Transitions and re-engagement through second chance education
TL;DR: The need for a second chance education is justified in relation to recent theories of youth transitions, which suggest that re-entry into second-chance education is a personal act of agency through which young people struggle to reclaim successful personal and educational identities as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The issue of school non-completion continues to be a matter of concern for policy makers and practitioners in Australia today. Despite the efforts of governments and school systems to improve participation and retention rates, often one in three students drop out of school before completing Year 12. Major factors influence non-completion and militate against young people remaining at school. Findings from recent research indicate that some non-completers choose to re-enter education through second chance programs outside the school environment. The argument for second chance education presented in this paper is developed within the context of the ‘risk’ society and in relation to recent theories of youth transitions. The need for a ‘second chance’ is justified in relation to recent theories of youth transitions, which suggest that re-entry into second chance education is a personal act of agency through which young people struggle to reclaim successful personal and educational identities amidst the constraints and hazards in their daily lives. Based on the findings that increasing numbers of non-completers are enrolling in TAFE second chance programs, these enabling programs are considered as a means of addressing the needs of this cohort. Educational policy in Australia related to second chance education is critically examined in light of international programs and recommendations for change are made.
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TL;DR: Indigenous education in Australia has been the subject of ongoing policy focus and repeated official inquiry as the nation grapples with trying to achieve equity for these students as mentioned in this paper, which is a subject that has been discussed extensively in the media.
Abstract: Indigenous education in Australia has been the subject of ongoing policy focus and repeated official inquiry as the nation grapples with trying to achieve equity for these students. Perspectives fr...
156 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on research conducted in alternative schools/flexible learning centres designed to support young people marginalised from mainstream schooling in Australia and argue that the ways in which these schools construct their learning environments, teaching programmes and pedagogical relationships are conducive to encouraging such young people to reengage with educational processes and thus should be supported as viable alternatives within schooling sectors.
Abstract: This paper reports on research conducted in alternative schools/flexible learning centres 1 designed to support young people marginalised from mainstream schooling in Australia. Many of the young people attending these centres had left school due to difficult personal circumstances and/or significant conflicts with schooling authorities. We argue that the ways in which these schools construct their learning environments, teaching programmes and pedagogical relationships are conducive to encouraging such young people to re-engage with educational processes and thus should be supported as viable alternatives within schooling sectors. Moreover, we contend that data gathered from these sites should be used to inform many of the practices within mainstream schools that currently contribute to the marginalisation of certain categories of youth.
127 citations
Cites background from "Transitions and re-engagement throu..."
...Such schools are an important feature of the educational landscape in many countries (see e.g. Ross and Gray 2005)....
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...Research consistently supports the link between non-completion and low SES (Lamb et al. 2004; Ross and Gray 2005; Savelsberg and Martin-Giles 2008; White and Wyn 2008)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw upon the experiences of a group of young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools in two Australian states to provide an account of the ways in which they have found their way to education in educational sites that are variously referred to as flexible learning centres, second chance schools and alternative schools.
Abstract: In this paper, we draw upon the experiences of a group of young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools in two Australian states to provide an account of the ways in which they have found their way to education in educational sites that are variously referred to as ‘flexible learning centres', ‘second chance schools' and ‘alternative schools'. Whilst often clashing with school authorities in their original schools, these young people described how, when given the opportunity, they were able to engage in more meaningful learning in environments that recognised and accommodated their personal circumstances, and avoided authoritarian rule. A question we address is: What kinds of educational experiences facilitate ‘meaningful learning’ for these students?
74 citations
Cites background from "Transitions and re-engagement throu..."
...Apparently ignoring national and international research (see, e.g. Lamb et al. 2004; Ross and Gray 2005; Ball 2006; Savelsberg and Martin-Giles 2008; Apple 2010; Hemphill et al. 2010), the conservative federal Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, has argued that increasing funding and resources…...
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01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the nature and causes of student attrition in enabling programs and, in particular, to determine any similarities and differences in these processes in undergraduate programs, and to recommend measures to enhance student retention.
Abstract: University-based enabling programs provide an important pathway to tertiary study for large numbers of non-traditional students (especially those in government-targeted equity groups). Such programs tend to have rates of student attrition which are high relative to those of undergraduate degree programs, a matter of continuing concern to all those responsible for their supervision and delivery. This project investigated the nature and causes of student attrition in enabling programs and, in particular, to determine any similarities and differences in these processes in undergraduate programs, and to recommend measures to enhance student retention. The project comprised two major components: an empirical study of student attrition in the participating institutions' enabling programs and a combined dissemination/consultation process centred on a series of regional workshops.
52 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a cross-national study was conducted to compare students' perceptions of readiness for university where students are prepared for higher education in quite different secondary school systems, and compared the results in both countries using logistic regression techniques to investigate which aspects of readiness could predict perceived preparedness.
Abstract: Students’ preparedness for higher education is seen as one of the main factors affecting first-year attrition or study success. In this paper we report on a cross-national study in which students’ preparedness for university was measured before students commenced their study at a university in New Zealand or in the Netherlands. This cross-national project provided a unique opportunity to compare students’ perceptions of readiness for university where students are prepared for higher education in quite different secondary school systems. Departing from a transition framework, and comparing the results in both countries using logistic regression techniques to investigate which aspects of readiness could predict perceived preparedness, we discovered similarities in as well as differences between students’ perceived readiness for university study. It could be argued that differences are caused by the different educational systems at secondary level. However, overall we can conclude that, in spite of differences between the educational systems in the two countries, many differences were not remarkable or very significant. This has clear implications for how we view the relative importance of secondary school preparation and tertiary induction. We can expect greater benefit from implementing first-year pedagogical practices in universities that would assist students to develop their academic skills, than from demanding that high schools prepare students better.
51 citations
Cites background from "Transitions and re-engagement throu..."
...Ross and Gray (2005), for example, refer to second chance education as a fluid state, a journey which starts and ends and starts again....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
31,693 citations
"Transitions and re-engagement throu..." refers background in this paper
...…involvement) is also shown to be a significant determinant in reducing the odds of dropping out of school (Astone & McLanahan 1991, Carbonaro 1998, Coleman 1988, Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack & Rock 1986, Goldschmidt & Wang 1999, McNeal 1999, Rumberger 1983, Rumberger 1995, Rumberger & Larson 1998,…...
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The notion of capital is a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world as mentioned in this paper, which is what makes the games of society, not least the economic game, something other than simple simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle.
Abstract: The social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this imaginary universe of perfect competition or perfect equality of opportunity, a world without inertia, without accumulation, without heredity or acquired properties, in which every moment is perfectly independent of the previous one, every soldier has a marshal’s baton in his knapsack, and every prize can be attained, instantaneously, by everyone, so that at each moment anyone can become anything. Capital, which, in its objectified or embodied forms, takes time to accumulate and which, as a potential capacity to produce profits and to reproduce itself in identical or expanded form, contains a tendency to persist in its being, is a force inscribed in the objectivity of things so that everything is not equally possible or impossible. And the structure of the distribution of the different types and subtypes of capital at a given moment in time represents the immanent structure of the social world, i.e. , the set of constraints, inscribed in the very reality of that world, which govern its functioning in a durable way, determining the chances of success for practices.
21,046 citations
"Transitions and re-engagement throu..." refers background in this paper
...Bourdieu (1986) in his definition of social capital refers to the actual or potential resources, which are linked to the possession of a durable network of relationships or to membership in a group....
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14 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define cultural capital as accumulated labor that, when appropriated on a private, that is, exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor.
Abstract: Capital is accumulated labor that, when appropriated on a private, that is, exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. Most of the properties of cultural capital can be deduced from the fact that, in its fundamental state, it is linked to the body and presupposes embodiment. Cultural capital, in the objectified state, has a number of properties that are defined only in the relationship with cultural capital in its embodied form. By conferring institutional recognition on the cultural capital possessed by any given agent, the academic qualification also makes it possible to compare qualification holders and even to exchange them. Furthermore, it makes it possible to establish conversion rates between cultural capital and economic capital by guaranteeing the monetary value of a given academic capital.
13,768 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: In this article, Scott Lash and Brian Wynne describe living on the VOLCANO of CIVILIZATION -the Contours of the RISK SOCIETY and the Politics of Knowledge in the Risk Society.
Abstract: Introduction - Scott Lash and Brian Wynne PART ONE: LIVING ON THE VOLCANO OF CIVILIZATION - THE CONTOURS OF THE RISK SOCIETY On the Logic of Wealth Distribution and Risk Distribution The Politics of Knowledge in the Risk Society PART TWO: THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY - LIFE-FORMS AND THE DEMISE OF TRADITION Beyond Status and Class? 'I am I' Gendered Space and the Conflict Inside and Outside the Family Individualization, Institutionalization and Standardization Life Situations and Biographical Patterns De-Standardization of Labour PART THREE: REFLEXIVE MODERNIZATION: ON THE GENERALIZATION OF SCIENCE AND POLITICS Science Beyond Truth and Enlightenment? Opening up the Political
12,946 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the self: ontological security and existential anxiety are discussed, as well as the trajectory of the self, risk, and security in high modernity, and the emergence of life politics.
Abstract: Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The contours of high modernity 2. The self: ontological security and existential anxiety 3. The trajectory of the self 4. Fate, risk, and security 5. The sequestration of experience 6. Tribulations of the self 7. The emergence of life politics Notes Glossary of concepts Index.
12,710 citations