Participation in national and international conferences and symposia – Scuola Democratica 2024
Members of the CLEAR research project actively participate in national and international conferences and symposia to disseminate the project’s results and engage in discussions over the quality of education in Europe.
This year, we have joined the Third International Conference of the journal “Scuola Democratica”, which took place in Italy at the University of Cagliari, Sardinia, June 3-6. The conference was devoted to the needs and prospects of education and/for social justice. Senior and junior researchers of the CLEAR research project have presented the project results in several panel sessions. We briefly recap srecaome of them.
Liliana Zeferino and Natália Alves have presented their topic on Navigating Transitions: Unravelling School Trajectories, Agency, and Structure in the Lives of Young Adults. In their presentation, they have analysed the school experiences and lives of young adults facing multiple disadvantages, aiming to understand their choices and perception of themselves as active agents shaping their lives within societal changes. As they have concluded from the ongoing research, the schools are often unable to engage and captivate young people in learning processes. Furthermore, the employment opportunities in some regions are strongly conditioned by low educational attainment, while at the local level, the job opportunities are rather scarce. Finally, the research suggests that young people develop adaptation strategies enabling them to nurture their aspirations within a neoliberal context.
Jozef Zelinka and Marcelo Parreira do Amaral have focused the dynamics Between Spatial and Social Justice – The Case of Lifelong Learning Policymaking. In particular, they have explored the relationship between space and education, resulting in a series of educational questions related to the spatial dichotomies operating at the intersection of space and education. Spaces are often neglected in the policy analysis, which has a wide-ranging impact on how education can be accessed, distributed, and evaluated fairly and justly. Especially young people in vulnerable positions are affected by the unfair distribution of educational opportunities, being marginalised in deprived city districts and neighbourhoods. In order to tackle this issue more accurately, our findings suggest that accounting for the spatiality of places during the design and implementation of lifelong learning policies must become an essential feature of local and regional policymaking.
Xavier Rambla has presented a paper on the topic To What Extent Are Learning Outcomes Configuring a Policy Instrument in the EU. In the paper, he outlined an analysis of 100 interviews with educators and 160 interviews with young learners (18-29 years) participating in vocational education and training and adult education programmes. He has explored how these policies shape institutional trajectories and subjective experiences of young people. Crucial to the analysis is that the social norms prescribing standard, linear lives that run through youth, adult and old age are no longer acceptable to most people. In this vein, the increasing role of education and training in the functioning of the welfare state raises new questions about managerialism, paternalism, non-take-up and the discretion of front-line educators.