In my master’s thesis, I was interested in how friendship contributes to strengthening of social capital of the individual, hence, in the initial part of the thesis, I outlined the conceptualisation of friendship, social capital, upbringing, and socialisation within a classroom between male and female pupils. I was primarily interested in the classroom climate, and in particular, how classmates get along with each other, the importance of trust and mutual assistance. By reading literature and conducting my own research, I examined the importance of social capital in a classroom and at school, as well as its role in preventing violence. I focused mainly on social inclusion i.e., how male and female pupils get along with each other, help each other, and to what extent they are bonded as a class. However, since socialisation is also linked to the upbringing of male and female pupils, I also highlighted upbringing and its intertwining with socialisation in my thesis. I described the difference between the two and the ways in which one’s upbringing affects the establishing and maintaining of bonds of friendship within a classroom. Since I mainly focused on how the classroom climate and the students’ activities are perceived by male and female teachers, in addition to the sociogram that I conducted with the third-grade male and female pupils, I also interviewed teachers who teach in different grades. This allowed me to determine how they perceive the interconnectedness of male and female pupils, as well as how their age affects the classroom climate and how quickly certain conflicts, problems, disagreements and other such matters can become apparent. I compared the results of the sociogram and the interviews with the selected teachers and looked for any links or possible discrepancies. In light of the findings, I primarily focused on the links and discrepancies of a third-grade teacher, an English teacher, and a PE teacher who teach in the same grade.
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