Conference Agenda

Scholarship underscores the pivotal role of teacher training in maintaining standardized education, primarily institutionalized via different sorts of learning communities (i.e., professional development programs materialized via professional learning communities (PLCs), communities of practice (CoPs), action research groups) within schools, arguably to enhance curricular content, instructional practices, and student academic performance (Nawab et al., 2021; Sullivan, 2020). However, in Western-centric contexts, efforts to enhance teacher-learning communities often prioritize reforms, policymaking, and empirical studies aligning with business-sponsored agendas rooted in neoliberal market ideologies (Giroux, 2019; Darling-Hammond et al., 2005). Unfortunately, these initiatives frequently lack meaningful participation from key stakeholders, hindering teachers’ professionalism and critical skills development for transformative education, social justice, and climate change awareness (Giroux, 2021). Against this backdrop, teacher-learning communities are often operationalized as socio-political and historical learning-as-training projects, neglecting the complexities of the educational experience and its axiological commitment to social change (Macedo, 2018).

This study builds upon educational experiences in the Americas and Europe, exploring transformative possibilities in teacher-learning communities intersecting with critical pedagogies. It aims to articulate critical pedagogy's conceptualization of practical hope and radical love (Freire, 2005; Goméz, 2015; Agnello, 2016) as community-oriented axiological-educational frameworks sustaining teacher learning communities, referred to as communities of praxis. This exploration may bring forth collectively crafted counternarratives anchored in relational engagements, dialogic encounters, knowledge co-creation, eco-justice ethics, and situated practices (Flecha, 2015). According to Freire (2005), critical educational counternarratives should be grounded in practical hope and radical love. Hope serves as a fundamental aspect of our human condition and educational practice, motivating collective intervention in shaping history. Love provides sustenance for the struggle against historical determinisms, promoting possibility, solidarity, humility, and openness—goals inherent in communities of praxis.

Studies addressing practical hope and radical love as educational frameworks are virtually nonexistent (Torres Olave et al., 2023) and even more limited through the lenses of teacher-learning communities. While addressing the research question (How may communities of praxis be enacted in schools?), my study aims to collect data documenting teachers’ dialogic interactions in small-group gatherings as they may co-construct pathways to develop a community of praxis, engaging in transformative experiences and unsettling dominant curricular-pedagogical approaches and sociopolitical-educational practices.

The theoretical-conceptual framework guiding this study integrates a critical theory/pedagogy of situated learning-in-practice (Lave, 2019; Freire, 2005), a relational-axiological embodied theory of cognition-knowing (Maturana, 2012) and the pursuit of transformative and emancipatory goals (Carr & Thésée, 2020).

Situated learning, as articulated by Lave, embraces the social nature of human existence where knowing is subject to practice as a relational process of constant becoming (identity formation as a continuum) among individuals in communities of practices situated in evolving sociopolitical-educational contexts. Critical pedagogy elaborates further on the nature of situated learning, underscoring the transformative potential of learning-in-place that occurs intertwined with sociopolitical practices in the multiplicity of voices in the world, shaping one's affect, senses, emotions, and emergent subjectivities. Enactivism introduces an embodied theory of cognition-knowing to learning, asserting that cognition arises from bodily experiences within broader psychological and cultural contexts, emphasizing how individuals co-construct knowledge and inner worlds articulating axiological dimensions. Transformative and Emancipatory Education (Carr & Thésée, 2020) advocates for the encounter of multiplicities when building learning communities, offering pathways to challenging systemic barriers through alternative constructs to conventional teacher learning-as-training within Western-centric educational systems. Altogether, these theories comprise a framework for the enaction of communities of praxis that points at practical hope as a sociopolitical-educational transformative project and at radical love as praxis to struggle against educational determinisms while exploring new possibilities in the contemporary landscape.

Recent decades have shown the progressive loss of social recognition of the teaching profession (Ianes, et al., 2019; Paletta, 2020; OECD, 2023). Argentin (2018), deepening what has already been highlighted by Colombo (2017), has demonstrated how teaching can be considered a "quasi-profession" as it contains only some of the elements that caracterize occupations considered “true” professions. Moreover, in the Italian case, we are faced, on the one hand, with a totally "flat" career (Eurydice, 2021) and on the other hand with the persistence of a real "taboo" on teacher evaluation (Guerrini, 2018). These aspects, to which are added the phenomena of high feminization and ageing of the teaching staff, represent a major challenge for schools and society (Gavosto, 2022). Many studies and researches have addressed these issues but, according to the literature review conducted so far, none have systematically investigated the point of view of those directly involved.

And it is precisely this gap that we aim to bridge by answering two research questions: what is the “sentiment” of Italian teachers with respect to career, valorisation and evaluation? Under what conditions would it be possible to introduce a teacher evaluation/appraisal system in Italy as well? The research hypothesis is that there is a growing interest and openness on the part of teachers to valorisation and evaluation. However it is a process to be built according to a 'bottom-up' logic and not a 'top-down' one as hitherto (Romei, 2000). Even though, Hattie (2016) states that having more and more inspired and passionate teachers could improve learning, this cannot be realised solely by relying on ideal and/or vocational elements, but also on structural-organisational, legal-economic aspects and prospects for real professional development and careers.

First at all, in order to answer the research questions, a critical review of the literature was performed through reading and analysing about one hundred texts of various types (monographs, articles, degree-master-doctorate theses, conference proceedings, national and international surveys, regulatory provisions). They are mainly in Italian (but also in English as regards the international surveys carried out by organisations such as Eurydice and OECD), published since 2000 (the year in which school autonomy was officially introduced – Presidential Decree 275/99). A specific consideration and evaluation was paid to all those passages presenting information and data on the opinions of Italian teachers concerning research topics; This was accomplished by setting the advanced search filters with at least one of the key words and concepts such as: Career - Valuing - Evaluation - Professional development - Social and economic recognition.

As no work or research was found that gives an up-to-date, complete and rigorous representation of the issues being researched, it is necessary to supplement the research project with an experimental part using the tools of the interview, questionnaire and focus group.

Reference-group effects are well-established within educational psychology. According to the Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect (BFPLE) achievement-based school/class composition influences individuals’ academic self-evaluation. Controlling for individual achievement, higher group achievement is related to lower individual academic self-concept and vice versa (Fang et al., 2018).

Recently, efforts have been made to link the BFLPE to a variety of educational and occupational outcomes and to establish the long-term nature of these effects. Researchers found negative effects of average school achievement on educational/occupational aspirations (Nagengast & Marsh, 2012; Yuan & Olivos, 2023), expectations and attainment (Göllner et al., 2018; Marsh et al., 2023). In some studies, these effects have been found to persist multiple years after measuring group achievement (Göllner et al., 2018, Marsh, 1991; Marsh et al., 2023). However, research on the longevity of these effects remains scarce: Specifically, we only know of one study that examined the long-term BFLPE on aspirations (Marsh, 1991).

As aspirations have been shown to be a relevant precursor of attainment, increasing adolescents’ aspirations can have a significant positive effect on their life trajectories (Schoon & Polek, 2011). Hence, the first aim of our study is to analyse the effect of group achievement in secondary school on educational aspirations during tertiary education, i.e. two/four years later.

We decided to focus on a sample of students who start vocational education and training (VET) after school. VET students can profit strongly from an increase in their educational aspirations, as they are – compared to higher education graduates – disadvantaged in the labour market (Protsch & Solga, 2016).

Based on these considerations, we derive the following hypothesis:

H1: Holding constant for individual achievement, school average achievement in secondary school negatively affects students’ educational aspirations during VET.

Apart from that, examining a sample of VET students enables us to analyse how different reference-groups work together a) simultaneously and b) over time. While researchers acknowledge that in the school setting multiple reference-groups (e.g. classes and schools) influence educational outcomes simultaneously (Jansen et al., 2022; Yuan & Olivos, 2023; Zell & Alicke, 2009), it is unclear if this holds also true for the VET context. In the German VET system, students spend time in two separate learning contexts: VET classrooms and training firms. We suggest that both constitute relevant reference-groups. Therefore, the second aim of our study is to examine the BFLPE on educational aspirations in VET classes and training firms simultaneously. We assume the BFLPE to be stronger in VET classrooms than training firms due to the standardised nature of the school setting (Jansen et al., 2022).

H2: When controlling for individual achievement, a) VET classroom group achievement and b) VET firm group achievement negatively influence educational aspirations during VET.

H3: The BFLPE in the VET classroom is stronger than the BFLPE in the training firm.
While simultaneous reference-group effects have been researched in some detail, the effect of multiple reference-groups over time remains understudied. The recent focus on their long-term effects, however, calls for a further examination of these mechanisms. Therefore, the third aim of our study is to analyse how different reference-groups over time affect educational aspirations during VET. We believe that group achievement in secondary school still affects educational aspirations even after adding group achievement in VET classrooms and training firms as predictors. Furthermore, we argue that more recent reference-groups are more influential than less recent ones.

H4: The BFLPEs in secondary school remains after adding BFLPEs in the VET classroom and the training firm.

H5: The BFLPEs in a) the VET classrooms and b) the training firm are stronger than the BFLPE in secondary school.

What kind of process is career change? This study examines career changing in the Finnish context because it is interesting from a research point of view. Finland has a national strategy of lifelong learning and free education for all which makes it an interesting case for three reasons. First, with the help of Finnish case, we can study this phenomenon from a perspective that is not suppressed by extensive market forces but leaves more room for adults’ choices. Second, studying is flexible during all stages of life. Consequently, In Finland, career choices and the transition to adult education and training can be made at any stage of the career. The phenomenon of career change has been studied in the context of changing working life, but not from adult choices perspective. Career change here is defined as movement to a different job that is not part of a current career path. This study specially focuses to the voluntary turnover and vocational change.

In their integrated career change model, Rhodes & Doering (1983) present the determinants of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, which lead to career change. Experiencing dissatisfaction in one’s current job influences one’s thoughts about changing jobs or careers (Carless & Arnup 2010), and it also increases the intention to search for a new career (Rhodes & Doering 1983). There is a positive correlation between satisfaction with work and satisfaction with areas of personal life outside work (Martel & Dupuis 2006). A career change is undertaken because there is an expectation that various aspects of work life will improve after this change. Hess, Jepsen, & Dries (2012) argue that for specific career concerns to be translated into career change intentions, there must be a certain degree of self-perceived ability and opportunity to make those changes (Hess et al. 2012). The individual characteristics of career changers, such as openness to experience and general self-efficacy (Carless & Arnup 2010), are also considered explanatory career-change factors. In other words, self-efficacy is a belief in one’s ability to perform across a variety of situations (Chen, Gully & Eden 2004).

It is conceivable that a career is changed because of the variating needs of the working life, but also in pursuit of employee’s own wishes. Work standards change as working life changes, atypical and precarious work becomes more typical. Developments like this has led to need for constant retraining as people engage in learning trajectories (training, work, employment etc.) throughout the life course. (Glastra et al. 2004.)

Illeris (2003) claims, that adults must constantly re-engage with education and training, and those who do not, risk social and economic marginalization (Illeris 2003). Also, previous studies of Giddens (1990) and Scanlon (2008) have shown that all situations and individuals have horizons of possibility. That is, there are always limitations on the degree to which individuals can remake themselves through the process of change. From a sociological point of view, Giddens (1990) calls the process by which adults make recurring transitions as ‘self-authoring’. The key, of the self-authoring is reflexivity where individuals consider their biographies now and in the future. They make career choices, which are based on an analysis of their life circumstances, competences, and work-life requirements. In his theory of perspective transformation, Mezirow (1991) states that adults make intentional movements to resolve grievances in their lives. They are reflective and think things through critically and ponder things from different perspectives. Moreover, they evaluate the validity of the current view of meaning and examine the validity of other perspectives. Mezirow (1991) defines that meaning perspective is the frame within which meaning making takes place.