Since the 1990s most of the research on youth transitions has been strongly focused on transitions into work, neglecting other aspects of the life trajectories of young people, e.g. family formation or transitions into – and within education. As the landscape of work is changing, with less opportunity for continuous and stable employment, European comparative studies have been concentrating on labour market entry of and labour market policies for young people. In this perspective, education tends to be dealt with as a mere input factor into individual work positioning in terms of later life and social chances. The articles presented in this special edition try to replace this functionalistic view of education complementing the question for the effects of education on the life course with the question for the effects of the life course on education (both in terms of an institution and a biographical process) as well as analysing the transitions, the performance and the experiences of children and young people in education as integral parts of their life courses. Such an approach is adequate to take into account the de-standardisation of traditional life courses and corresponds to discourses of the knowledge society, lifelong learning and activation. Emphasis is laid on individual responsibility of life chances to legitimise a shift of public activities from welfare rights towards investing in human capital. Reference is made to prevention whereby such investment focuses on the early stages in the life course. Before this background, the special issue deals with the question how individual educational trajectories emerge differently and how decisions are made at transition points during these trajectories and by whom. A central assumption is that educational trajectories emerge from complex interactions between a diversity of (f)actors across different levels. The articles collected in this special issue draw on the findings of an EU-funded research “Governance of educational trajectories in Europe. Access, coping and relevance of education of young people in European knowledge societies in a comparative perspective” (GOETE). Countries covered by the study are France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The articles focus on the decision-making processes in young people’s educational trajectories, especially at the transition from lower to upper secondary education or training. The data and analysis documented by this special issue emerge from the following sub-studies within the project: • individual survey with students in their last year of lower secondary education (N=6390) and their parents (N=3290) on progression through education, problems and support, teaching and individual learning, future plans for education, training and employment; • institutional survey with headmasters on key challenges, social contexts of schools, living conditions and future life chances of pupils and students, problems and available support, curricula and standards, links with other actors (N=984); • comparative analysis of teacher training through document analysis of teacher training curricula (N=118) and expert interviews (N = 65) in selected higher education institutions; • qualitative local case studies on ‘local school spaces’ in socially deprived areas (3 cases per country, N=24) including views of students during (N=195) and after lower secondary school (N=109), parents (N=109) as well as professionals and experts (teachers, headmasters, counsellors, external experts; N=208) on interactions at the transition from lower to upper secondary education and training; • expert interviews with high-level policy makers and stakeholders (N=95) and critical discourse analysis at national level on current policy reforms and discourses. 1. Editorial: “Doing transitions” in education (Morena Cuconato & Andreas Walther) The editorial introduces into the topic, explaining the overall approach of the GOETE project that analyses educational trajectories from a life course and a governance perspective. This approach involves an interactionist perspective according to which educational trajectories are neither structurally determined nor result of individual (rational) choice. They emerge from and imply complex negotiation processes between young people and intervening others, especially teachers and parents, and which relate different societal levels of action and meaning making from micro to macro. The editorial further introduces key concepts cross-cutting the articles such as transitions, gate keepers versus significant others, cooling out, and decision-making. It further gives an overview over the design of the GOETE project. Finally, a summarising outline of the articles of the special issue is provided. 2. Education systems as transition spaces (Jenni Tikanen, Piotr Bledowski and Joanna Felczak) Across European countries, during the 20th century the expansion of education has undoubtly increased opportunities of young people’s access to and within schooling, but it has not reduced socioeconomic inequality. Students from disadvantaged social backgrounds have less chances of achievement and face higher difficulties in coping with educational demands. Education is a process that develops in stages, and early educational constraints restrict the choices of career decision-making at later stages. Corresponding to the findings of existing comparative education and transition research statistical data suggest that not only socio-economic factors but also different structures of education and training play a role in this. Before this background the article illustrates first the differences between countries in organising educational trajectories from school entry up to higher education, the relationship between general and vocational strands in upper secondary education. Here, age limits as well as selective versus comprehensive access regulations or the links between education or training and the labour market are of interest. In a next section, a focus is laid on the structures of educational and vocational guidance in lower secondary education as guidance directly refers to individual decision-making in the transition to upper secondary education or vocational training. The rationale of this juxtaposition is to analyse the differences in how transitions in educational trajectories are structured and in the extent to which young people are enabled to take choices individually. This analysis is framed by relating the findings to existing comparative models. The first is Allmendinger’s model comparing the link between education and employment along the stratification and the standardisation of education and training. The second is the model of transition regimes developed by Walther to contextualise school to work transitions with regard to typical types of societal constellations and normalities. 3. Me, my education and I. Constellations of decision making in young people’s educational trajectories (Andreas Walther, Manuela du Bois-Reymond, Mirjana Ule and Annegret Warth) This article is concerned with the diversity of educational trajectories of young people through lower secondary education which can be understood as sequences of different steps, i.e. transitions, decisions and destinations. The focus lies on understanding how the educational trajectories of young people develop differently at the transition between lower and upper secondary education and training – even among students labelled as disadvantaged with regard to social background, gender or ethnicity. From a perspective of life course and biography as interrelated expressions of structure and agency, the aim is to understand the role of decision-making in the emergence of educational trajectories. This implies first analysing structural factors influencing young people’s experiences and expectations; second patterns of trajectories of so-called disadvantaged youth through education are discerned; finally, in a cross-cutting perspective, constellations of decision-making are reconstructed. The article starts with a brief overview over existing research on differences in educational trajectories and the role of decision-making in this regard. The second section explains the sample and the methodology. Section three presents the findings of three levels of analysis: The first contains selected findings of a survey with students at the end of lower secondary education. The focus here is on socio-economic and institutional factors of young people’ experiences in school and their expectations for the future with regard to experienced ruptures, expected destinations and the possibilities of choice. Within the article, this analysis serves mainly as a framework for the interpretation of qualitative findings. The second level of analysis focuses on 106 students from schools in deprived areas whose trajectories have been reconstructed from in-depth qualitative interviews according to smooth versus ruptured trajectories, choice versus compromise, and general versus vocational (or prevocational) destinations. Here we find, on the one hand persisting effects of socio-economic and institutional factors. On the other hand however, differences between the trajectories in similar life conditions and education systems suggest that individual, or better: biographical agency is involved in how young people interpret similar situations and how they make meaning for themselves and their future lives. The third level deepens the analysis by reconstructing the decision-making processes of a sub-sample of 15 students with regard to their transitions from lower to upper secondary education. Key dimensions of such constellations of decision-making are the dynamics of these processes, the actors involved, and the reflexivity of young people in and towards these processes including the criteria they hold most relevant for educational choices. 4. “Simply the best for my children”: patterns of parental involvement in education (Mirjana Ule & Andreja Zivoder) Findings of surveys and case studies confirm the results of existing research concerning the central but sometimes also contradictory role of parents in the educational trajectories and transitions of their children. The majority of parents are involved in many ways - ranging from emotional support, giving advice and gathering information to evaluating their children’s educational and occupational wishes and pushing them towards a “realistic perspective”; nevertheless, their influence varies from case to case. Sometimes they act as “gatekeepers” by restricting available options and downgrading their child’s aspirations, sometimes act as “way-keepers”; they are more counsellors and advocates of their children in their educational decisions rather than authorities who set limits or even prescribe life course trajectories. Moreover, in all researched countries, we can distinguish two overarching opposing parental attitudes: those who support their children in their choices, but do not want to interfere or influence their decision (“children must choose by themselves”) and those who try to influence their children’s educational careers. There is also evidence of uninvolved or not-interested parents; however this issue has been raised predominately from the interviews with the teachers and other school experts who were critical of parental (non)involvement. In contrast, parents themselves reveal high levels of concern and students are mostly satisfied and positive about their parents’ support. This article will have a closer look at parents’ roles in the educational trajectories and transitions of their children. It will focus on parents as actors involved in educational decision-making and examine the role and influence of the social and institutional milieu on what kind of perspectives parents develop regarding further education and vocational aspirations of their children. Analysis is based on a combination of quantitative survey data and qualitative data conducted with parents of students in their final year of lower secondary education. This combination of qualitative and quantitative data provides a comprehensive and detailed insight into the role of parents and their influence on the educational and life course trajectories of students. The article starts with reviewing existing research on parental involvement in their children’s educational trajectories. Next, the methodology of the analysis conducted for this article is explained. The analysis integrates qualitative and quantitative findings. It is presented in section three following the dimensions of parental expectations for the future of their children, their experiences with support provided by school, and the support they themselves provide. This latter aspect is reflected by students’ evaluations of the support of their parents. The concluding section reflects on the comparative dimension of the analysis and the way in which parent – student relationships are framed by different national education and welfare systems. 5. Instruction or support? Teachers’ professional identities and attitudes towards educational disadvantage of students (Morena Cuconato, Manuela du Bois-Reymond, and Harry Lunabba) Teachers are the most influential institutional representatives and professionals involved in the educational trajectories of students. They prepare students for transitions, they assess their achievements and eventually compensate their failure. While (individual) teachers can potentially become significant others for (individual) students, they first of all represent the school system, that is the standardised curriculum as well as the meritocratic function of school. However, this function of “gate-keepers” has changed. On the one hand, education gets more important to secure life chances in knowledge societies. This growing importance assigned to education puts teacher under pressure due to the high expectations of families and society as a whole. On the other hand, compared to the Fordist era when schools had to produce future workers who were proficient in basic reading, writing, and arithmetic for the labour market, today schools and teachers do no longer know what kind of knowledge and skills are relevant for students’ later lives. Education transcends the classroom and school can no longer work in isolation. It has to find meaningful partnerships with the labour market and other agencies concerned with non-formal as well as informal learning (family, local government, third sector, youth association, media). In the knowledge society, the teacher profession is no longer limited to subject-related knowledge and skills and didactical expertise but is increasingly confronted with social and emotional dilemmas in educating pupils for an individualised life course. This article is concerned with the question to what extent teachers perceive the growing importance of these new challenges. Do they try to mitigate or move around the structural meritocratic rigidity of the system or do they simple reproduce it? In a comparative perspective, a question is if structures of school systems – differentiated versus comprehensive – make a difference in this regard. The aim is to verify first whether teachers are aware of this challenge and second how they perceive their role in supporting pupils’ school transition in a life course perspective. The article takes existing research on teachers’ professional identities as a starting point. Whether teachers perceive themselves as ‘transition supporters’ is assumed to be influenced by the ways they consider themselves as subject matter expert, pedagogical expert, and didactical expert. The article continues by presenting qualitative data from expert interviews with teachers and school principals carried out in the qualitative case studies as well as with teacher trainers conducted for the comparative analysis of teacher training curricula. The presentation of findings starts with teachers’ view on students’ lives and on the assessment of the adequacy of their abilities and aspirations. It continues with teachers’ opinions of parental involvement and their acceptance of cooperation with other educational actors out of school.
Cuconato, M., Walther, A. (2015). Special Issue: ‘Doing transitions’ in education. London : Taylor & Francis.
Special Issue: ‘Doing transitions’ in education
CUCONATO, MORENA;
2015
Abstract
Since the 1990s most of the research on youth transitions has been strongly focused on transitions into work, neglecting other aspects of the life trajectories of young people, e.g. family formation or transitions into – and within education. As the landscape of work is changing, with less opportunity for continuous and stable employment, European comparative studies have been concentrating on labour market entry of and labour market policies for young people. In this perspective, education tends to be dealt with as a mere input factor into individual work positioning in terms of later life and social chances. The articles presented in this special edition try to replace this functionalistic view of education complementing the question for the effects of education on the life course with the question for the effects of the life course on education (both in terms of an institution and a biographical process) as well as analysing the transitions, the performance and the experiences of children and young people in education as integral parts of their life courses. Such an approach is adequate to take into account the de-standardisation of traditional life courses and corresponds to discourses of the knowledge society, lifelong learning and activation. Emphasis is laid on individual responsibility of life chances to legitimise a shift of public activities from welfare rights towards investing in human capital. Reference is made to prevention whereby such investment focuses on the early stages in the life course. Before this background, the special issue deals with the question how individual educational trajectories emerge differently and how decisions are made at transition points during these trajectories and by whom. A central assumption is that educational trajectories emerge from complex interactions between a diversity of (f)actors across different levels. The articles collected in this special issue draw on the findings of an EU-funded research “Governance of educational trajectories in Europe. Access, coping and relevance of education of young people in European knowledge societies in a comparative perspective” (GOETE). Countries covered by the study are France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The articles focus on the decision-making processes in young people’s educational trajectories, especially at the transition from lower to upper secondary education or training. The data and analysis documented by this special issue emerge from the following sub-studies within the project: • individual survey with students in their last year of lower secondary education (N=6390) and their parents (N=3290) on progression through education, problems and support, teaching and individual learning, future plans for education, training and employment; • institutional survey with headmasters on key challenges, social contexts of schools, living conditions and future life chances of pupils and students, problems and available support, curricula and standards, links with other actors (N=984); • comparative analysis of teacher training through document analysis of teacher training curricula (N=118) and expert interviews (N = 65) in selected higher education institutions; • qualitative local case studies on ‘local school spaces’ in socially deprived areas (3 cases per country, N=24) including views of students during (N=195) and after lower secondary school (N=109), parents (N=109) as well as professionals and experts (teachers, headmasters, counsellors, external experts; N=208) on interactions at the transition from lower to upper secondary education and training; • expert interviews with high-level policy makers and stakeholders (N=95) and critical discourse analysis at national level on current policy reforms and discourses. 1. Editorial: “Doing transitions” in education (Morena Cuconato & Andreas Walther) The editorial introduces into the topic, explaining the overall approach of the GOETE project that analyses educational trajectories from a life course and a governance perspective. This approach involves an interactionist perspective according to which educational trajectories are neither structurally determined nor result of individual (rational) choice. They emerge from and imply complex negotiation processes between young people and intervening others, especially teachers and parents, and which relate different societal levels of action and meaning making from micro to macro. The editorial further introduces key concepts cross-cutting the articles such as transitions, gate keepers versus significant others, cooling out, and decision-making. It further gives an overview over the design of the GOETE project. Finally, a summarising outline of the articles of the special issue is provided. 2. Education systems as transition spaces (Jenni Tikanen, Piotr Bledowski and Joanna Felczak) Across European countries, during the 20th century the expansion of education has undoubtly increased opportunities of young people’s access to and within schooling, but it has not reduced socioeconomic inequality. Students from disadvantaged social backgrounds have less chances of achievement and face higher difficulties in coping with educational demands. Education is a process that develops in stages, and early educational constraints restrict the choices of career decision-making at later stages. Corresponding to the findings of existing comparative education and transition research statistical data suggest that not only socio-economic factors but also different structures of education and training play a role in this. Before this background the article illustrates first the differences between countries in organising educational trajectories from school entry up to higher education, the relationship between general and vocational strands in upper secondary education. Here, age limits as well as selective versus comprehensive access regulations or the links between education or training and the labour market are of interest. In a next section, a focus is laid on the structures of educational and vocational guidance in lower secondary education as guidance directly refers to individual decision-making in the transition to upper secondary education or vocational training. The rationale of this juxtaposition is to analyse the differences in how transitions in educational trajectories are structured and in the extent to which young people are enabled to take choices individually. This analysis is framed by relating the findings to existing comparative models. The first is Allmendinger’s model comparing the link between education and employment along the stratification and the standardisation of education and training. The second is the model of transition regimes developed by Walther to contextualise school to work transitions with regard to typical types of societal constellations and normalities. 3. Me, my education and I. Constellations of decision making in young people’s educational trajectories (Andreas Walther, Manuela du Bois-Reymond, Mirjana Ule and Annegret Warth) This article is concerned with the diversity of educational trajectories of young people through lower secondary education which can be understood as sequences of different steps, i.e. transitions, decisions and destinations. The focus lies on understanding how the educational trajectories of young people develop differently at the transition between lower and upper secondary education and training – even among students labelled as disadvantaged with regard to social background, gender or ethnicity. From a perspective of life course and biography as interrelated expressions of structure and agency, the aim is to understand the role of decision-making in the emergence of educational trajectories. This implies first analysing structural factors influencing young people’s experiences and expectations; second patterns of trajectories of so-called disadvantaged youth through education are discerned; finally, in a cross-cutting perspective, constellations of decision-making are reconstructed. The article starts with a brief overview over existing research on differences in educational trajectories and the role of decision-making in this regard. The second section explains the sample and the methodology. Section three presents the findings of three levels of analysis: The first contains selected findings of a survey with students at the end of lower secondary education. The focus here is on socio-economic and institutional factors of young people’ experiences in school and their expectations for the future with regard to experienced ruptures, expected destinations and the possibilities of choice. Within the article, this analysis serves mainly as a framework for the interpretation of qualitative findings. The second level of analysis focuses on 106 students from schools in deprived areas whose trajectories have been reconstructed from in-depth qualitative interviews according to smooth versus ruptured trajectories, choice versus compromise, and general versus vocational (or prevocational) destinations. Here we find, on the one hand persisting effects of socio-economic and institutional factors. On the other hand however, differences between the trajectories in similar life conditions and education systems suggest that individual, or better: biographical agency is involved in how young people interpret similar situations and how they make meaning for themselves and their future lives. The third level deepens the analysis by reconstructing the decision-making processes of a sub-sample of 15 students with regard to their transitions from lower to upper secondary education. Key dimensions of such constellations of decision-making are the dynamics of these processes, the actors involved, and the reflexivity of young people in and towards these processes including the criteria they hold most relevant for educational choices. 4. “Simply the best for my children”: patterns of parental involvement in education (Mirjana Ule & Andreja Zivoder) Findings of surveys and case studies confirm the results of existing research concerning the central but sometimes also contradictory role of parents in the educational trajectories and transitions of their children. The majority of parents are involved in many ways - ranging from emotional support, giving advice and gathering information to evaluating their children’s educational and occupational wishes and pushing them towards a “realistic perspective”; nevertheless, their influence varies from case to case. Sometimes they act as “gatekeepers” by restricting available options and downgrading their child’s aspirations, sometimes act as “way-keepers”; they are more counsellors and advocates of their children in their educational decisions rather than authorities who set limits or even prescribe life course trajectories. Moreover, in all researched countries, we can distinguish two overarching opposing parental attitudes: those who support their children in their choices, but do not want to interfere or influence their decision (“children must choose by themselves”) and those who try to influence their children’s educational careers. There is also evidence of uninvolved or not-interested parents; however this issue has been raised predominately from the interviews with the teachers and other school experts who were critical of parental (non)involvement. In contrast, parents themselves reveal high levels of concern and students are mostly satisfied and positive about their parents’ support. This article will have a closer look at parents’ roles in the educational trajectories and transitions of their children. It will focus on parents as actors involved in educational decision-making and examine the role and influence of the social and institutional milieu on what kind of perspectives parents develop regarding further education and vocational aspirations of their children. Analysis is based on a combination of quantitative survey data and qualitative data conducted with parents of students in their final year of lower secondary education. This combination of qualitative and quantitative data provides a comprehensive and detailed insight into the role of parents and their influence on the educational and life course trajectories of students. The article starts with reviewing existing research on parental involvement in their children’s educational trajectories. Next, the methodology of the analysis conducted for this article is explained. The analysis integrates qualitative and quantitative findings. It is presented in section three following the dimensions of parental expectations for the future of their children, their experiences with support provided by school, and the support they themselves provide. This latter aspect is reflected by students’ evaluations of the support of their parents. The concluding section reflects on the comparative dimension of the analysis and the way in which parent – student relationships are framed by different national education and welfare systems. 5. Instruction or support? Teachers’ professional identities and attitudes towards educational disadvantage of students (Morena Cuconato, Manuela du Bois-Reymond, and Harry Lunabba) Teachers are the most influential institutional representatives and professionals involved in the educational trajectories of students. They prepare students for transitions, they assess their achievements and eventually compensate their failure. While (individual) teachers can potentially become significant others for (individual) students, they first of all represent the school system, that is the standardised curriculum as well as the meritocratic function of school. However, this function of “gate-keepers” has changed. On the one hand, education gets more important to secure life chances in knowledge societies. This growing importance assigned to education puts teacher under pressure due to the high expectations of families and society as a whole. On the other hand, compared to the Fordist era when schools had to produce future workers who were proficient in basic reading, writing, and arithmetic for the labour market, today schools and teachers do no longer know what kind of knowledge and skills are relevant for students’ later lives. Education transcends the classroom and school can no longer work in isolation. It has to find meaningful partnerships with the labour market and other agencies concerned with non-formal as well as informal learning (family, local government, third sector, youth association, media). In the knowledge society, the teacher profession is no longer limited to subject-related knowledge and skills and didactical expertise but is increasingly confronted with social and emotional dilemmas in educating pupils for an individualised life course. This article is concerned with the question to what extent teachers perceive the growing importance of these new challenges. Do they try to mitigate or move around the structural meritocratic rigidity of the system or do they simple reproduce it? In a comparative perspective, a question is if structures of school systems – differentiated versus comprehensive – make a difference in this regard. The aim is to verify first whether teachers are aware of this challenge and second how they perceive their role in supporting pupils’ school transition in a life course perspective. The article takes existing research on teachers’ professional identities as a starting point. Whether teachers perceive themselves as ‘transition supporters’ is assumed to be influenced by the ways they consider themselves as subject matter expert, pedagogical expert, and didactical expert. The article continues by presenting qualitative data from expert interviews with teachers and school principals carried out in the qualitative case studies as well as with teacher trainers conducted for the comparative analysis of teacher training curricula. The presentation of findings starts with teachers’ view on students’ lives and on the assessment of the adequacy of their abilities and aspirations. It continues with teachers’ opinions of parental involvement and their acceptance of cooperation with other educational actors out of school.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
