School as Ceremony and Ritual: How Photography Illuminates Performances of Ideological Transfer

Abstract

Images of the places and activities called “school” as a formal institution are rich data for the inquiring gaze. This article focuses specifically on historical photos of school rituals and ceremonies through which young people perform particular narratives of schooling through repetitive embodied practice and in turn construct values and beliefs about themselves and wider society. In particular, we look at rituals of the habitual, coming of age ceremonies, patriotic rituals and ceremonies, and degradation rituals and ceremonies. In analysis of these photographs, we ask, what meanings are (re)performed in such rituals and ceremonies? Why are these performances important to consider in the context of young people’s identity negotiation and school reform? And, after such an analysis, how might any of the performances contain spaces for (student and teacher) agency, including resistance and transformation?