Conference Program

While it is widely demonstrated by quantitative studies that educational transitions of students with a migrant background tend to bring them together in less prestigious tracks, the mechanisms underlying these processes remain unclear in terms of their experiences, subjectivities, and voices.

This paper investigates how descendants of migrants chose upper secondary education in Barcelona drawing on a theoretical framework inspired by Appadurai (2004), Bourdieu (2008), Hodkinson (1997) and Tarabini (2022) that frames transition as dynamic processes of articulation and transformation of identifications, and aspirations. Understanding transitions as contextualized, socially embedded, and relationally negotiated processes challenges the dominant individualistic discourse that frames choice as an individual and rational election.

Conducted in two schools in a segregated neighbourhood, this study is based on qualitative, longitudinal, visual research, which involved 50 interviews conducted both before and after students’ transition to upper secondary education. The focus of the research is on 18 students descended from migrants from Morocco and Pakistan, two of the most stigmatized origins in Barcelona due to the increasing infiltration of the Islamophobic discourse.

The analysis identifies four distinct typologies of transitional processes: transitions by cooled ambition, by sustained ambition, by immediate fit, and by professional fit. Based on the voices of the young people, a non-essentialist diagnosis of the realities of pupils with a migrant background and/or belonging to ethnic minorities is proposed. Furthermore, it is shown that family migrant origin does not act as a handicap in educational trajectories, it is usually an incentive that favours school engagement and the formulation of ambitious aspirations.

These results are useful for the formulation of educational policies, pedagogical interventions and academic orientations that are sensitive to the migrant reality and committed to the search for effective equality of opportunities among students regardless of their origin.

Research influenced by the work of Pierre Bourdieu has profusely examined how individual and institutional practices, as well as strategies, affect the formation of higher education aspirations and choices (Archer and Yamashita 2003; Ball et al. 2002; Palma-Amestoy 2022; Reay, David, and Ball 2005). Yet, less attention has been paid to the moral/normative dimension involved in this process (Baker 2020). Drawing on some essential ideas of Axel Honneth’s (2005) recognition theory, this paper addresses this fundamental dimension. In doing so, it supplements the Bourdieusian literature in this area, providing novel insights to better comprehend the decision-making process in higher education. Thus, it develops theoretical elements that allow us to connect the three interaction spheres proposed by Honneth with the field of higher education. Broadly speaking, this paper aims to explain how the notions of struggle for recognition and the meritocratic principle are associated with the process of formation of aspirations and choice-making in higher education. It also explores how the transition from the school to a new stage in life is faced and experienced by pupils.

This paper is based on a qualitative study that explores the experiences, perceptions and appreciations of forty-six pupils from various types of schools (delegated administration, public, emblematic public, private subsidised and private) and different social classes (dominant, intermediate and dominated) in the Metropolitan region of Chile. Particularly, it focuses on the narratives of twenty-three pupils whose families were located in intermediate positions in the social space at the time the interviews were conducted.

Based on the analysis of pupils’ accounts regarding their desires and expectations, this paper shows how the possibility of higher education is shaped under the influence of a moral/normative dimension. This dimension encompasses the pervasive meritocratic discourse that underpins pupils’ struggles for recognition. In particular, three aspects influencing the higher education choice-making process are analytically addressed: (1) the understanding of higher education as an external demand imposed by society and how this condition is intertwined with the idea of social recognition; (2) how economic and material barriers, which shape pupils’ aspirations and choices, are reframed in moral and normative terms; and (3) how cultural tropes that underpin the meritocratic principle, such as individual responsibility and personal effort, are linked to the possibility of higher education. Overall, this paper brings together various elements that allow us to link the process of forming and shaping pupils’ higher education aspirations and choices with the concept of social recognition.

Context

By introducing the Parcoursup platform and the 54 hours devoted to orientation support for students at general and technological highschools, the “Student Orientation and Success" law of 8 March 2018 has helped to institutionalise this support and make teachers even more responsible in their orientation role. Called upon to go beyond the stage of "advice" to pupils, teachers are now faced with the injunction to provide what would amount to "orientation teaching", or even to embrace the role of psychologists from the French Education Ministry, who at the time had little presence in the school sphere and/or had to deal with major school and social issues, leaving little room for orientation issues (Lehner, 2020).

The available studies fervently emphasise the lack of preparation and training for teachers in this area (Dutercq et al., 2018; Clément et al., 2019; Daverne-Bailly & Bobineau, 2020; Daverne-Bailly, 2023). However, the latter are key players in the implementation of the ORE law, and we know that the application of a reform depends, among other things, on the professional identity of teachers, whose practices, representations and skills generally require adjustment (Bedoin & Daverne, 2014; Draelants & Cattonar, 2022).

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the way in which teachers deal with the institutional injunctions aimed at developing their orientation support role and with their professional teaching identity. To answer this question, we use the concept of professional teaching identity (Cattonar, 2001) to analyse how teachers accept or resist this reform.

Methodology

An initial exploratory qualitative survey was conducted. 30 highschool teachers from the main school disciplines and from all levels were interviewed. They work in general and technological highschools. What emerged was a diversity of representations and practices depending on the context of the schools and on their seniority and discipline. The second part of the survey will be quantitative. We will administer a questionnaire to teachers of general and technological highschools over the next few weeks. The challenge will essentially be to understand the factors of acceptance and resistance to the implementation of these new orientation policies. It is precisely this part of the survey that interests us and that we will present in this presentation.

First results and outlook

The first results highlight the extent to which teachers feel illegitimate and remain uncertain as to the effects of their support on students’ access to higher education. Despite converging representations of orientation, teachers seem to reinterpret and adjust to this mission according to their seniority, their discipline and the context of their school. As a result, they have to deal with their initial professional identity.

Consequently, in addition to the desire to reach a wider and more diversified audience, the results gathered through the questionnaire would make it possible to highlight a plurality of professional teaching identities, to understand the profile of those who embrace the reform and those who do not. This would also make it possible to check the effects of seniority and discipline.

In the post-pandemic labor market, individuals bear a growing responsibility for making career choices and coping with career adaptation. Youth transitions, defined as changes in one’s educational or professional career (e.g., school-to-work, school-to-school, work-to-work), are critical periods with relevant implications for the individual’s identity, social success, well-being, and life satisfaction. In turn, the individuals’ ability to adapt to such transitions and their new career paths is affected by several contextual and psycho-social factors ranging from personality characteristics (e.g., proactivity) to more malleable behaviors and personal resources. While identifying such psychosocial factors is particularly important for designing personalized career paths, enhancing favorable psycho-social resources and adaptive career behaviors is among the main goals of career and educational guidance. The “Youth between transitions, challenges, and opportunities” project aims to investigate and promote the psycho-social factors more predictive of successful career transitions for young people aged between 13 and 29 living in the Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino Euroregion (TSTE). Particularly, the project uses a research-intervention approach focused on educational and career choices where quantitative and qualitative data are used to design and implement training activities with local orientation, teaching, and other professionals, and an online platform supporting career orientation. The present contribution focuses on the quantitative research phase of the project by presenting the preliminary results of a large-scale cross-sectional survey conducted in the three TSTE subregions. Building from the career construction theory (Savickas, 2013), the career self-management model (Lent & Brown, 2013), and the sustainable career framework (De Vos et al., 2020), a standardized questionnaire was designed to measure indicators of adaptive readiness (i.e., proactive personality and protean career orientation), adaptability resources (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence), and adapting responses (i.e., career engagement behaviors). By considering and comparing four groups of respondents corresponding to four main transitions (i.e., from middle school to high school, from high school to higher education or work, from work or higher education to a different job, and from early career profiles to more consolidated job positions), we analyzed the predictors of career adaptation and their relationships with sustainable career indicators, namely happiness (i.e., school/career satisfaction), health (i.e., school/career-related affective well-being), and productivity (i.e., school achievement and perceived employability). All in all, preliminary results obtained from over 3,000 respondents support the expected chain of relationships, identifying adaptability resources and adapting responses as the most critical and proximal predictors of sustainable career transitions and, thus, as the most important psycho-social factors to be enhanced through career guidance and other orientation activities. Results also inform on the socio-demographic and educational differences in the investigated variables and the differences among TSTE subregions. In conclusion, this work contributes to shedding light on the precursors of effective youth transitions and career choices, identifying the most critical targets of career guidance interventions, and illustrating how evidence-based approaches can be used to strengthen local resources and promote sustainable career adaptation.

This research focuses on subject choices' inequalities in the context of the 2021 Baccalauréat reform in France.

As in many other industrialised countries, the French education system has a high degree of stratification (Shavit, 2003, 2007; Merle, 2012), with separate academic and vocational paths. Until 2021, the French general Baccalauréat (the most academic, non-vocational path of the diploma) has been characterised by three tracks: a scientific track, a social science track and a humanities track. The scientific track has always been the most prestigious, as it offered the most and the best opportunities in higher education, including non-scientific degrees (Dubet, 1991; Duru-Bellat & Kieffer, 2008). For this reason, many students in the science track did not pursue scientific studies in HE: they only chose this track for its reputation as the 'royal way' of the French education system (so for the best students), and not for its scientific curricula.

This is the reason why the Baccalauréat reform removed these tracks and offered instead a system of combinations of specialities, inspired by the A-level, which provides pupils a new diversity of subject choices. From now on, they must choose three specialities in the second year of secondary school and then keep two in their final year. These specialities are the most important subjects of the Baccalauréat curricula and determine their disciplinary profile. The aim is for them to build up a specialisation consistent with their aspirations for further education.

As such, this system compels students to make early specialization choices. However, early specialization in the educational system is known to be a strong vector of social inequality (Boudon, 1984; Duru-Bellat & Mingat, 1993). Indeed, many researches show that educational choices depend on the individual characteristics of the pupils (gender, social background, past academic records…) and on the characteristics of their secondary schools (social composition, reputation and prestige, overall academic level…). More specifically, pupils from the most advantaged social classes are more likely to choose the subjects most sought after by HE institutions (Vidal Rodeiro, 2007). Student guidance as well as access to quality information during secondary education are crucial for making the optimal choice of subjects (Vidal Rodeiro, 2007; Dilnot, 2016). However, socially advantaged schools provide more support to students regarding their choices (Draelants, 2013; van Zanten, 2015). Consequently, pupils from such schools are more likely to be oriented towards the most valuable subjects (Dilnot, 2018; Vidal Rodeiro, 2019).

Therefore, the aim of this research is to highlight different profiles of pupils based on their subject choices, in the light of their individual characteristics as well as the contextual characteristics of their secondary school. We can make the hypothesis that the new Baccalauréat subject choices are highly socially differentiated. A database of around 13,000 Baccalauréat graduates from 2022 has been built from public data. To identify different “groups” of pupils depending on their subject choices, we will rely on a hierarchical cluster analysis.