Co-existence and Social Interaction in Danish High School

Within the last decades, gymnasium has become the most common choice of education at upper secondary level as more than 70% of Danish youth now attends gymnasium. <br/>Public debate has been concerned with the phenomenon of so-called “ghettogymnasier” where pupils group together with others of ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds similar to their own. <br/>This presentation is based on my fieldwork where I followed two very different second-year classes at a gymnasium. <br/>With a theoretical approach based on social constructivism and intersectionality, I examine how social identity is constructed and negotiated between the pupils and how social communities are formed in the institutional setting of the gymnasium where co-existence of teenagers is highly focused on peer-reflections.<br/>I show how students use ethnicity, religion, gender, and material culture in their identity work as part of co-existence at the gymnasium. I argue that ethnicity and religion can serve as both unifying and distinguishing markers depending on context, and that especially ideas of Muslim practices influence pupils’ expectations of each other. Gender practices vary significantly between the two classes, one adhering to traditional norms and maintaining a division between boys and girls based on “obligatory heterosexuality”, the other embracing fluidity between femininity and masculinity and expanding the traditional binary gender categories.<br/>In the presentation, I also touch upon identity work among the pupils as intertwined with broader social and political discourses, reflecting and challenging contemporary debates on immigrants and ethnic minorities, gender norms, and cultural diversity.<br/>