Mia Lund Kongsbak - Peer education Et redskab til - Institut for ...

When peer education is used as an anti‐bullying strategy, what narratives are
constructed about bullying and peer education? And what dominant rationales and (il)
legitimate possible positions is created by these constructions?
The thesis takes of in a poststructuralist perspective and is theoretically inspired by
Michel Foucault and the further developments of his work such as Søndergaard (1996,
2000, 2002, 2005, 2009), Staunæs (2004, 2007) and Kofoed (2004, 2005, 2007). The
analysis worked with the following specific terms: Positions (Davies & Harré 2000)
Inappropriate/d Others (Kofoed 2004, Staunæs 2004, inspired by D. Haraway ), power
technologies (Dean 2006, Åkerstrøm Andersen & Thygesen 2004) and interpretative
repertoires (Wetherell & Potter 1992). The thesis is a qualitative study, based on
interviews with selected peer educators and two teachers responsible for peer education
on the chosen school.
The analysis shows how a dominant narrative of peer education on the chosen school
is how peace and order in the classroom contributes to prevent bullying. The analysis
focuses on how peace and order appears to act as a guarantee on less bullying, which
may come to overshadow the bullying complexity. The analysis also demonstrates how
peer education as a technology can come to create differences between students and set
standards on how to practice peer education at the school. This reveals peer education as
not just an innocent strategy which is installed to prevent bullying. One of the aim key
points in the thesis is the need for a second‐order perspective (Luhmann 1990), when
Danish schools choose between many different anti‐bullying strategies, and the choice is
not without significance. A specific anti‐bullying strategy with its rationales and narratives
can open and close certain genesis opportunities for school stakeholders, which may be
significant to relate reflective over.
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