Rootedness in School Microsettings: Children's Experiences of Places in School
Langhout, Regina Day
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/82008
Description
Title
Rootedness in School Microsettings: Children's Experiences of Places in School
Author(s)
Langhout, Regina Day
Issue Date
2001
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Rappaport, Julian
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Elementary
Language
eng
Abstract
Eight elementary school children in a low income and predominately African American school were interviewed and observed over a one year period to examine their experiences of places associated with school. Two focal constructs, microsettings (settings within settings) and rootedness (feelings, relationships, and behaviors related to microsettings) are introduced as extensions of place experience constructs. Children named microsettings such as the gym, playground, and classroom as liked places, and the classroom, another school classroom, and the discipline room as disliked places. Themes associated with liked places include the physical environment facilitating the place's function, family involvement, and opportunities for leadership, independence, and autonomy. Themes associated with disliked places included the physical environment inhibiting the place's function, a lack of opportunities for independence and autonomy, perceptions of differential treatment, and child attempts to change the physical environment. Multidimensional scaling results indicate that children cognitively organize places based on academics, autonomy, feelings, and crowding. Social network analyses reveal that all children prefer their in-class peers, especially those of the same gender and race. For boys, more egalitarian networks were associated with liked places and more centralized networks were associated with disliked places. Boys felt more supported in their liked places, evidenced by more ties to those in the network. These patterns did not hold for girls. Results indicate that all children are engaged in schooling. The challenge is to determine how they are engaged. The construct of rootedness is retained because of its use in examining context (at the microsetting level). Rootedness is achieved when a child is engaged in ways deemed appropriate by those in power in the setting and when the metacommunicative practices convey that those in the microsetting are competent, capable, effective individuals.
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