Students' narratives of the conflict between structure and agency in education: A qualitative study in junior high school

Ghasemi, Yarmohammad; Havas Beigi, Fatemeh; Vahdati, Reza

doi:10.22054/qjss.2026.89996.2939

Students' narratives of the conflict between structure and agency in education: A qualitative study in junior high school

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

yarmohammad ghasemi ¹

fatemeh havas beigi ²

reza vahdati ³

¹ Professor, Department of Sociology and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.

³ Master's degree in Sociology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22054/qjss.2026.89996.2939

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the students' narrative of the educational system. The research paradigm is interpretive; the approach is qualitative, and the method is narrative research. The field of study was male students of the first secondary school (Ilam city), and in-depth interviews were used to collect information and continued until theoretical saturation in 12 interviewees. Coding was used to analyze the data, and thematic analysis was used to categorize the codes. A total of 120 sub-themes, 33 main themes, and 10 meta-themes were obtained. These are: the conflict between coercion and freedom in presence, the institution of school as an island of imprisonment, empathetic educational leadership in school, the decline of cultural-social capital in school, in the pursuit of the ideal, the need to review disciplinary technology, blocking creativity and expertise, total inadequacy (educational infrastructure), lack of coherence in educational policies and inequality in the educational system. It can be said that students' evaluation of the educational system is twofold. This evaluation has a positive aspect due to the intimacy and friendship among students in school, and the second aspect is a negative evaluation with a more pronounced aspect.

Keywords

The conflict between structure and agency

Narrative research

students

educational system

Ilam city

Subjects

Sociology

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