Session Information
05 SES 11 A, Agency And Context: The Experiences Of Young People In Educational Settings.
Symposium
Contribution
This presentation discusses two studies conducted in Ireland with asylum-seeking adolescents who had ‘aged out’ during the asylum-seeking process. Their transition from ‘child’ to ‘adult’ in the eyes of the state meant that they were now treated differently to their Irish peers and were no longer entitled to access education on the same basis. Using the qualitative method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis the experiences of 10 acculturating adolescent asylum-seekers living in Ireland were explored as they negotiated this transition. Additionally, one participant was followed over the course of a year and his changing perceptions were traced as he engaged with the asylum-seeking process over time. A number of ecological theories are drawn upon to interpret the findings, including Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory of Human Development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and Identity Process Theory (Breakwell, 1989). Each of these theories emphasises the reciprocal relationship that exists between individuals and their contexts. The findings suggest that the agency of the participants in this study was curtailed by policies which effectively blocked their progression to education or employment opportunities. However, it also pointed to the ways in which the participants used their agency to cope with their current difficult and undesirable situations. The participants coped by focusing on a positive future, finding ways to access education and trying to make productive use of their time in the asylum-seeking process. It is therefore argued that agency depends on the biological, social, and cultural contexts that individuals engage with and the restrictions they are subject to within these contexts. However, agency can also be seen to encompass the creation of meaning and the ability to imagine new and different ways of being and so cannot be entirely reduced to context, biology or culture alone.
References
Breakwell, G. M. (1986). Coping with Threatened Identities. Vol. 904. London, UK: Methuen. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psyhchology, Vol 1 : Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 793-828). New York: Wiley.
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