To explore students' perceptions of playground friendships
Aim
To explore students' perceptions of playground friendships.
Evidence and reflection
Watch the students at your school in the playground. Notice particularly how students use and occupy playground spaces and any significant actions or verbal exchanges between different groups of students. Make quick notes of your observations.
In the classroom, talk with the students about their friendship groups and their use of the playground. Ask them to draw a plan of the playground, marking areas in which they or others like to go, and noting the major activities that take place. Discuss the plans with the students in friendship groups. Take the opportunity to discuss how they feel about interacting with different groups of students.
Make a note of the points that emerge. Do you begin to get a sense of the friendship groups that exist within the student culture of your school? What are their characteristic activities and attitudes to school?
Extension
Share your response to the activity with a colleague who has also done the activity. Can you see any patterns in terms of the major friendship groups and the attainment and attitudes to school of the students within them? Do some have higher status and others lower? How do the patterns in students' friendships relate to organizational differentiation within the school?
