Placing One's Self in an out-of-School Learning Facility – Videography at a Children's University

In Germany, participating in out-of-school learning facilities has become more popular. Nevertheless, there has been little qualitative research on this issue. In a quantitative and qualitative project about different socialization contexts (“SEBI – Self-Orientation and Self-Directed Learning”, University of Wuppertal) we focus on - amongst other things, a - children’s university. This is an institutional context where children can participate voluntarily on different thematic courses. Based on video data collected at a children’s university we discuss how generational order is produced and shaped into different constellations. Our video analysis of this out-of-school learning facility shows three findings: First, how children grasp, work out and modify rules in this unfamiliar context and how they become accomplices in the production of generational order. Second, how children paradoxically are ‘doing pupil’ even in this out-of-school setting, revealing the dominance of ‘school order’. Third, by contrasting different courses, a variety of ordering processes can be found. This concerns the ways children are addressed and the way they present themselves. As theoretical reference point we use the concept of socialization as ‘generational ordering’ (Bühler-Niederberger). Thereby we gain further insights in producing and reproducing differences between adults and children and elucidate children’s contributions to processes of social ordering. Methodical insights into the process of analysis will be given and results will be discussed.