annegret warth - being actor or 'being pushed' ?
TRANSCRIPT
Being an actor or 'being pushed'?
Agentic experiences of female high school students. Implications for youth work practice.
16th of November 2013, Sebeke Project Istanbul
Annegret Warth, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Background
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Study on all day practices in different life world contexts of youth peergroups in Istanbul between the age of 14-18 of different social backgrounds
• Interest:How do peergroups display their relation to different life world
contexts? What kind of restrictions they they face and how do they deal with
them? How do restrictions and ways of dealing differ according to different
social backgrounds?• Analysis of group discussions with Documentary Method
(Bohnsack): Focus on tacit knowledge/collective orientations
Subject oriented conception of participation and agency
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Relation between self-determination and co-cooperation (Gerhard 2007; von Schwanenflügel 2013)preconditions of participation: Self-confidence and Self-determination: ability to develop own interests and express demands, Contexts, which provide social recognition and possibilties to act self-determined.
Agency as 'quality' of the engagement of actors with ... contexts-for-action“ (Biesta/Tedder 2007:136f).
The two groups: Köşk and Çimen
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Questions to the Material:How do the peer groups relate themselves to their respective
contextes?How do they commonly construct their way of agency?
• 2 female peer groups, 18 years, about to become general and vocational high school graduates
• Context of gender and social inequality
Köşk: Uncertain future
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Studying at University is not a subject of own decisions…Bf: well our thoughts are only to reach university, in my head there's no dream, no
profession at all right now //mhm// no profession at all and of courseCf: whatever happesBf: I will study in our department probably, most probably, obligatory, again a dreadful
department @(.)@
…but depends on the decision of parents,Cf: I want to study, in my eyes they [parents] have to let me study [okutsunlar diyorum]
(.) my big brothers didn‘t study (…) they have to let me study, but well I don't know
Bf: you will study @hopefully [inşallah]@
… as well as on instituional regulations and own economic and social capital.
Cf: [university entrance exams] for instance you might work as hard as you can there is torpil/contacts going around in any case (...)
Af: also in finding a job there is injustice
Cf: └ yes (...)
Bf: you have to have contacts [torpil] everywhere //mhm// contacts really contacts is very important
Af: for somebody who hasn't got the financial needs it is really hard to study in the meantime //mhm// (4)
Köşk: Carrying through love relationships
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Af: for instance let‘s say we save the guy‘s name the guys name as Cf [in our cellphones] @I say mum I talk with Cf when I talk with him@
Ma: └@(.)@
Cf: If they want to go out then for instance I go to Bf and say come on lets go out [thats how] I take her out [from home]
Af: └ @thats how we meet@ (...)
Bf: ..of course we don't want to lie but at the end we are young and everybody wants to live, of course it's not about going too far, well we don't think about such things but well, one wants to be loved and wants to love, but your mothers @don't understand@ such such things //mhm//
Cf: I mean experience is needed in any case isn't it (4)
Af: well, at the end one chooses the one to marry by him/herself (…)
Çimen: Exploring a new form of agency
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Af: you are a girl-child and you have to be at home at specific times, so you have to be at home before seven, because of that; it depends on your mind-set how far you develop yourself [kendi kafan yani ne kadar genisse o kadar gelisebiliyorsun]
Bf: yes (…) it was an experience for me the trip to [A-city], there, far away from my family .. I can say that was a happy experience (...)
Af: -learned to act on your own (…) well, being on your own makes you understand yourself better, without your family //mhm// you discover much better what your needs are
Bf: in the end nobody tells you make this, come (back) at that time, you make decisions (…) yes //mhm// you are able to make your own decisions (3)
Af: (s.o.) doesn't push you [dürtmüyor yani]
Çimen: Different forms of relationships
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Af: (…) well actually they [schools, teachers] do not enlighten students enough //mhm// and in school teachers are always above, they alway say things like „you do what the teacher says“. After I came to [youth center] I say man, [I realise] I have quite some rights, what‘s going on in the world
Bf: └yes exactly
Af: … there you discover your own areas of interest
Bf: └exactly
Af: because it automatically forces you to think
Bf: └ yes because because the one in front of you doesn't talk, he/she makes you talk, which means he/she promotes your ideas //mhm// brings out your ideas //mhm//
Af: └ yes (2)
Summary
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Köşk displays different forms of agency in restrictive and non-participatory contexts: school and transition system (accepting) milieu/family (hidden emancipation)
Experience of desintegration in school and transition context. Role of peergroup in order to realize their orientations.
By the comparison of different contextes (family – school – youthcenter/trip), Çimen reflects their different implications for their agentic identity.
Significance of particpatory/non-participatory contextes on the experience of agency.
Conclusions for youth work practice:
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Development of self-consience and self-determination are precondition and result of participation
Motivation for participation is linked to the personal experience of making a difference
How can all-day (positive or negative) agentic experiences be adressed by youth work?
Expressed limitations are hints for participation topics
Co-cooperation as a fundamental prinziple of youth work
Literature
Social Pedagogical Research Centre „Education and Coping in the Life Course“
Biesta, Gert; Tedder, Michael (2007): Agency and Learning in the LifeCourse. Towards and Ecological Perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults 39, pp.132-149.Knauer, Raingard; Sturzenhecker, Benedickt (2005): Partiziption im Jugendalter, in Hafeneger, Benno; Jansen, Mechthild; Niebling, Thorsten: Kinder- und Jugendpartizipation, Opladen Verlag Barbara Budrich, pp. 63-94.Gerhard, Volker (2007): Partizipation. Das Prinzip der Politik. München: CH Beck.Von Schwanenflügel, Larissa (2013): Passungsverhältnisse von Bewältigung und Partizipation im Kontext sozialer Ungleichheit, in: Ahmed, Sarina; Pohl, Axel; von Schwanenflügel, Larissa, Stauber, Barbara: Bildung und Bewältigung im Kontext sozialer Ungleichheit. Weinheim und Basel: BeltzJuventa, pp. 86-103.