Enacting subjectivities in educational history: methodological reflections on the use of qualitative interviews for history writing

摘要

Two studies of the formation of pupils' subjectivities within the Danish school and educational system in the period 1945-2005 create the framework for a methodological discussion of how subjectivities in educational history can be studied. Both studies use qualitative interviews as a way of studying subject formations in educational history. This methodological approach, however, exposes inherent methodological problems stemming from the use of sources produced in the present for studying the past. To address these problems the article will draw on poststructural ideas of subjectification and performativity developed by Judith Butler and suggest two analytical moves: A notion of time as temporality is put forward to rethink the problem of past/present in the work with memories as source material. Furthermore, the concepts of performativity and enactment are introduced to deal with the displacement of narrated subjectivities in the interviews. By this the interviewees are said to perform as memorising subjects while enacting different (memorised) subjectivities.