Modes of hesitation: avoidance, ambivalence, and ambiguity in middle-school

This paper is an inquiry into the modes of hesitation that children enact, as they begin early secondary and after-school clubs, a moment in children’s life, where the organization of their school and leisure-time life undergoes changes. Where the number of teachers, school-hours and responsibilities increase, and their liberties intensifies. The transition to early secondary can be understood through concepts as acceleration, individualization, and performance.

The paper reads across observations and interviews with children from two schools about their everyday life of going from school to after-school centres and clubs, from their 4th to their 5th year of schooling. In the data, I look for children’s modes of hesitation during this transition, and I read hesitating as a way of problematizing and questioning, without necessarily asking about, the pedagogical practices and organizings of the children’s educational lives.

I work with Braidotti’s concept of affirmative critique as it combines the critique of existing structures and the development of alternative concepts (Braidotti, 2013). In unfolding children’s ‘modes of hesitation’, I aim to develop a language and framework for talking about, noticing, and working differently with children’s ‘educational lives’ as they begin early secondary and after-school club-life.