Life in School: Occupations and Academic Classrooms

Abstract

All of the study participants found that, in being-a-school-camper, they had come to know a number of people they had not known well before or had known differently. “Even though I didn’t know a lot of my class very well, by the end of camp you’ve got really established friends and you learn so much more about people,” Julie remarked. “I think I’m closer to everyone I went on camp with now,” Bill disclosed, “especially the ones that were in our half, in our [expo] group.” These were significant changes in relationships that were associated with the various occupations experienced on school camp. Many thought that these changes would make a difference back at school, being-a-middle-school-student, but the difference was frustratingly less than had been hoped for and was in no way equivalent to how it had been on camp. Being-a-middle-school-student was so different to being-a-school-camper, being-an-expo-group-member, and all the other occupations of school camp, that there was no easy translation of friendships from school camp back to school.