ABSTRACT
Not all pupils ‘know’ the same things about their school lives. They do not all form the same commonsense judgments about their teachers or the curriculum; they do not all see other pupils in the same way. Because of this, a study of pupil experience or ‘knowledge’ of school life must begin by looking at the way some pupils come to share common perspectives, and how pupils influence each other in what they ‘know’. In other words, we need a more detailed understanding of pupil interaction. Only when this process is fully understood will it be possible to go on to document what individuals or groups actually ‘know’. This paper is therefore intended to provide the groundwork for a more detailed study of pupil knowledge.
