Lost in transition? Vulnerability and personal agency in a group of italian ESL and at risk students re-engaged in VET.

Author(s):

Gabriella Vitale(presenting / submitting)Nadia Dario(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES C 06, Vocational Training and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-07

11:00-12:30

Room:

322. [Main]

Chair:

Lázaro Moreno Herrera

Contribution

Topic

The phenomenon of ESL in Italy is a priority question within Agenda 2020 (European Commission, 2013). According to Eurostat in 2013 the rate of ESL in Italy was around 17%, but a recent research has shown that the overall rate is 30%, very far from the aim of Lisbon in 2020, set at 15% (Checchi, 2014).

Early school leavers increase the proportion of NEET (Not in Education, Employement and Training) that has a high social cost, in addition to the effects of marginalization of an active part of the population.

Many white papers emphasize the role of the VET to prevention and compensation of school dropouts (European Parliament 2011, European Commission 2013). This educational sector is considered a valid contrast to the drop out, due to learning by doing and work-oriented, more close to the feel of young dropouts (CEDEFOP, 2012). In Italy, over the time, the VET has become as a school of second chance for many of those who have experienced a previous period of drop out (ISFOL, 2013).

Reserch question 1: Are VET paths effective in re-engagement of young italian ESL?

Research question 2: What role does play the personal agency in school re-engagement?

Objective

The study aims to investigate the relationship between school achievement, school investment and agency, as central capability in individual life, in students of VET schools. Specifically we will test the hypothesis that the educational success in school re-engagement is associated with agency of young people, that is, the ability of students to act according to aims and perspectives to which they themselves give value.

Theoretical framework

The exclusion from education is a cumulative disadvantage that makes marginal those who are affected, putting them at risk of social exclusion.Amartya Sen has conceptualized a framework for the evaluation and assessment of individual and society well-being (Sen, 1980, 1999, 2009). The core charateristic of theC.A. is its focus on what people are able to do and be. The quality of life is assessed in term of the person’s freedom to choose and achieve valuable functioning: the lack of capabilities affects the freedom of action and choice of individuals and causes exclusion from active participation into society (Sen, 1999).

Agency is a central capability for a person: it is defined, in relation to goals that a person value or has reason to value, as the ability to act congruently with her/his values. It is exercised with respect to multiple aims (Sen, 1980; Alkire, 2008). Even if this approach focuses on what individual agents are able to do and be, it considers the individual socially and culturally situated.

Studies in psychology show how the agency is operating both individual and environmental factors; it increases the sense of self-efficacy and active participation in a change process (Bandura, 2000).

An increased application ofC.A. in educational field (Otto, Ziegler, 2006; Robeyns, 2006; Unterhalter, 2008) highlights the importance to consider the range of valued opportunities and the freedom that supports the connection between valued opportunities and outcomes or capabilities and functionings. In the specific case of our study, this means understand how the choice to undertake VET course, following a school failure, is the result of student interests and not rather an adaptive preference.

In studies about ESL we have to analyse a wide range of their functionings, from what they are actually able to be and do, their aspirations, their current achievements and educational experience, to the potential and real opportunities available for them (Galliott, Graham, 2014).

Method

The general aim of this work is to understand to what extent the dimensions that express agency are present in a group of VET students and how these dimensions are associated with achievement. The research analyzes the data of a group of students at the first year and third year of some vocational schools (9th grade, the first year at VET schools;11th grade, the third year at VET schools), divided between those who are enrolled in VET at the end of their previous studies and those who have chosen following a previous dropout or a change in the type of study. The data will collect by a structured and multidimensional tool composed of 4 scales and 4 questionnaires on agency, functionings and socio-economic background. According with some international studies (Alkire S., 2008; Galliott N., Graham L.J., 2014, etc.) we have considered the following measures of agency: - 3 Self-efficacy scales: Academic self-efficacy (Pastorelli, C., Picconi, L., 2001); Work self-efficacy scale and Search for work self-efficacy scale (Pepe, S., Farnese M.L., Avallone, F., et al., 2010) as measures of school ability and ability to associate school experience with a possible future career. - 1 Future time perspective scale: further we have introduced future time perspective approach (Peetsma, T., van der Veen, I., 2011); this one explore future on the short term (this school year) and the long term (later, after this school), on school and professional career, and on personal development, as measures of investment towards several aims and the ability to extend them into the far or near future. - About current functioning we have considered the following objective measures: o School investment: is operationalized by the degree of intensity in doing something o Academic achievements: we use the grade point average of the final annual report o Access and use of career related information o Participation in choice of elective subjects by students Questionnaires were previously validated in the versions used by us. Through patterns of correlational analysis we identify the direction and strength of the relationship between the sub-set of variables and the variables of achievement; through a model of regression analysis we evaluate the effect that each dimension (variable or group of variables) examined in individual questionnaires on the results of achievement of the two groups.

Expected Outcomes

To motivate and build the conditions for active participation in the training process has deep implications on a personal level, the growth of self-esteem and self-efficacy in learning processes. Also the abilities to aspire, think and imagine the present and the future, to give value to the action become a resource for the development of society. Differently from national and international emphasis on effectiveness of VET for students at risk and for the ESL, we expect to find significant differences between students with regular school career and those with an irregular path (rejection, previous school dropout, steps from a path to another school): a) in perceived agency; b) in the current functionings taken into account. VET schools can not be considered the ‘umbrella solution’ for each student. At the actual state of research, we believe that evidences can: - offer elements to build instruments for counseling in VET schools; - support the current debate on the role and characteristics of VET; - address the focus of national education policies towards more articulated and complex solutions about the transition to secondary school.

References

Alkire, S. (2008). Concepts and measures of agency. OPHI Working Papers n° 9. Oxford poverty & Human Development Initiative. in: http: //www.ophi.org.uk. Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory: an Agentic Perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1-26. CEDEFOP, (2012). Trends in VET policy in Europe 2010-12. Progress towards the Bruges communiqué. Working paper 16. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union. Checchi, D. (2014). Qual è la misura corretta dell’abbandono scolastico in Italia? in LOST DISPERSIONE SCOLASTICA: il costo per la collettività e il ruolo di scuole e Terzo settore. in: http://www.weworld.it. EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2013). Europa 2020: una strategia per una crescita intelligente, sostenibile e inclusiva (2010) 2020. Bruxelles. in: http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020 /targets/ eu-targets/index it.htm. EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2013). Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy support. Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving. Bruxelles. European Parliament, (2011). STUDY ON REDUCING EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING IN THE EU. Brussels. in: http://www.europarl.europa.eu Galliott, N., Graham, L.J. (2014). A question of agency: applying Sen’s theory of human capability to the concept of secondary school student career choice. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, vol.37, n°3, 270-284. ISFOL. (2013). Percorsi di qualificazione: l’Istruzione e la Formazione Professionale oltre la seconda opportunità. Research Paper, 8. Roma. in: www.isfol.it. Pastorelli, C., Picconi, L., (2001). Autoefficacia scolastica, sociale e regolatoria. in (a cura di) Caprara, G.V. La valutazione dell’autoefficacia. Trento: Erickson. Otto, H. and Ziegler, H. (2006). Capability and education. Social Work & Society. Vol. 4:2, 269-287 Peetsma, T., van der Veen, I. (2011). Relations between the development of future time perspective in three life domains,investment in learning,and academic achievement. Learning and Instruction, 21 ,481-494. Pepe, S.J., Fanese, M.L., et al., (2010). Work self-efficacy scale and search for work self-efficacy scale: a validation study in Spanish and Italian cultural contexts. Revista de psicologia del Trabajo y de las Organicaciones. Vol.36, n. 3, 201-210. Robeyns, I. (2006). Three models of education Right, capabilities and human capital. Theory and Research in Education. 4: 1, 69-84 Sen, A. (1980). Equality of what?. Tanner Lectures on Human Values,1, 195-220. Sen,A. (1999).Development as Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press. Sen, A. (2009). The idea of Justice. London: Allen Lane

Author Information

Gabriella Vitale (presenting / submitting)

University of Venice Cà Foscari, Italy

Nadia Dario (presenting)