University students’ interpretations of study-related peer sociality

Abstract

This article explores university students’ interpretations of peer sociality in the context of academic studies. The study draws on thematic interviews with Finnish students (n = 28) representing two sets of study fields (humanities and human sciences, and technological sciences) in three regional Finnish universities. The study applies a discourse analytic methodology to capture variation in students’ accounts about their social encounters and activities and ways of being social in everyday study contexts. The analysis identifies four interpretative repertoires that were named the social well-being repertoire, the pedagogical repertoire, the academic community repertoire, and the networking repertoire. The results show how these repertoires are informed by broader societal and cultural discourses about peer sociality that students need to negotiate as they make sense of and legitimate their ways of being social.