Grades in the eyes of our parents: a narrative approach to educational resilience in pupils’ stories of getting their first grades

This paper investigates educational resilience from the pupil’s perspective through an analysis of how Swedish pupils in grade six position themselves in relation to their parents’ expectations and the school’s grading practice. The term ‘resilience’ refers to pupils’ own views of their potential to learn and succeed in school in a social context, where parents are important as normative actors. Data consists of group interviews with pupils at three schools. By using a narrative analysis, a perspective is adopted that considers the multiple meanings involved when pupils position themselves in their stories about grades and parents. The analysis illustrates how a situated understanding of pupils’ senses of resilience makes family expectations, and the importance of pleasing yourself and others and of adapting to grading systems, important aspects to pupils’ own views of their potential to learn and succeed at school. Home and school stand out as different arenas based on the norm of success, but with different ideas about how to deal with schoolwork and grades. A conclusion is that changes in the Swedish grading system might result in a gap regarding knowledge about grades at home and school and double pressure on pupils to achieve good grades. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 22 December 2016 Accepted 7 June 2017