“We’re not that different” – The schooling impact of a Specialized Artistic Secondary School in Portugal

Author(s):

Thiago Freires(presenting / submitting)Fátima Pereira

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

29. Research on Arts Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

29 SES 12 A, Arts education communities

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-11

09:00-10:30

Room:

557.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Fernando Hernández-Hernández

Contribution

This paper aims at presenting data from research developed throughout a Master’s Program in Educational Sciences at the University of Porto. It focuses on discussing in what ways the Specialized Artistic Education impacts on students’ lives providing meaning for their educational trajectories. In Portugal, compulsory education implies nine years of elementary school followed by three years of secondary education for which students can choose a major to specialize in. Among other possibilities, the public system offers courses on sciences, humanities, languages, technologies and arts. This diversity of paths for secondary school has been encouraged since the National Law for the Educational System release in 1985, a document that established a new moment for education in the country and a step towards liberal theories of modernization (Correia and Matos, 2001; Barroso, 2003). As analyzed, if on one hand, the policies appeared to stimulate diversity as a means to attract publics that usually dropped out of school, on the other hand, literature informs us that the government’s main goal was related to the restraint of Higher Education access. For that, there was a spread of vocational education and technological courses, a strategy closely attached to liberal ideals of social development. What happened next was an ideological tension as the discourse of national educational system’s modernization started to reflect a segregation of students due to social classes and freedom of choice (Alves, 1999; Antunes and Sá, 2010). Facing this scenario then, we find the origins of specialized artistic schools, a model applied to only two institutions in Portugal. Their offer differ from other secondary programs focused in arts concerning the courses they have and the amount of available resources. Besides that, such schools receive students out of compulsory education since they supply a variety of technological and technician courses in arts. Considering that our research wanted to better understand the impacts of such a specialized center in the schooling of its secondary students, we designed a study based on the narrative approach to settle the importance of this program in the perspective of a trajectory. Besides the systematical and ideological scenario, we based our work in other three specific theoretical lines: youth, school as a space of interactions and the role of family in the schooling processes. In terms of youth, it was crucial to debate the limits between being young and being a student, if there were any. Believing that there is a crisis on how students see the role of school, we adopted a perspective that assumes students as active actors of their education, reinforcing their lead on what school represents and how its mandates develop (Dubet and Martucelli, 1996). Consequently, we invested on an approach of interaction, balancing personal and institutional elements, on the assertion that a student is a social being who acts in the world at the same time that they are produced by it (Charlot, 2009). In relation to studying a course on Arts during secondary school, it was of crucial importance to evaluate how the choice took place, what kind of support students had from their significant others and what this decision meant personally. Together, this information supported our comprehension of identity development (Rich and Schachter, 2012), inside school dynamics (Van Zanten, 2000; Demanet and Van Houtte, 2012) and family involvement in education processes (Spera, Wentzel e Matto, 2009; Fan e Williams, 2010).

Method

Our project derives from the interest of discussing the Specialized Artistic Secondary School project and its effects on students’ trajectories. Considering our intentions to have an overall look on the subjects’ schooling trajectories, we decided to adopt a narrative approach, with a clear disposition to highlight how students interpretation of school changed due to continuing attendance. As an early procedure, we carried out two exploratory interviews of biographical kind. The involved subjects were registered in the eleventh and twelfth grade respectively and both of them attended the course of Audiovisual Communication. Their narratives were important to give clues on what topics we should focus and why, while we could also expand our theoretical debate concerning the Specialized Artistic program and its values. We kept the same interview guide, though, as our narrative approach implied openness in terms of what students wanted to tell us, even having topics of our own interest. By the way, on the grounds of narratives, we considered the methodology essential given that it emerges as an opportunity to collect data which has intersections both on the personal and social dimensions. Also, it allows the investigation to flow through different temporalities while covering subjects of diverse places (Clandinin and Connely, 2011) enabling all the subjects involved to (re)visit experiences. Experience, then, should be read as an element that is able to be revisited, promoting room for reflexive practices capable of enhancing educational processes (Schön, 1987; Lopes and Pereira, 2004), once the narrative form is assumed. As Goodson (2013) states in terms of histories of life, an intrinsic perspective of narratives methodologies, we assume our approach as a way to examine how people are in constant struggle to comprehend their trajectory purposes and senses. According to him, the scrutiny of personal histories allow us to understand how human beings have addressed historical and cultural changes. Within this line of thinking, our second step involved the application of other four interviews of biographical type, through individual meetings. New subjects comprehended all three years of secondary school and age group ranged from 16 to 18. One of them was in the general cycle (tenth year) and the other three were attending courses on Product Design and Artistic Production. The collected information was later submitted to content analysis and its reading respected the technique principles (Pereira, 2010).

Expected Outcomes

Results are organized into three main areas: school, family, and future, in a way that the specialized artistic secondary experience is addressed in all domains. Data indicates us that the Specialized Artistic Project has built its own mechanisms to integrate a group of educational institutions considered of high standards. Yet, there is relevant social pressure on the students that choose following arts on secondary education. In general, they are able to manage their educational choices with their personal relationships, although some of them cannot identify themselves as part of a broader society. It is possible to affirm that there is an appraisal of the educational process by students, showing that they value schooling dynamics that privilege the deconstruction of hierarchical systems through informality and innovation, aspects reinforced by a spirit of diversity and social dialogue – typical of an Arts institution, according to them. Relationships based on confidence, collaboration and methods that privilege active participation are seen as important assets that modify the way school is meant to students. Somehow, it is still the old tradition values in education as lecture based classes, no power or voice share, for instance, that make up the negative impress of how school works. Regarding family, most parents see school as important even when they do not agree with their children’s choice. Surprisingly, extended family showed to perform an active role on the development of subjects’ educational trajectory, a positive attitude, appreciated by the interviewees. Finally, data points out future as a reality students fear. The transition to higher education or the labor market seems massive work due to economic crisis and the depreciation of artistic work. Lack or resources collaborate to this scenario of uncertainty.

References

Alves, J. M. (1999). Crises e dilemas do ensino secundário. Em busca de um novo paradigma. Porto: Edições Asa. Antunes, F., & Sá, V. (2010). Públicos escolares e regulação da educação. Lutas concorrenciais na arena educativa. Vila Nova de Gaia: Fundação Manuel Leão. Barroso, J. (2003). Organização e regulação dos ensinos básico e secundário, em Portugal: sentidos de uma evolução. Educação e Sociedade, 24(82), 63-92. Charlot, B. (2009). A relação com o saber nos meios populares. Uma investigação nos liceus profissionais de subúrbio. Porto: CIIE /Livpsic. Clandinin, J., & Connelly, M. (2011). Pesquisa Narrativa, Experiência e História em Pesquisa Qualitativa. Uberlândia: EDUFU. Correia, J. A., & Matos, M. (2001). Da crise da escola ao escolocentrismo. In Stephen Stoer & L. Cortesão & J. Correia (Orgs), Transnacionalização da educação. Da crise da educação à “educação” da crise (pp. 91-117). Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Demanet, J., & Van Houtte, M. (2012).School belonging and school misconduct: the differing role of teacher and peer attachment. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 41, 499-514. Dubet, F., & Martucelli, D. (1996). À l'école: sociologie de l'expérience scolaire. Paris: Éditions Du Seuil. Fan, W., & Williams, C. M. (2010).The effects of parental involvement on students’ academic self-efficacy, engagement and intrinsic motivation. Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, 30 (1), 53-74. Goodson, I. F. (2013). Developing narrative theory. Life Histories and personal representation. London: Routledge. Lopes, A., & Pereira, M. F. (2004). Escritos de trabalho e construção social da acção educativa institucional: (E)feitos de um processo de investigação-acção. Educação, Sociedade & Culturas, 22, 109-132. Pereira, F. (2010). Infância, educação escolar e profissionalidade docente. Um mapeamento social dos discursos em formação inicial de professores. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Rich, Y., & Schachter, E. P. (2012). High school identity climate and student identity development.Contemporary Educational Psychology, 37, 218-228. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Spera, C., & Wentzel, K. R., & Matto, H. C. (2009). Parental aspirations for their children’s educational attainment: relations to ethnicity, parental education, children’s academic performance, and parental perceptions of school climate. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38, 1140-1152. Van Zanten, A. (2000). Le quartier ou l´école? Déviance et sociabilité adolescente dans un collège de banlieue. Deviance et Société, 24(4), 377-401.

Author Information

Thiago Freires (presenting / submitting)

University of Porto, Portugal

Fátima Pereira