Med facit i hand: normalitet, elevskap och vänlig maktutövning i två svenska skolor.

The purpose of this study is to examine the socialisation process of children and how normality is learned.
The study focuses on how to learn to become a pupil in municipal primary and lower secondary schools, and what processes and interactions are significant in the creation of what is regarded as being a normal pupil.
The Swedish school system is based on democratic values and respect for the individual. Teachers socialise pupils by means of benevolent government on the basis of these values. To enable this benevolent government, pupils must learn how to develop their own personality on the basis of norms that govern self-expression. Benevolent government is used as a description of a particular type of teaching that is dependent on a particular type of pupil. The pupil subject to be formed is a submissive, self-examining, positive and empathetic person who lets himself be controlled by teachers through controlling himself.

The study concludes that normality is a complex concept (see the purpose of the study). Therefore, it is difficult to provide a formula for how to socialise to normality.

The study is an ethnographic examination of relations. The study is based on field research in two school classes; one pre-school class (approximately six years of age) and one fifth grade class (approximately 11 years of age).

Bartholdsson, Å. (2007). Med facit i hand: normalitet, elevskap och vänlig maktutövning i två svenska skolor. Stockholm: Socialantropologiska institutionen, Stockholms Universitet.