This article discusses the link between training pathways, young NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and their parents’ attitude towards education, starting from a qualitative study carried out in an area of Southern Italy. The need to focus on NEETs, and in particular the link between training courses, young people and the family, comes from the need to consider the Italian peculiarity of the phenomenon, which in recent years has emerged in all its complexity. The study starts with the importance that young NEETs and their families give to training courses in the context of their biographies. This occurs within a framework in which the relationship between education and work changes due to the flexibility of work: on the one hand, the working system requires more and more adaptability and high levels of training, while on the other, training courses do not always manage to guarantee training that facilitates the transition into the world of work (Blossfeld et al. 2005, Blossfeld, 2014). The a nalysis o f t he r esults s hows h ow t he y oung p eople i nterviewed perceive training mainly as an “obligation” and not as a benefit. They are young people who live in a dimension of habituation to the context, perpetually waiting, within a family stuck in an attitude of deresponsibilisation which, in the illusion of respecting their choices, makes them feel more alone than free.
One of the analysed explanations of social reproduction in a massive higher education system are differences in the decision-making process between non-traditional and middle class students. This paper explores social differences in the decision-making on where and what to study based on interviews with 42 Polish final grade secondary students. Meanings ascribed to higher education and future work, ability to read the educational market and the process of deciding which course to attend are analyzed in the theoretical framework of cultural capital, class habitus and field. The paper gives insights how social background shapes horizontal inequalities in higher education in Poland, exposing as well the interplay between class habitus and institutional habitus of school in the decision-making process.
This article examines the importance of educational processes for creating a new, conscious, and participatory citizenship, paramount to strengthen democracies today. We will observe these complex interconnections through a qualitative methodology based on an introductory theoretical study on plural and participatory citizenship. We will then anchor it to an overview of the educational strategies implemented in Europe and Latin America based on official documents by the various bodies of these two geographical macro-areas or supranational organisms, such as UNESCO, concerning both countries. In the conclusions, this comparison will highlight coinciding interests in strengthening educational projects to promote participatory citizenship, despite differences at the national and supranational level between the two regional contexts.
The paper discusses the life courses of young people towards autonomy and adulthood, analyzing the transition patterns between education, work and the building-up of one’s own life project in a territory affected by multiple socio-economic and environmental crises in central Italy. The analysis is based on a pragmatist case study including in-depth interviews with 32 young people selected to reflect a diversity of conditions in terms of gender, education, employment, geographic origin, and age. Interviews have been designed around a comprehensive set of variables which extends well beyond the formal education and employment pathways. The aim was to reconstruct life trajectories and their embeddedness in the context, through a multidimensional analysis also in accordance with an intersectional approach. Method and socio-economic background data are presented before life history interviews are analyzed to identify the patterns of trajectories. Subsequently, their characteristics, similarities and differences are discussed. Data show how difficult working careers play an important role in affecting young people’s life plans and expectations, and along with social contexts, networks, public policies, family and social inheritance and gender, interact creating unequal opportunities, conditioning the development of trajectories and placing various hindrances in the construction of citizenship of social identity.
This study is designed to explore the Multiculturalism as an indicator/ actor influencing the social sphere of students. The article focuses on identifying the impact of multiculturalism on the socialization of the parties involved in the research. The multiculturalism is treated as a feature of substantial importance during the process of socialization to the pupils and teachers, in the conditions of a society that change at fast paced and uninterrupted rates. The research will present the perception by the teachers and the pupils and a detailed exploration of the condition of this factor, and then its comparison based on the presence or absence of this factor. The sample of this study will be the teachers and primary school pupils in Nuremberg, Germany. The instrument used in this study is the standardized questionnaire for pupils, the standardized questionnaire for the teachers. Viewed in general, the research showed the present interlinking of the influence of multiculturalism in the pupils socialization. This impact is mainly positive, but comes with the follow up of negative phenomena, in the prevention of which should continue to work. Without overlooked these difficulties, the value of multiculturalism is undeniable.
: Despite an abundance of research from multiple perspectives and disciplines, to date cyberbullying research has been fragmented and is often conducted atheoretically, using theories borrowed from general psychology and/or criminology, or considers only individual-level explanations such as demographics, personalities, and psychological conditions which may be insufficient to fully understand and explain the behaviour. Social psychological approaches that examine the everyday power relations in children’s lives and the study of identity, relationships, and belonging systems may provide meaningful context and a more holistic perspective. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the positive impact of applying identity theories and a sociological perspective to the study of cyberbullying. This paper provides an overview of cyberbullying, followed by examples of how general psychological theories and theories borrowed from criminology and aggression have been applied to cyberbullying, including a cyberbullying-specific theory. Several key theories of identity that could be employed in the study of cyberbullying are then identified. Lastly, the utility of using a socio-psychological perspective using social identity theory and social network analysis to study of cyberbullying is explored. In order to manage cyber violence, we need to act on multiple levels, including individual, relational, organizational, and community levels.
This paper aims to summarize the current changes in education concerning the use of innovative teaching methods and to understand the opinion on technology and its educational uses of both teachers and pupils. While pupils’ grasp of their learning is a relatively underexplored field in educational research, it is paramount for effective lifelong learning. Our investigation focuses on the following aspects: the differences in the use of digital tools by the two groups, the motivations leading to certain uses and/or non-uses, the teachers’ pedagogical perspectives and their views on how ICT can contribute to the learning environment, their considerations on the current situation. We used focus groups to explore the subjects’ perspectives on innovative learning strategies, particularly ICT-based ones. In the final section, we consider future perspectives. Such assessments promote valid decision-making regarding to education and help in designing adequate learning experience to achieve effective learning objectives. Our findings point towards learning through collaboration and show that technologies can facilitate the learning process in cases of full participation by both teachers and students. The best learning environment, we discovered, is the one where teachers are no longer all-knowing controllers of activities but co-explorers together with the children.
This study deals with perceptions of 'proper intimacy' disseminated through digital parent-teacher communication in early-childhood education and the implications for parents' reflexive projects of self. The article brings sociological understandings about perceptions of proper parenting and intimacy together with research on digital communications. Qualitative data was collected from an on-line discussion of early-childhood educators on their uses of parent-teacher digital communications. Analysis reveals the dissemination of two ideals of 'proper' intimate relationships. Digital sharing of what goes on at preschool invites parents to have an 'observant intimacy' with their children, based on knowledge-from-a-distance of the child's day. Complementing digital communication with face-to-face communication invites parents into an 'instrumental intimacy' with teachers - an emotional connection for the purpose of the child's education. The article concludes with possible implications the perceptions of 'proper intimacy' disseminated through parent-teacher digital communications may have on contemporary parenting culture.
If we look at the relationship between young people and adults in terms of their usage of digital technologies, we can see that the studies conducted to date have paid little attention to adult users. Thanks to interviews and autoethnographic diaries, the present study looks at how young people view their parents’ use of digital media. A ‘mediologic approach’ help us to look at the inter-generational relationships and the role of digital technologies from the young people’s perspective, in an effort to shed light on those spaces in the discourse where expectations, stereotypes and generational boundaries are constructed. Young people’s views are on a continuum with a shared rhetoric that now sees digital media as an established element in our social ecology, but also as a phenomenon capable of modifying human behaviour. Young people’s narratives reveal an interesting picture: they worry about the older generation’s use of these technologies. The study shows how interviewees interiorized the rhetoric digital native vs. digital immigrants moving the focus from the technical plane to the social one and emphasizing a role for the young who can occupy an independent space, uninfluenced by the classical hierarchies.
