Post-compulsory Education Research Articles

Autonomy as Anticipation of the World of Work at School

Abstract Schools are under increasing pressure to prepare students for the transition to post-compulsory education and vocational training. Beyond the support of the students’ professional orientation, the focus is on students’ learning of soft skills. Based on an ethnographic study in schools of the lower secondary level, the article discusses how in school, autonomy is anticipated in school as a central requirement of the world of work. The analysed counselling interview reveals a narrowing of autonomy to the self-responsible execution of orders.

Factors that hinder access to and persistence in post-compulsory education: a challenge for vulnerable groups in Spain

ABSTRACTPost-compulsory education constitutes a stage of heightened vulnerability for certain young people who face conditions of inequality. Young people with disabilities or from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, immigrants, Romani, and women are the primary vulnerable groups in Spain. In addition, other circumstances may present a challenge to gaining admission to, persisting in and successfully graduating from post-compulsory education. Although belonging to one of these groups does not present an obstacle for certain young people in the continuation of their studies, for others, being a member of a vulnerable group poses a challenge on a daily basis. This article seeks to identify the factors that render it difficult for young people belonging to vulnerable groups to continue their post-compulsory studies in Spain. This study has identified familial, personal, institutional, and systemic factors that may explain why certain young people do not have access to post-compulsory schooling or drop out before completing their studies.

Conference call for papers 4th international research conference organised by the association for research in post-compulsory education (ARPCE) in Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, UK Friday 10 July – Sunday 12 July 2020 conference theme: research in post-compulsory education

Conference call for papers 4th international research conference organised by the association for research in post-compulsory education (ARPCE) in Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, UK Friday 10 July – Sunday 12 July 2020 conference theme: research in post-compulsory education

Reclaiming student voice(s): constituted through process or embedded in practice?

ABSTRACTRemoval of the student numbers cap, reductions in funding and an accompanying need to generate revenue have driven education towards neo-capitalism and managerialism: students equate to income. An associated growth in performativity measures incorporates student voice as one of these benchmarking requirements. Aiming to explore and challenge assumptions about the role of student voice in post-compulsory education, this paper identifies a missing viewpoint in the wider research: perceptions from those engaged in teacher education. This paper presents research undertaken with 24 participants (teacher educators, student teachers and quality assurance managers) across three post-compulsory institutions in the UK. It explores perceptions about how student voice is espoused, enacted and experienced within the institutions, and whether this enables a democratic approach within education. The research considers questions raised about power, dialogue and engagement, as well as the impact of marketisation and consumerism on student–institutional relationships.

Comparativa entre las preferencias de ocio de jóvenes lectores y no lectores en España

Los objetivos de este estudio son: describir los patrones de ocio de la juventud española (15-20 años) que tiene la lectura entre sus actividades de ocio preferidas; comparar los patrones de ocio de lectores y no lectores e identificar la existencia de patrones de ocio distintos entre lectoras y lectores. Se seleccionó una muestra representativa de 2694 estudiantes de Educación Post-obligatoria no universitaria que contestaron a un cuestionario para el estudio de sus tiempos de ocio. Los resultados indican que los lectores son pocos respecto a la población no lectora, pero que su grado de implicación en la lectura es alto. Se identifican diferencias significativas entre las preferencias de ocio de los lectores y no lectores y una importante influencia de la variable género en el estudio de los perfiles de ocio de la población lectora. Dichos perfiles son muy diferentes en lectoras y lectores. Se detectan sinergias entre la lectura y el ocio deportivo en chicas y entre el ocio electrónico y la lectura en chicos. Se necesitan más estudios para conocer en profundidad el papel que juega la lectura en el complejo sistema de actividades de ocio de la juventud.

Belonging, becoming, owning: the interplay between identity and self-esteem in trainee teachers in post-compulsory education and training

ABSTRACTThis longitudinal study of trainee teachers in post-compulsory education and training was conducted over an 18-month period and explores the interplay between identity and self-esteem in trainees’ professional development. The study contributes to the developing body of work on trainee teachers’ professional identities and serves to offer new insights on the interplay between their identity and self-esteem in the context of post-compulsory education and training. The study draws on a variety of data collected in three phases, including narratives prompted by graphical elicitation and semi structured interviews. It explores the development of trainee teachers during their teacher education course and into their first year of employment, post-qualification. Findings show that the interplay between identity and self-esteem is complex, shifting and overlapping. The way that trainees are shaped by this, leads to differences in their sense of belonging, professional competency and sense of self as a teacher.

Resettled refugee youth and education: aspiration and reality

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on research with 86 young refugees (aged 13–24 years) who were resettled to the UK between 2006 and 2010. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data we explore the educational aspirations and experiences of refugee youth, and how they negotiate post-compulsory education pathways. We find that despite the promise of educational opportunity and transformed life chances enshrined in the notion of refugee resettlement, many of the experiences and barriers to education are not dissimilar in kind to those facing refugee youth in countries of first asylum. Support for young refugees to make successful transitions into and through the education system is critical to their future lives and longer-term integration outcomes. The discussion is set within global discourses of refugee education and the literature of refugee education in the global north.

Learners’ perceptions of a career guidance curriculum in different school-based support systems in Switzerland

ABSTRACT This article examines the different functions and further potential of a curriculum of career guidance in lower secondary school and bridge-year courses. With a focus on young adults following a nonlinear pathway to post-compulsory education in the Swiss Canton of Zurich, we answer the questions why bridge-year courses are attended (RQ1) and how career guidance is perceived (RQ2). Furthermore, optimisation segments for a curriculum of career guidance were analysed from a learner-centred perspective (RQ3). Taking a mixed-method approach, we combine data from a quantitative questionnaire and qualitative problem-centred interviews. To examine differences in attendance of bridge-year courses and the perceived usefulness of supporting actors, quantitative data were analysed by mean ranges. The in-depth qualitative data were analysed using a structured content analysis. The findings underline the importance of an individualised approach to career guidance in both lower secondary school and on bridge-year courses. There is further potential for a curriculum of career guidance in lower secondary school to strengthen the orientation function, taking into account the potential of social structural reproduction. Bridge-year courses should rethink their compensation function given the diversity of their attendees.

Exploring in-service trainee teacher expertise and practice: Developing pedagogical content knowledge

ABSTRACTThis paper is based on a qualitative, longitudinal study of in-service teacher trainee cohorts in two UK institutions of Higher Education preparing to teach Law, Construction, Nursing, Hairdressing, Police and Fire service training in the Post-Compulsory Education and Training (PCET) sector. The programme is entitled Professional Teaching and Training so the aim was to explore whether it fully meets their professional requirements in generic teaching skills and, in particular, subject-specific skills. The research suggests that the participants require more subject related pedagogy within generic teacher education. By exploring the challenges of how to bridge this gap and promote more meaningful and professionally focused teacher education, there can be a more robust understanding and conceptualisation of the relationship between subject knowledge and generic pedagogy. It is proposed that a thorough understanding of the interdependent relationship of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) can enable an innovative reconceptualisation of teacher education driven by subjektdidaktik and linked to possibilities for implementation in newly developed programmes.

Industry currency and vocational teachers in Australia: what is the impact of contemporary policy and practice on their professional development?

ABSTRACT The quality of vocational education and training (VET) and, in particular, the quality of VET teaching, is a prominent topic of discussion in Australia’s post-compulsory education sector. VET teachers are described as ‘dual professionals’, and expected to maintain current vocational competencies (industry currency) as well as pedagogical skills for effective VET teaching practice. This paper examines issues associated with industry currency activities for Australian VET teachers. It reports on findings from a qualitative study which employed a multiple case study methodology to examine advanced skills for VET teachers. Emergent findings suggest that while legislation requires VET teachers to maintain current vocational competencies as well as knowledge and skills for effective VET teaching, interpretation of policy into practice has led to an unbalanced approach which emphasises industry currency activities over pedagogical skills development. Further, teachers reported difficulty completing currency requirements due to competing pressures of time and teaching commitments, and some industry currency activities regarded as legitimate by VET managers and auditors appear to offer limited developmental opportunities for VET teachers while other activities were overlooked. This is a significant issue which requires further investigation due to its potential impact on VET teacher development and the quality of VET teaching.

Lost Boys: Access to Secondary Education and Crime

We study the effect of post-compulsory education on crime by exploiting a regression discontinuity design generated by admission cut-offs to upper secondary schools in Finland. We combine data on school applications with data on criminal convictions and follow individuals for 10 years. Our results show that successful applicants are less likely to commit crimes during the first five years after admission. Crime is reduced both during and outside the school year, indicating that the channel through which schooling affects crime cannot be explained by incapacitation alone. We find no effect on crime committed after 6 years from admission.

Synergy in Learning, Teachers and Student Support Assistants Working Together to Promote Learner Metacognition in Post-Compulsory Education

Observations of teaching found Student Support Assistants (SSAs) were frequently ineffectively utilised in supporting learners’ progress, with working partnerships between teachers and SSAs tenuous. This relates to previous research (Sharples et al, 2015a, 2015b; Sanders, 2017a, 2017b) which also indicated that learning support was often ineffectually used in class sessions. Learning support frequently focused on task completion rather than encouraging learner autonomy. Our project promoted effective partnerships between teachers, SSAs and learners through implementing strategies to develop learners’ self-assessment and thinking skills, effectively encouraging and deepening their learning. A team of 16 teachers and SSAs from different subject areas held initial meetings to establish working relationships and agree stages for the project. The team was introduced to the action research approach, enabling them to become more research literate. This collaborative project used systematic practitioner research to critically examine the current situation and make changes based on the evidence which arose. It brought together practitioners from various levels within the setting, giving each member a space in which to express their opinions, take action and engage with the activities which arose. Initial background research considered the key findings from the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) Report (Sharples et al, 2015a). These were used to consider and challenge our practice and plan the research. Following extensive discussion, the team developed a Working Practice Guide and designed resources to support student learning. Time was additionally available for staff to plan strategies together prior to their implementation in sessions. These activities, including concept diagrams, learner review tickets and use of thinking prompts, enhanced learners’ self-assessment during lessons with the teachers and SSAs. It provided the opportunity for learners to discuss and resolve areas of difficulty. The effectiveness of the strategies implemented in class were additionally reflected upon by staff and learners. Regular meetings enabled evaluation of the strategies and future planning. Using the strategies, combined with meeting regularly, promoted teacher, SSA, and learner confidence with SSAs becoming enablers of learning and partners in the learning process.

Mindful Self-Compassion and Adult Learner Retention in Post-Compulsory Education

(1) Background: Adult learners often engage in formal education because they want to create changes in their lives and are determined to succeed in their chosen field. However, they also come with emotional “baggage” of early educational experiences, frequently have to deal with a multitude of competing demands, have financial strain, may face a lack of support, illness and/or injury. In addition, they are often dealing with the challenges of unfamiliar academic work, competing deadlines and initially lack basic academic skills. As a result, this segment of the population often face high levels of stress and low levels of wellbeing. Research suggests that adult learners’ wellbeing is of considerable concern and warrants further investigation, as it has greater implications related to attrition/retention and academic progression. (2) Methods: In order to address these research gaps and practical concerns, in the current study the first author identified potential reasons as to why adult learners do not remain in education, explored the rationale for focusing on adult learners’ wellbeing, and lastly investigated whether Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) has the capacity to enhance the wellbeing of adult learners in their first year of post-compulsory education. A form of phenomenological research known as Heuristic Inquiry was applied to understand these problems. First person data was gathered from the first author and four other adult learners who took part in a condensed 6-week MSC program. (3) Results: This qualitative process produced a rich source of data – indicating that mindfulness and self-compassion helps adult learners enhance their wellbeing. Practising and building self-compassion was found to support adult learners when faced with challenges within their qualifications and in life. (4) Conclusions: This research contributes to the collective knowledge and provides a possible resource building program, which all levels of adult education and more importantly, all modalities (face-to face/on campus and external/online learners), can utilise.

Diverging Mobilities, Converging Immobility? Romanian Roma Youths at the Crossroad between Spatial, Social and Educational Im/mobility

The article investigates the youth transitions of a group of Romanian Roma adolescents with different im/mobility experiences but originating from the same transnational rural village. Their postcompulsory education orientations and development of autonomous im/mobility projects are anything but homogeneous; nevertheless, they all develop halfway between the reproduction of socio-economic inequalities and the challenge of social mobility. While in Spain young migrants are confronted with severe residential and school mobility but have access to wider vocational training opportunities, their peers in Romania rely on more consistent educational trajectories, but face the prospect of poorly valued work in the local rural economy. As for young returnees, they struggle to mobilize their richer transnational social and cultural capital as a way of overcoming the negative experience and result of (re)migration. Based on broader, longitudinal, multi-sited and collaborative ethnography, this paper aims to unveil the interplay between structural constraints and individual agency that shapes meaningful interaction between spatial, social and educational im/mobility in both transnational localities. While emphasizing the usefulness of the concept of transition to explain the processes of intergenerational transfer of poverty in contemporary Europe, we discuss how temporality, social capital and mobility engage with the specific socio-economic context, transformations, and imagined futures of its young protagonists.

Improving educational and labor outcomes through child labor regulation

We explore the effects of a child labor regulation that changed the statutory minimum working age in Spain in 1980. In particular, the reform raised the minimum working age from 14 to 16, while the age for compulsory education remained at 14 until 1990. To study the effects of this change on the incentives to work or study, we consider the different alternatives available at age 14 to individuals born at various times of the year before and after the reform. Before the reform, individuals born at the beginning of the year were legally able to work before finishing compulsory education. We show that individuals born at the beginning of the year were more likely to complete both compulsory and post-compulsory education if they turned 14 after the reform. The increase in educational attainment translates into better labor market outcomes in adulthood only partially. Depending on the level of socioeconomic development of the region, we provide evidence of differential impacts of the reform on men and women and offer plausible explanations for these differences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that, apart from increases in educational attainment, also finds relevant effects on long-term labor market outcomes from child labor regulations that forbid teenager work. We show that this type of regulation can be a generator of economic development and point to the conditions required for this to be the case.

Validación de un cuestionario para evaluar el funcionamiento de las bibliotecas escolares

La biblioteca escolar ha adquirido en los últimos años un nuevo protagonismo, convirtiéndose en un espacio de aprendizaje fundamental para la enseñanza de las distintas áreas y materias y el fomento de competencias en el alumnado. El objetivo de este trabajo es validar un cuestionario diseñado ad hoc para evaluar el funcionamiento y las formas de uso e incorporación de la biblioteca escolar a la actividad pedagógica diaria. Para ello se aplicó el cuestionario a una muestra aleatoria de 4.177 alumnas y alumnos de 358 centros de Educación Primaria, Secundaria y Postobligatoria, se calculó su fiabilidad mediante la prueba de Alfa de Cronbach y se realizó un análisis factorial exploratorio. Los resultados muestran que el Cuestionario de Alumnas y Alumnos para Evaluar el Funcionamiento de la Biblioteca Escolar tiene unos niveles aceptables de fiabilidad y validez, de forma que ofrece suficientes garantías en su utilización para evaluar el funcionamiento de la biblioteca escolar

Through the wall of literacy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain how peripheral participants contributed to and became more central members of a community of practice based in a social network that was used to support mobile learning approaches among post-compulsory education students. The notion was that in inducing participation through pedagogical strategies, individualised online presence could be increased that would support studentship, confidence and literacy improvements in participants who are normally apprehensive about online and formal learning contexts.Design/methodology/approachThe network was used by four separate groups of 16-19 aged students and 19+ aged adults, with a constant comparison made of their activity and communication. A content analysis was made of students’ posts to the network, with the codes sorted thematically to examine how students used the network to support themselves and each other. Interviews were held with students across the two years to explore perceptions of the network and the community.FindingsPeripheral participants navigate through ontological thresholds online to develop individual identity presence online. Increased communicated actions (“posts”) improves participation overall and the interaction of members in terms of developing a community of practice online. The results of communicated actions posted in visible online spaces improved the literacy control and willingness to publish content created by those peripheral participants.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is taken from a small sample (approx. 100 students) in a case study comparing results across four different groups in an English Further Education college. Most of the positive results in terms of an impact being made on their literacy capability was found among adult students, as opposed to students in two 16-19 aged groups. Research implications identify hypothetical stages of identity presence online for reluctant and peripheral participants. This shows the potential of students to be induced to openly participate in visible contexts that can support further identity development.Practical implicationsThe implications show that blended learning is necessary to improve the opportunity for mobile learning to happen. Blended learning in itself is dependent on and simultaneously improves group cohesion of learners in online communities. When students develop a momentum of engagement (and residence within) networks they exploit further technological features and functions and become more co-operative as a group, potentially reducing teacher presence. Learning activities need to support the peripheral participants in discrete and purposeful ways, usually achieved through personalised supported learning tasks. The notion and attention paid to the difficulties in bringing peripheral participants online has implications for the prescription of online learning as a form of delivery, especially among FE students.Social implicationsThis paper problematizes the notion of peripheral participants and suggests they are overlooked in consideration of learning delivery, design and environments. Peripheral participants may be considered to be students who are at risk of not being involved in social organisations, such as communities, and vulnerable to diminished support, for instance through the withdrawal of face-to-face learning opportunities at the expense of online learning.Originality/valueThis paper makes a small contribution to theories surrounding communities of practice and online learning. By deliberately focusing on a population marginalised in current educational debate, it problematizes the growing prescription of online learning as a mode of delivery by taking the perspectives and experiences of peripheral participants on board.

Early school leaving by children in out-of-home care: A comparative study of three Nordic countries

Previous studies have reported that children and adolescents who have been placed in out-of-home care for the protection of their safety and welfare face considerably high risks for early school leaving. Our study adds to the literature by comparing the association between children's exposure to placement in care and lack of secondary education (i.e. post-compulsory education after age 16) across three Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. We use data from national registers for children born in 1987, following them until age 23. The datasets for Denmark (N = 55,995, of whom 3056 are in care), Finland (N = 58,855, of whom 1884 are in care), and Sweden (N = 100,152, of whom 3209 are in care) cover the entire birth cohort. To estimate and compare country-specific risks, we calculate average marginal effects from binary logistic regression and adjust the effects for birth mother's socio-economic and health-related background. As expected, the results show that in each country, children placed in care had a significantly higher risk for early school leaving. After adjusting for maternal background, young adults who experienced out-of-home care were 24 to 39 percentage points more likely than their peers never in care to have not completed secondary education. Those placed in care for the first time at teenage were the most likely to have low attainment. In Finland and Sweden, children in care had a similar excess risk for early school leaving, whereas in Denmark the risk was higher. We discuss these results and recommend developing effective interventions to improve the educational attainment of children in care. The difference between Denmark and the other two requires further investigation.

Bordering education: migrants’ entitlements to post-compulsory education in the United Kingdom

Immigration policy in the UK restricts migrants’ eligibility to some services and benefits, including in the sphere of education. Compulsory education is available to all, but many migrants face restrictions based on residency and immigration status, which affect fee rates and entitlement to financial support for further and higher education. The article draws on two studies of (i) family migrants and (ii) young precarious migrants to explore how both groups experience bordering in education. We expose how immigration status operates as a category to produce inequalities in educational opportunities. In particular, we show how it intersects with gender and life course, becoming significant unexpectedly at particular moments in time and impacting on migrants’ structural and affective integration. In light of this evidence, the article considers the logics behind the funding restrictions, questioning their counterproductive nature for those who are long-term resident and/or likely to remain in the UK.

Countercyclical school attainment and intergenerational mobility

We study how economic conditions at the time of choosing post-compulsory education affect intergenerational mobility. Exploiting local variation in birthplace unemployment rate at age 16 across 23 cohorts in France, we find that cohorts deciding on post-compulsory education in bad economic times are more educationally intergenerationally mobile – their level of educational attainment is less related to having a white-collar father. These cohorts are also more occupationally intergenerationally mobile; and a large fraction of this effect is explained by business cycle-induced differences in educational attainment. Results are robust to accounting for differential spatial mobility between birth and age 16 by parental occupation. Finally, we provide additional evidence that high local unemployment at age 16 increases the relative school enrollment rate of children of blue collar workers the year after – at age 17.