Muslim Fathers and Mistrusted Masculinity in Danish Schools by Anne Hovgaard Jørgensen

Author:Anne Hovgaard Jørgensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031216268
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Absence on the Parent Intranet

We have seen how different jobs require different rhythms for fathers and fathers’ everyday rhythms could also influence their access to information from the school. According to Douglas Rushkoff (2011), the computer and smart phone give the option to always be available online, which places a constant pressure on human beings with the consequence that people might end up divorcing themselves from human rhythms and coherence (Rushkoff 2011, 37–38; Eriksen 2005). In continuation, I argue that the extent to which the parents are dragged away from their daily rhythms depended on how much they already engaged with technology. In other words, how much working on the computer was already a part of their everyday life: how much the rhythm of the computers already influenced and shaped the fathers’ everyday operations. As such, coping with the high demand for checking the Parent Intranet was easier for parents who were already working in an office, where the constant flow of e-mails was a part of their everyday rhythm.

Christian (pp. 83) had such a flexible job, where he was more or less constantly connected to his work-mail. He told me, as we discussed the vast information flow from school to home: “It’s really not that difficult because I have made this setting that when there is a message on the Parent Intranet, I get an email in my work email, and then it’s quite easy.” Since much of Christian’s job concerned reading, sorting information online and writing e-mails, he was already attuned to such tasks; his rhythm and thus directedness fitted the premises of online home-school cooperation. To be online also made parents like Christian able to rapidly pick the most suitable day and hour for the parent-teacher conference, as soon as the subscription link was available, even though it was easier for him to “flex” his working hours.

Fuaad was born in Somalia and was fifteen years old when he came to Denmark. Fuaad had five children and worked as a full-time IT engineer. He always showed up at parent events at the school, and other social arrangements in his neighbourhood. Fuaad was known as “a good father, always showing up.” He was also the president of a Somali association and active in the fathers’ group of “Vanggaarden,” the area where he lived. In this way, he was one of the many fiery souls I met during the fieldwork, engaged in association- and community-work, guiding other migrant fathers. In his marriage, Fuaad was the one who went to the parent events at the school, and he attended them all, he told me. It was time-consuming, but “this is how it is here in Denmark,” he explained, “parents have to get used to that.” He was also the one in his marriage who checked the Parent Intranet. Since he was an IT engineer, it was not a challenging task for him, however time-consuming. If there were private messages regarding more of his children, Fuaad could spend nearly up to an hour a day on Parent Intranet because of his five schoolchildren.

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