Educational pathways of ninth grade adolescents: Transition practices in vocational and academic families

Abstract

The study analyses how the educational pathways of ninth graders are constructed by practices of adolescents and their parents in families with different educational statuses. The importance of contextualising the educational transition as it occurs in daily life and socially structured family cultures is emphasised. The research question is: How is the choice of educational route of ninth graders constructed by the practices of the adolescents and the parents in vocational and academic families? What does characterise different pathways and what kinds of distinctions, differences and contrasts of transition practices do exist between them? The interview sample consisted of 16 Finnish families. The interviews were carried out in three forms: a family discussion interview, a thematic interview of the adolescents, and a life-history interview of the parents. The results introduce the main characteristics and distinctions of transition practices of the vocational and academic families.

Family Functioning, Identity Commitments, and School Value among Ethnic Minority and Ethnic Majority Adolescents

“…Structural educational inequalities often leave minority youth in vocational school tracks with different life prospects than their majority peers. In families who followed vocational education, school is often considered highly important as a means to further your studies to find a job and change your life prospects (Vanhalakka-Ruoho et al, 2016). In families who followed academic education, school is -on the contrary -seen as a way to pursue your dreams, rendering the opportunity to explore what one wants in life (Vanhalakka-Ruoho et al, 2016).…”

“…In families who followed vocational education, school is often considered highly important as a means to further your studies to find a job and change your life prospects (Vanhalakka-Ruoho et al, 2016). In families who followed academic education, school is -on the contrary -seen as a way to pursue your dreams, rendering the opportunity to explore what one wants in life (Vanhalakka-Ruoho et al, 2016). In line with this reasoning, ethnic minority adolescents who value school more might increase their identity commitments as they perceive school as a means to an end to achieve their life goals.…”

Symbolic habitus and new aspirations of higher education elites in transitional Myanmar

“…Habitus is the element by which (unequal) social structures are internalized, and it guides individuals' cognition and behavior (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990). By adopting the concept of habitus, the relations between the economic, social, and cultural characteristics of the elites in societies have been critically researched in numerous qualitative studies (Khan 2012;Smyth and Banks 2012) and quantitative research (Vanhalakka-Ruoho et al 2016;Tomaszewski et al 2017). A good number of studies have also gone beyond individual and familial habitus to explore ways in which social class can operate through the school context to shape students' choice of career and further studies.…”

EFFECTIVE INSTRUMENTS FOR PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION OF SCHOOLSTUDENTS (based on the experience of the Republic of Karelia)

“…Одним из мировых лидеров в развитии научных представлений о роли и месте профориентации в жизни общества и государства является Финляндия. В университетах этой страны организована профессио-нальная подготовка педагогов-профориентаторов, которые затем в школах на условиях полной занятости обеспечивают систематическое консультирование по вопросам профессионального самоопределения [9].…”