ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes explanations of success and failure in schoolwork within youth detention homes in Sweden. During the author's fieldwork, teachers and students provided different accounts – explanatory narratives – that aligned with locally accepted reasons for doing well or poorly in school. Explanations of failure revolved around “sad school stories”, poor mental health or emotional distress, conflicts, disputes, manipulation, and the notion that institutional education was not “real” and that some students or teachers were “hopeless”. The chapter develops an analysis of these explanations through close readings of various empirical excerpts. Similarly, explanations of success in this setting are examined. These included defining and restricting schoolwork in specific ways, exerting social control over it, improvising in teaching, and using praise and other techniques, such as pedagogizing an activity. Through this analysis, we gain insight into the studied social environment, as these accounts constituted it. Members of this environment used and upheld these accounts, thereby making the setting comprehensible.
