Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-7
Cristiana Ottaviano, G. Persico
This essay is focused on the relation between educational care and masculinities. From a theoretical perspective it falls within Men’s Studies and describes an empirical research study, mainly realized using a biographical approach, on male teachers working in Early Childhood education (ECE). The aim of this study is to explore the stories of the lives of some men who do jobs closely related to childcare, three of which are summarized in the boxes below in an unconventional form to experiment with a new way to disseminate the findings of the sociological research. The interviews are focused on the biographical turning points and tbe reasons the men chose jobs with tasks traditionally considered to be “female” duties, as well as how these teachers feel about their work, their caring and relational approaches, and if and to what extent their jobs are changing/have changed their perceptions of themselves, and, finally, on the nature of the reactions to their choice both in the micro and the macro social context. The partial findings of our ongoing research are compared with the outcome of other international studies with a focus on some common issues emerging across different national contexts: the lack of role models or mentors in ECE; the challenge to ‘hegemonic’ masculinities of engaging in childcare in order to involve body, emotions and vulnerabilities; the shadow of paedophilia related to homosexuality and, finally, the role these men embody as ‘breakers’.
{"title":"Educational Care: Male Teachers in Early Childhood Education","authors":"Cristiana Ottaviano, G. Persico","doi":"10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-7","url":null,"abstract":"This essay is focused on the relation between educational care and masculinities. From a theoretical perspective it falls within Men’s Studies and describes an empirical research study, mainly realized using a biographical approach, on male teachers working in Early Childhood education (ECE). The aim of this study is to explore the stories of the lives of some men who do jobs closely related to childcare, three of which are summarized in the boxes below in an unconventional form to experiment with a new way to disseminate the findings of the sociological research. The interviews are focused on the biographical turning points and tbe reasons the men chose jobs with tasks traditionally considered to be “female” duties, as well as how these teachers feel about their work, their caring and relational approaches, and if and to what extent their jobs are changing/have changed their perceptions of themselves, and, finally, on the nature of the reactions to their choice both in the micro and the macro social context. The partial findings of our ongoing research are compared with the outcome of other international studies with a focus on some common issues emerging across different national contexts: the lack of role models or mentors in ECE; the challenge to ‘hegemonic’ masculinities of engaging in childcare in order to involve body, emotions and vulnerabilities; the shadow of paedophilia related to homosexuality and, finally, the role these men embody as ‘breakers’.","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"141-161"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66794458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-5
Antonietta De Feo, Catarina Gonçalves, M. Romito
Our paper outlines how lifelong guidance policies constitute a crucial device that solicits the reshaping of teachers’ professional culture. Using a policy instrument approach, we analyse how teachers are recruited into a new educational paradigm and the key role played in this respect by technological mediations enabling particular educational and guidance practices. We discuss, in particular, the case of SORPRENDO, a guidance software used in Italian schools, that was developed by a private company as the main output of a European project involving a public-private partnership. By looking at this software, in the first place, we emphasise how digital devices are not simply neutral and technical solutions to specific problems. They are impregnated with symbolic and political dimensions, carry meanings and constitute the material manifestation of policy orientations. We also show that although this digital tool mobilises teachers with new visions and ideas about guidance and teaching more broadly, it is incapable of ensuring their immediate adherence to this project. Teachers’ professional culture, their everyday practices, the inertia of schools’ organisation and administration constitute a terrain where processes of negotiation and accommodation create tensions and contradictions.
{"title":"Technological Mediations, Lifelong Guidance and the Reshaping of the Teaching Profession","authors":"Antonietta De Feo, Catarina Gonçalves, M. Romito","doi":"10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-5","url":null,"abstract":"Our paper outlines how lifelong guidance policies constitute a crucial device that solicits the reshaping of teachers’ professional culture. Using a policy instrument approach, we analyse how teachers are recruited into a new educational paradigm and the key role played in this respect by technological mediations enabling particular educational and guidance practices. We discuss, in particular, the case of SORPRENDO, a guidance software used in Italian schools, that was developed by a private company as the main output of a European project involving a public-private partnership. By looking at this software, in the first place, we emphasise how digital devices are not simply neutral and technical solutions to specific problems. They are impregnated with symbolic and political dimensions, carry meanings and constitute the material manifestation of policy orientations. We also show that although this digital tool mobilises teachers with new visions and ideas about guidance and teaching more broadly, it is incapable of ensuring their immediate adherence to this project. Teachers’ professional culture, their everyday practices, the inertia of schools’ organisation and administration constitute a terrain where processes of negotiation and accommodation create tensions and contradictions.","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"42 1","pages":"91-114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66794321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-3-2
David J. Borrelli, Mihaela Gavrila, Emanuela Spanò, Marialuisa Stazio
Worldwide university politics take for granted the primacy of GlobalNorthern paradigm. In the last decades, Higher Education policies have been shaped by global devices of neoliberal governance, such as the Competitiveness Global Index elaborated by the World Economic Forum. We examine the ever encroaching HE evaluation policies and illustrate how, in the framework of the current “Evaluative State”, university has been rebuilt according to the priorities of the “neoliberal market agenda”. What is at stake is a “new spirit of evaluation” that mirrors the current “new spirit of capitalism”. Opposite to the neutral and disembodied models of “ideal-academic”, which treat knowledge as a Northern, white, gendered, middle class monopoly, we argue that “academic quality” displays embedded/embodied features devoid of universalistic issues. Taking inspiration from Raewyn Connell (2019), we propose “another possible university”, appointed with less strict epistemic instances, to rethink Higher Education in terms of some fresh “breaking” ideas: “Meridian thought” (Cassano, 1996), “slowness” (Berg & Seeber, 2016), “multi-versity” (Braidotti, 2013), “subversity” (De Sousa Santos, 2018), “decolonization” (Mbembe, 2016), “deparochialization of research” (Appadurai, 2013).
{"title":"Another University is Possible: Towards an Idea of Meridian University","authors":"David J. Borrelli, Mihaela Gavrila, Emanuela Spanò, Marialuisa Stazio","doi":"10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-3-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-3-2","url":null,"abstract":"Worldwide university politics take for granted the primacy of GlobalNorthern paradigm. In the last decades, Higher Education policies have been shaped by global devices of neoliberal governance, such as the Competitiveness Global Index elaborated by the World Economic Forum. We examine the ever encroaching HE evaluation policies and illustrate how, in the framework of the current “Evaluative State”, university has been rebuilt according to the priorities of the “neoliberal market agenda”. What is at stake is a “new spirit of evaluation” that mirrors the current “new spirit of capitalism”. Opposite to the neutral and disembodied models of “ideal-academic”, which treat knowledge as a Northern, white, gendered, middle class monopoly, we argue that “academic quality” displays embedded/embodied features devoid of universalistic issues. Taking inspiration from Raewyn Connell (2019), we propose “another possible university”, appointed with less strict epistemic instances, to rethink Higher Education in terms of some fresh “breaking” ideas: “Meridian thought” (Cassano, 1996), “slowness” (Berg & Seeber, 2016), “multi-versity” (Braidotti, 2013), “subversity” (De Sousa Santos, 2018), “decolonization” (Mbembe, 2016), “deparochialization of research” (Appadurai, 2013).","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"16-39"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66794876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-4
E. Rossi
The social construction of gender beyond categorisations and stereotyped representations in adult-children interactions and narratives, and its interplay with the specific forms displayed by the interactions, is an interesting and new field for scholars, teachers, experts, and parents, increasingly invoked locally, nationally and internationally to reduce and prevent gender inequalities, prejudices, discrimination, and violence. This paper aims to analyse and understand the forms of communication which can be most effective in opposing stereotypes, in challenging narratives of a binary and hierarchical gender order, and in introducing counter-narratives based on a multiple, hybrid, equal and fluid gender order. Data were collected through audioand videorecording in preschools, primary and middle schools in Northern Italy, during extracurricular activities and workshops proposed by an educator, a teacher, or a trainer for discussions on topics such as toys, sports, jobs, gender differences, etc. The analysis highlighted the ways in which dialogic facilitation can be productive both in bringing out children’s gender stereotypes and in promoting their agency for the co-construction of alternative narratives, but also situations where dialogic facilitation seems to be more ambivalent and to ‘slip into’ an educational form in which the adult’s role and perspective orient or direct children’s learning and thinking.
{"title":"The Social Construction of Gender in Adult-Children Interactions and Narratives at Preschool, Primary and Middle school","authors":"E. Rossi","doi":"10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-4","url":null,"abstract":"The social construction of gender beyond categorisations and stereotyped representations in adult-children interactions and narratives, and its interplay with the specific forms displayed by the interactions, is an interesting and new field for scholars, teachers, experts, and parents, increasingly invoked locally, nationally and internationally to reduce and prevent gender inequalities, prejudices, discrimination, and violence. This paper aims to analyse and understand the forms of communication which can be most effective in opposing stereotypes, in challenging narratives of a binary and hierarchical gender order, and in introducing counter-narratives based on a multiple, hybrid, equal and fluid gender order. Data were collected through audioand videorecording in preschools, primary and middle schools in Northern Italy, during extracurricular activities and workshops proposed by an educator, a teacher, or a trainer for discussions on topics such as toys, sports, jobs, gender differences, etc. The analysis highlighted the ways in which dialogic facilitation can be productive both in bringing out children’s gender stereotypes and in promoting their agency for the co-construction of alternative narratives, but also situations where dialogic facilitation seems to be more ambivalent and to ‘slip into’ an educational form in which the adult’s role and perspective orient or direct children’s learning and thinking.","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"58-82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66794814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-12
A. Amendola, Mario Tirino
The mediology of literature is a disciplinary approach to the study of the complex literary forms of digital society (Ragone 2014). This approach is based on the theories about the literary medium developed by Marshall McLuhan (1954, 1962, 1964, 2011). This paper aims to investigate how the mediological approach can help to analyze contemporary narrative ecosystems (Innocenti, Pescatore 2017, 2014, 2012). These ecosystems are structured by wide-ranging media processes: convergence (Jenkins 2006), serialization, and transmediality (Scolari 2013, 2009, Freeman, Gambarato 2018). Through the analysis of the narrative ecosystem centered on the novel The Body Snatchers (1954), our research aims to highlight how literature produces universal cultural myths, how these myths evolve through interaction with media, technological and social environments, how media metaphors can anticipate and foreshadow the cultural processes of the digital society.
{"title":"Mediology of Literature: A Sociocultural Approach for the Study of Narrative Ecosystems. The Case of The Body Snatchers","authors":"A. Amendola, Mario Tirino","doi":"10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-12","url":null,"abstract":"The mediology of literature is a disciplinary approach to the study of the complex literary forms of digital society (Ragone 2014). This approach is based on the theories about the literary medium developed by Marshall McLuhan (1954, 1962, 1964, 2011). This paper aims to investigate how the mediological approach can help to analyze contemporary narrative ecosystems (Innocenti, Pescatore 2017, 2014, 2012). These ecosystems are structured by wide-ranging media processes: convergence (Jenkins 2006), serialization, and transmediality (Scolari 2013, 2009, Freeman, Gambarato 2018). Through the analysis of the narrative ecosystem centered on the novel The Body Snatchers (1954), our research aims to highlight how literature produces universal cultural myths, how these myths evolve through interaction with media, technological and social environments, how media metaphors can anticipate and foreshadow the cultural processes of the digital society.","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"253-277"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66794744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-1
G. Argentin, R. Serpieri, A. Viteritti
{"title":"Introduction to the Special Section. Educational Professions: New Challenges and Changes","authors":"G. Argentin, R. Serpieri, A. Viteritti","doi":"10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"1-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66793861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-1-13
Claudio Baraldi
{"title":"Facilitating the Construction of Cultural Diversity in Classroom Interactions","authors":"Claudio Baraldi","doi":"10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-1-13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-1-13","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"259-284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66793979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-2-1
Mariano Longo, M. Merico
{"title":"Narratives and Narrative Approaches in the Social and Educational Sciences. By Way of Introduction","authors":"Mariano Longo, M. Merico","doi":"10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-2-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-2-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66794514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-01-01DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-1-2
Rita Bertozzi
The paper reflects on the access of students of migrant origin to Italian universities, focusing on the choices and opportunities that these students encounter and the factors that can affect this transition. At the beginning, it presents a brief review of the international literature on this topic. Then, mainly based on a qualitative case study, the article highlights the influence of limited economic resources, social and cultural capital, type of secondary school diploma and information bias on these students’ opportunities. The analysis highlights the positive impact of the permeability of Italian school system and the negative one of the weak school guidance policies. The policy implications are discussed at the end.
{"title":"University Students With Migrant Background in Italy. Which Factors Affect Opportunities","authors":"Rita Bertozzi","doi":"10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-1-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-1-2","url":null,"abstract":"The paper reflects on the access of students of migrant origin to Italian universities, focusing on the choices and opportunities that these students encounter and the factors that can affect this transition. At the beginning, it presents a brief review of the international literature on this topic. Then, mainly based on a qualitative case study, the article highlights the influence of limited economic resources, social and cultural capital, type of secondary school diploma and information bias on these students’ opportunities. The analysis highlights the positive impact of the permeability of Italian school system and the negative one of the weak school guidance policies. The policy implications are discussed at the end.","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"10 1","pages":"23-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66793500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-01-01DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-3-11
L. Fabbris, M. Scioni
In this paper, we aim to understand the extent to which salary is negotiable for graduates when they search for a job after graduation. To this end, we created an experimental survey designed to identify their salary expectations. Graduates from an Italian university were randomized into four salary levels and asked about their willingness to accept a job with a predefined salary level. Moreover, in order to highlight the job aspects that could substitute salary considerations at the decision-making stage, we contrasted a hypothetical salary reduction with nine non-monetary aspects. In addition, the salary level associated with graduates’ ideal job was explored. The data analysis showed that a new graduate hesitates if presented with a job offer implying a tradeoff between career prospects, work roles, and contractual advantages on the one hand, and salary on the other hand. Moreover, salary expectations differ according to gender, educational pathways, and other social and attitudinal variables.
{"title":"Salary Acceptability and Substitution Factors for Graduates’ Employment","authors":"L. Fabbris, M. Scioni","doi":"10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-3-11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-3-11","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we aim to understand the extent to which salary is negotiable for graduates when they search for a job after graduation. To this end, we created an experimental survey designed to identify their salary expectations. Graduates from an Italian university were randomized into four salary levels and asked about their willingness to accept a job with a predefined salary level. Moreover, in order to highlight the job aspects that could substitute salary considerations at the decision-making stage, we contrasted a hypothetical salary reduction with nine non-monetary aspects. In addition, the salary level associated with graduates’ ideal job was explored. The data analysis showed that a new graduate hesitates if presented with a job offer implying a tradeoff between career prospects, work roles, and contractual advantages on the one hand, and salary on the other hand. Moreover, salary expectations differ according to gender, educational pathways, and other social and attitudinal variables.","PeriodicalId":37576,"journal":{"name":"Italian Journal of Sociology of Education","volume":"10 1","pages":"220-244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66793885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}