Školní úspěšnost a její (re)produkce na základní škole

The article presents the results of an ethnographic study focusing on eighth- and ninth-year students at two basic schools in Prague. The author conceives academic success and failure as categories that need to be explained; it is necessary to demonstrate how they are produced and ascribed with meaning in the everyday practice of student evaluation. Student evaluations are generally based on a combined assessment of a student’s aptitude and diligence, and they also reflect a student’s conduct at school conduct and attitude towards school discipline, education, and authority. Academic failure signaling some kind of shortcoming of the recipient of an evaluation has a moral connotation and stigmatising effect. This is legitimised by the presumption that it is the student’s own degree of interest and effort that determine success or failure at school. Yet it is shown that a student’s family background and available cultural resources play an important role in academic performance.