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There was a notable
difference in social status between the children of this group and those of the
others. Coming from one of Leeds' more affluent areas, with parents who included
architects and senior managers, the children had more middle-class voices and
styles of expression, as well as being more conscious of standards of 'good behaviour'.
Interestingly, however, beyond some advantages of articulacy, this did not make
them superior videographers.
The children appeared,
from the first-week group interview, to be interested and concerned about the
environment, but often in quite a passive way. Their knowledge of environmental
problems, from school and other sources, was quite comprehensive, and well spread
throughout the group. This is what previous research suggests we might expect
for middle-class children (Lyons & Breakwell, 1994). They knew, for example, about
various kinds of pollution, and recycling, were all familiar with the process
by which acid rain is produced, and were aware of the dangers to and function
of the ozone layer ('protects us from the sun', said several of them immediately).
Their awareness of the problems of nuclear power, and why rainforests are being
felled was, however, patchy.
Quite unlike children
in some of the other groups in this study, however, these children had been immersed
in a culture of knowledge-gathering, such that their level of knowledge about
the environment was perhaps less impressive than at other schools where there
was little or no peer credibility attached to being so informed. Asked about aspects
of their local area which were environmentally disappointing, the children had
some difficulty; uppermost in their minds seemed to be the school dustbins, although
pollution in the River Aire was also suggested.
In some ways these
polite middle-class children were less effective film-makers than their counterparts
at other schools. Their patience often meant that greater amounts of dull material
were recorded at greater length, where the more assertive working-class children
would simply have switched the camera off and moved on to the next setup. Their
more passive approach to video-making also meant that they seemed not to think
of doing different things with, for example, their presenters in shots. It is
certainly not to be denied that these children's articulacy, as well as a general
inclination to work reasonably hard in school time, made for an intelligent and
engaging video. The point is rather that the levels of creativity and ideas put
into their video were equal, but were no greater, than at any of the less well-heeled
schools.
By the final week
of the project, when interviewing each other, the children were quicker to produce
pro-environmental responses than they had been at first, and seemed to have an
enhanced appreciation of the local area, as well as awareness of its problems
- pollution in particular. Their enjoyment of the project was also clear.
Summary
Unlike those at
other schools, these children had a general interest in producing good schoolwork,
which might have made the extent to which they had been genuinely concerned about
the subject less clear. However, as time went on, it became apparent that most
of them did have a broad interest in the environment, the local aspect of which
was focused by the project. The children did not suggest grand visual ideas, or
much of a structure for the video, but simply made competent material of a relatively
unplanned nature. In contrast to children in other groups, they were, at least
initially, sometimes less confident on both sides of the camera, perhaps due to
an upbringing which might more often have emphasised the importance of behaving
respectfully towards expensive technology, and maintaining dignity when under
surveillance.
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