‘Wet children’ and ‘little actresses': going sick in primary school

Abstract

Abstract Abstract The material presented here is drawn from a wider ethnographic study of children's sickness absence in a primary school. The particular aspect deals with concerns how children's claims on sickness are handled by teachers and other school staff. Teachers' typifications of the childrearing practices of the parents, especially the description of the children as ‘wet’, and the project that flows from it, are suggested as the framework in which teachers interpret the children's claims. These are shown to be differentiated according to gender and age and placed in the context of the move to secondary school as a key symbolic moment in the transition to adulthood. It is suggested that an ethnographic approach can significantly illuminate the processes and practices underlying (mainly American) questionnaire and attitude studies of the acquisition of sick role conceptions by children.