Factors that affect pre-adolescences’ school commitment: Implications for learning outcomes

Author(s):

Marios Vryonides

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 01, Young people and schooling: social and cultural contexts (Part 1)

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-10

09:15-10:45

Room:

A1 318

Chair:

Rune Kvalsund

Contribution

This paper focuses on the wider social context of teaching and learning in contemporary Cyprus and argues that certain societal and familial factors affect children’s learning outcomes decisively. The theoretical framework of this study draws on the work of Bourdieu and other studies that followed his work subsequently (i.e. Katsillis and Rubinson, 1990; Kalmijn and Kraaykamp, 1996; Aschaffenburg and Maas, 1997; De Graaf et al 2000; Sullivan, 2001). Issues relating to cultural and social capital are thought to play an important role in the development of ‘habitus’ that facilitates or hinders learning (Vryonides, 2007a). Habitus is operationalised as students' school commitment and it is measured using a scale that has been developed for the purpose of this study. In this study a major facet of cultural capital that affects the shaping of habitus in contemporary society is thought to relate to the actual access and use of technology. The latter seems to generate new forms of inequalities, often stemming from social class, ethnic and gender positioning (Salpeter, 2006; Gorski, 2002; Brown, 2002). The overall aim of this paper is to identify factors as well as groups that are more likely to be at the risk of marginalization and social exclusion from educational processes that sustain existing social inequalities in the Cypriot educational and social context.

Method

The methods used include the administration of questionnaires to students (aged 11-14) attending to Cypriot public schools and their teachers. Their teachers also provide information about students’ academic achievement, school commitment and effort. Nearly 330 questionnaires have been administered and in the end around 260 are included in the data analysis (response rate 78.8%). The questionnaires include questions on demographics, indicators of social and cultural capital present in the home environment (Vryonides, 2007b), a standardized scale measuring students' school commitment, students’ academic achievement, students' educational aspirations etc. Data analysis takes the form of multivariate analysis with students' score on the scale measuring school commitment as the dependent variable.

Expected Outcomes

Data analysis is currently ongoing but early indications point to the fact that the availability of different non-monetary forms of capital to families within the particular social, economic, political and cultural context of contemporary Cyprus shape to a large extent pre-adolescence commitment to school. All these shape in tern different ‘horizons of action’ (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997; Ball et al 2002) for different students with implications on students’ educational experiences and outcomes.

References

Aschaffenburg, K., and Maas, I. (1997) Cultural and Educational Careers: The Dynamics of Social Reproduction, American Sociological Review, 62, 573-587. Ball, S., Davies, J., David, M., and Reay, D. (2002), “'Classification' and 'Judgement': social class and the 'cognitive structures' of choice of Higher Education.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 23, 51-72. Brown, M. (2002) “Multicultural Education and Technology: Perspectives to Consider”, Journal of Special Education Technology, 17(3) De Graaf, N.D., De Graaf, P.M. & Kraaykamp, G. (2000) Parental educational capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective, Sociology of Education, 73, 92-111. Gorski, P. (2002) “Dismantling the Digital Divide: A Multicultural Education Framework”, Multicultural Education, v10 n1 p28-30 Fall 2002 Hodkinson, P., and Sparkes, A.C. (1997), “Careership: a sociological theory of career decision-making”, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18, 29-44. Kalmijn, M. & Kraaykamp, G. (1996) Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States, Sociology of Education, 69, 22-34. KatsilIis, J. & Rubinson, R. (1990) Cultural Capital, student achievement, and educational reproduction: The case of Greece, American Sociological Review, 55, 270-279. Salpeter, J. (2006) “Inside the Divide”, Technology and Learning 26, no8 22-4 Sullivan, A. (2001) Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment, Sociology, 35, 893-912. Vryonides, M (2007a) Capital, Habitus and Horizons for Social Action in Education, International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 44 (2), pp. 189- 200. Vryonides, M (2007b) Social and cultural capital in educational research: Issues of operationalisation and measurement, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 33 (6), pp. 867 – 885.

Author Information

Marios Vryonides

European University Cyprus

Social Sciences

Nicosia

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