28. Sociologies of Education
Paper
Where are the High Schoolers? Dwindling Participation in after-school programs
Ofir Sheffer
Kaye College, Israel
Presenting Author: Sheffer, Ofir
High schoolers are less inclined to attend and persist as members of non-formal education (NFE) organizations, despite the increase options at their disposal (Afterschool Alliance, 2020). This development stands in contradistinction to the growing public and academic interest in such frameworks throughout the world, owing to their potential contribution to the lives of young people. More specifically, youth organizations, grassroots associations, and youth councils, inter alia, provide opportunities for teens to connect to positive role models, form social ties, and broaden their repertoire of personal skills (Polson et al., 2013). Voluntary attendance in NFE programs indeed have a positive bearing on teenagers in an array of fields, especially when they take part on a regular and ongoing basis (Fulton, 2019).
However, despite the well-documented benefits of NFE participation for older youth, their participation wanes with age. A drop in attendance raises questions as to the relevance of NFE for older youth and their compatibility for adolescents' developmental needs (Deutsch & Jones, 2013). Correspondingly, data from Israel indicate that there are disparities in the regularity and persistence of participation between adolescent boys and girls. Surveys conducted by the Israel Ministry of Education (National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation, 2015) show that boys tend to dropout at earlier ages than girls in long-term civic-community programs.
Given the declining number of youth, particularly boys, the study's broader objective is to examine how widespread is the phenomenon among NFE frameworks, and how different organizations identify and respond to this demographic change. As such, the study's objectives are: (a) to collect up-to-date data on older youth (16-18) participation and persistence in the past 5 years; (b) to Inquire as to management-level's awareness to the demographic changes; (c) To locate possible explanations for the phenomenon; (d) acquaint ourselves with the institutional attitude towards working with older youth, from a gender-oriented perspective.
Out of all the various NFE frameworks and attendant goals, the present study concentrates on organizations that center around a vision of fostering leadership and active citizenship. These outlets provide youth an opportunity to experiment with decision-making processes, formulate policy, and embrace communal values within a democratic environment (Akiva et al., 2014; Checkoway, 2011). In light of the above, this project falls under the field of civic participation and social activism. Like other scholars, I am interested in the burning social questions that pertain to the downward trend of late-teens’ participation in civic enterprise. My point of departure is that NFE frameworks that allow for experimentation with decision-making, problem-solving, and policy-making on the communal level are bound to ratchet up participation in society down the road.
current proposal for presentation is written in respond to Q (a) collect up-to-date data on older youth (16-18) participation and persistence in the past 5 years; Q (b) Inquiring as to management-level's awareness to the demographic changes. Finishing interviews, I realize that almost all the Interviewees were not aware to the phenomenon of a decrease in the participation of boys and that the number of girls exceeds boys in an appreciable margin. From that, I chose to present in this article preliminary findings revolving around the field of organizational blindness.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedData was collected from seven civic-communal organization in Israel, working national wide, reflecting the current diversity of the educational field from gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic background of the high school participants. All organizations gave my access to current data on registration, participation, and graduation of older youth (15-18) in the past five years. Considering that during COVID-19 most of the organizations were struggling to maintaining a regular and consistent activity. Since data on enrollment only reflects a basic level of commitment and does not illuminate engagement (Akiva & Honor, 2016(, I also collected data on participation in special activities like leadership courses and summer camps, looking to see not only who took part but who invested themselves in the organization, took more responsibility, formal leadership roles and even joined the alumni organization. Segmentation process shows boys are 41% among the 16-year-olds, 36% among the 17-18-year-olds and are more likely to drop out of the frameworks before the end of the year. They are also present in fewer numbers in training courses for leadership positions (42%) and even less take part in an extra service-volunteer year before the army (31%).
Additionally, I interviewed one or two representors from every organization, holding a high-management position. Choosing to focus on management-level due to their knowledge on strategic planning, organizational challenges and having a comprehensive picture of the national differences from region to region. As is common in Israel, many of the interviewees were graduates of the organizations themselves, growing up in the organization from junior positions to management. Thus, adding value of time perspective and in dept knowledge of organizational culture, changes in goals and culture, and inner understanding of young people's views and patterns of participation. A total of 12 interviews were conducted so far.
My interview manual encompassed a set of questions concerning trends of change in youth participation; strategically targeted audience; challenges of attracting and maintaining older youth and gender differences in commitment, persistence, and motivation. By means of an inductive analysis of the data, codes from the interviews were formulated with the ATLAS.ti program. Quit early I realized that almost all the Interviewees were not aware to the phenomenon of a decrease in the participation of boys. Thereafter, the central issue of organizational blindness was axially coded. Preliminary findings are presented in this document.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsOne answer to organizational blindness is that many organizations in the educational field are experiencing an increase in the number of participants in younger ages. This increase is due to strategic planning of addressing new target audiences, who have not yet taken part in the activities. This creates a false representation of growth in organizational members because, among the strong and traditional populations, the number of registered members has weakened, reflecting a decrease in the commitment of some target audiences. Many of the interviewees were aware of the change in the target audience and even testified that it was a strategic decision of the organization.
The existing literature defines organizational inertia as the inability to enact internal change in the face of significant external change (Gilbert, 2005). My preliminary analysis shows dropout is seen as an inherent situation in voluntary education systems. But these educational organizations hold a very strong narrative as social change agents, their funding also involves working in the socio-economic periphery, which reinforces the organizational narrative of the social change mission. This ideology creates an idealization of the mission to expand, which may be necessary for maintaining a sense of organizational identity. It also sets goals, such as expanding the target audience, because expansion means influence. Although, this is how a blind spot is created towards the weakening of the existing members and their needs.
Social processes in which men leave frameworks and there is a proliferation of women, eventually lead to a decrease in the value and status of the framework. The question arises - what process of devaluation non-formal education frameworks are experiencing that leads boys to choose not to take part in them in late adolescent.
ReferencesAfterschool Alliance (2020). America after 3pm: Afterschool programs in demand,
policy report.
Akiva, T., Cortina, K. S., & Smith, C. (2014). Involving youth in program decision-
making: How common and what might it do for youth? Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 43, 1844–1860. DOI:10.1007/s10964-014-0183-y
Akiva, T. & Horner, C. G. (2016). Adolescent motivation to attend youth programs:
A mixed-methods investigation. Applied Developmental Science, 20(4),
278–293. doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2015.1127162
Gilbert, C. G. (2005). Unbundling the structure of inertia: Resource versus routine
rigidity. Academy of Management Journal, 48(5), 741-763.
https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.18803920
Checkoway, B. (2011), “What is Youth Participation?” Children and Youth Services
Review 33/2: 340-345. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.09.017
Deutsch, N. L. & Jones, J. N. (2008). “Show me an ounce of respect”: Respect and
authority in adult-youth relationships in after-school programs. Journal of
Adolescent Research, 23(6), 667–688.
https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1177/0743558408322250
Fulton, C. (2019), Exploring the Roles of Youth in Community Programming and
Their Connections to Positive Youth Development and Involvement in
Community, PhD diss., Columbus: Ohio State University.
Israel Ministry of Education (2015), Youth movements in Israel: An assessment of the
relative size, policy paper [Hebrew].
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and staying connected: Scouting’s influence on social capital and community
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28. Sociologies of Education
Paper
Post-pandemic Continuities and Changes in Basic Education (ISCED 1) in Portugal
Teresa Teixeira Lopo1, Inês Vieira1, Paulo Sargento2, Ana António3, José Viegas Brás3, Maria Neves Gonçalves4
1Lusófona University, CeiED-OP.Edu: Observatory for Education and Training Policies, Portugal; 2ERISA-IPLUSO, Lusófona University, CEAD Francisco Suárez, Portugal; 3ESEL-IPLUSO, Lusófona University, CeiED - Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development; 4ESEL-IPLUSO, CeiED - Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development
Presenting Author: Lopo, Teresa Teixeira
In this paper, we propose to discuss the first results of an ongoing research project focused on the analysis of the post-pandemic changes introduced in the Portuguese schools of first cycle (the first four years of schooling – grades one to four) and the second cycle (the next two years – grades five and six) of basic education (ISCED 1).
At the national level, the several research works conducted on the shutdown of schools, with the imposition of confinement and of an emergency remote teaching (e.g., Alves & Cabral, 2020; Benavente et al., 2020; CNE, 2021; Fernandes et al, 2021; IAVE, 2021; Martins, 2020) highlighted as main effects on the education system: 1) the worsening of school inequalities translated, namely, in the differentiated access to working conditions in the family space, to technological equipment, to knowledge and to digital literacy; 2) the loss of learning; 3) the increased risk of dropping out; 4) limitations at the level of the development of emotional and social skills of the students.
Similarly, other international studies (e.g., Bannink & Dam, 2021; Cohen-Fraade & Donahu 2022; König et al., 2020; Mari et al., 2021; MacIntyre et al., 2020; OECD, 2021; Pirone, 2021; Zacanjo et al, 2022), highlighted: 1) the relationship of the pandemic to the unravelling of social and economic inequalities and the worsening of school inequalities, particularly in Southern and Eastern Europe; 2) the effects of "fractured ecologies" (Bannink & Van, 2021, p.2 ) resulting from the dissociation of sharing the same physical space between teachers and students, amplified by computer-mediated communication, in the organization of teaching, curriculum compliance and motivation for learning; 3) the gaps in the digital skills of the teaching staff; and 4) the working conditions of teachers generated by the pandemic, in a perspective of psychological well-being, especially among those with children and with greater difficulties in balancing professional duties and personal and family life.
In the review of the scientific literature published between 2020 and 2022, we found, however, that the research conducted focused either on the analysis of the effects of the pandemic on education, as we have explained, particularly in secondary and higher education, or on the type of changes generated by crisis management plans implemented in schools.
The proposal of this project arises, precisely, from the identification of this gap and intends to answer the following research questions, considering the three central axes of analysis highlighted by this literature review:
Q1. What post-pandemic changes were implemented to mitigate school inequalities?
Q2. What post-pandemic changes can we identify in the working conditions provided to teachers and in the promotion of their well-being and mental health?
Q3. What post-pandemic changes can we identify in supporting the recovery of students' learning, in monitoring and assessing their learning?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedTo answer these questions, the research plan follows an integrative mixed-methods methodological approach (Åkerblad et al., 2020) that includes questionnaires and focus groups.
The questionnaires are being applied up to a maximum number of 300 directors and 700 teachers, based on a purposive sample of 1st cycle (N= 3 589) and 2nd cycle (N=916) public schools, considering that: 1) survey instruments do not aim at inference of attributes for a population; 2) an intentional sample often preserves relationships between variables. Data will be processed using SPSS (closed-ended questions; descriptive and multivariate statistics) and MAXQDA (open-ended questions; content analysis) software.
Three focus groups will be conducted considering the axes of analysis of this work: 1) socioeducational inequalities; 2) working conditions, well-being and mental health of teachers; and 3) recovery of learning, monitoring and assessment of students. The recruitment of participants will seek to ensure that stakeholders are representative. A maximum of 12 participants will be invited. Each discussion session will have a maximum duration of 3 hours, divided into two parts of 1.5 hours each. The contributions will be audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using MAXQDA software.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe first results of this work suggest that there was: 1) an extension of some of the equity measures previously implemented by the government, such as the increase of students with social and economic aid and the implementation at a national level of an Integrated Plan for the Recovery of Learning; 2) a reinforcement of technological equipment in schools and of the supply of continuous teacher training in this area; 3) by contrast, the changes introduced in their pedagogical practices, as well as, the actions implemented to promote their well-being and mental health, and addressed to the provision of training in socio-emotional skills that may support their pedagogical work in the current post-pandemic context, are less expressive; 4)
It is also at the level of socio-emotional skills, relationships, autonomy and communication with peers and teachers that students have shown the greatest difficulties in making up ground.
ReferencesÅkerblad, L., Seppänen-Järvelä, R., &; Haapakoski, K. (2020). Integrative strategies in mixed methods research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 15(2),152-170.
Alves, J. M., & Cabral, I. (Eds.). (2020). Ensinar e aprender em tempo de COVID 19: Entre o caos e a redenção. Faculdade de Educação e Psicologia da Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
Bannink, A., & Dam, J. V. (2021). Teaching via Zoom: Emergent discourse practices and complex footings in the online/offline classroom interface. Languages, 6(3).
Benavente, A., Peixoto, P., & Gomes, R. M. (2020). Impacto da Covid-19 no sistema de ensino português. Resultados globais. OP. Edu – Observatório das Políticas de Educação e Formação.
Cohen-Fraade, S., & Donahu, M. (2022). The impact of COVID-19 on teachers’ mental health. Journal for Multicultural Education, 16(1), 18-29.
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Fernandes, M. A. F., Machado, E. A., Alves, M. P., & Vieira, D. A. (2021). Ensinar em tempos de Covid-19: Um estudo com professores dos ensinos básico e secundário em Portugal. Revista Portuguesa de Educação, 34(1), 5-27.
IAVE. (2021). Estudo diagnóstico das aprendizagens Apresentação de resultados. IAVE.
König, J., Jäger-Biela, D. J., & Glutsch, N. (2020). Adapting to online teaching during COVID-19 school closure: Teacher education and teacher competence effects among early career teachers in Germany. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 608-622.
Mari, E., Lausi, G., Fraschetti, A., Pizzo, A., Baldi, M., Quaglieri, A., … Giannini, A. M. (2021). Teaching during the pandemic: A comparison in psychological wellbeing among smart working professions. Sustainability,13(9), 4850.
MacIntyre, P. D., Gregersen, T., & Mercer, S. (2020). Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, wellbeing and negative emotions. System, 94, 102352.
Martins, S. C. (2020). A educação e a Covid-19: Desigualdades, experiências e impactos de uma pandemia não anunciada. In R. M. Carmo, I. Tavares, & A. F. Cândido (Eds.), Um olhar sociológico sobre a crise Covid-19 em livro (pp.37-54). Observatório das Desigualdades, CIES-ISCTE.
OECD (2021). The state of global education. 18 months into the pandemic. OECD.
Pirone, F. (2021). School closures in France in 2020: Inequalities and consequences for perceptions, practices and relationships towards and within schools. European Journal of Education, 56(4), 536-549.
Zancajo, A., Verger, A., & Bolea, P. (2022). Digitalization and beyond: The effects of Covid-19 on post-pandemic educational policy and delivery in Europe. Policy and Society, 41(1), 111-128.
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