This paper is based on a case study of an alternative Primary Schoolship: Marilyn Anne. It illuminates how it is possible for a training ship to legitimize its methods, when most of the staff isn’t professionally educated in the social field, which is considered an important part of today’s social work. This is investigated through eight qualitative interviews of the leadership, founder and staff on Marilyn Anne.

This paper concludes that the leadership, the founder and the staff legitimize Marilyn Anne as a social project through several aspects.
The paper shows that the organization’s framework validates Marilyn Anne as a social offer for vulnerable young people in primary school. We find that Marilyn Anne’s description of the organization’s aim and purpose for the pupils follows the Danish society’s focus when educating young people in primary school.
Marilyn Anne’s leadership and staff justify their disciplinary method onboard by calling it consequence pedagogy. This paper determines this to be a misunderstanding of the consequence pedagogy as a method, since this method isn’t very disciplinary in its descriptions. The disciplinary method used by Marilyn Anne’s staff can be understood as an older behavioral method. We find that this method does not include the pupils’ self-determination. Nevertheless the disciplinary method can be seen as a recognition of the pupils. It enhances the pupils’ possibilities for being recognized in the surrounding society.
Furthermore this paper shows that the leadership and staff legitimize Marilyn Anne as a social offer for vulnerable young people, through recognition of the pupils onboard. We understand that the recognition of the pupils is successfully performed by the staff. They recognize the pupils by seeing and respecting them for who they truly are and further strengthen their self-esteem. This paper therefore finds it to be true, when the staff and leadership use recognition as a way to justify Marilyn Anne as a social offer for vulnerable young people.

The empirical knowledge is illustrated through a theoretical foundation which is based on: i
Inhabited institutions by T. Hallett and M. Ventresca, differential associations by E. Sutherland, the models of learning theory in social work by G. Hutchinson and S. Oltedal, K. Elmholdt and M. Møllers article of the impact of material frameworks on an organisation, the theory of recognition by A. Honneth, the criticism of modern society by G. Hegel, recognition and judgement by P. Høilund and S. Juul.