“There is no point in trying”: Conformity & Resistance : An anthropological study of student attitudes in a Swedish upper secondary school.

Based on a two month-long fieldwork in a Swedish upper secondary school, this thesis examines student attitudes and strives to increase the understanding of how they are formed, how students and teachers are positioned to the collective habitus, as well as how the students’ views of their attitudes relates to their practical expressions of them. The study is placed in a scientific debate regarding student resistance and conformity but shifts the focus from the implications they have to the motivations they are the result of. The analysis is grounded in research suggesting that the main factors for the formation of attitudes is the means to obtain what you desire as well as the freedom to choose that you desire. The conclusion settles around speculations to why the student attitudes look like they do, such as lack of symbolic capital or adoption of social roles given to them, as well as a need to fit in to the collective habitus or experiencing feelings of shame and hopelessness. It is also suggested that there is a disjuncture between the students’ narratives and practices of the attitudes and that the reason behind this might be feelings of shame and hopelessness created by not fitting in