.35, n.2, pp.125-147.  Epub Jan 08, 2022. ISSN 0871-9187.  https://doi.org/10.21814/rpe.21531.

The apology for performativity and excellence, resulting from the new ways of educational systems regulation, seems to be penetrating all levels of education. Focused on the analysis of the 1st cycle pupils's craft, and based on the hypothesis that a reconfiguration of the primary school model based on performativity-competitiveness will be underway, this text analyzes the perspectives that children, from different geographical, school and socio-economic contexts, have about what it means to be a good pupil. The research was based on the content analysis of semi-directive interviews, conducted with 61 children from the 3rd year of schooling, in 2017/18. Children's points of view show two essential dimensions of school practices: the dimension of power and the cognitive one. These references to the school order show how the structure of the traditional-industrial school model still exists nowadays. However, it is the learning component that is most valued in their discourses. The conditions enunciated by them to participate in the learning processes account for two types of conceptions about school excellence. The first one praises individual gifts, namely intelligence, and is essentially present among children with less educated social origin and less school performance. A second conception, close to the performative-competitive school model, is anchored in work, effort, dedication and individual overcoming, and is mainly present in children from more educated families, with very good academic performance.

Keywords : Performativity; Academic excellence; Good pupil; Children’s perspectives; Primary school.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )