Unpacking young people’s national identities: The role of ethno-cultural and religious allegiances, history and ‘Others’

The article examines the intricacies implicated in the narration of young people’s national identities by shedding light on intersecting allegiances and on the role that perceived ‘others’ play in their accounts of nationhood. Based upon a qualitative study of youth narratives of identity in the context of Greek society, the article unpacks how participants make sense and narrate their nationhood via utilizing discursive resources, whilst dialogically conversing with the gaze of ‘other’. The narrative–discursive analysis of the in-depth interview material illustrates the interweavement of ethnicity with religion, along with the use of historical imagery and cultural signals of alleged similarity and difference. What becomes evident is the salience of ethno-cultural and religious identifications, operating as potent resources for self-making but also as vehicles for categorization and the potential exclusion of ‘others’. The article concludes by underlining the importance of empirically substantiating and theorizing the configurations of young people’s collective identities

Narrating identities and educational choices: the case of migrant and Greek young people

The processes of educational decision making and formations of identity lie at the heart of the present thesis that explores the narratives of twenty-three young people with migrant and nonmigrant background. The thesis analyzes the cases of eleven Greek and twelve migrant participants, of Albanian, Georgian, Armenian and Palestinian ethnicities attending two upper secondary Lyceums in Greece, one sub-urban Vocational and one inner-city Comprehensive located in the city of Thessaloniki. The narratives of young people are analyzed as performative acts and as social practices constructed locally and intersubjectively, rather than as expressions of their essentialist realities.The narrative analysis aims more specifically at demonstrating empirically the social conditionings of school choice and the intricate ways that decision-making is cross-cut by and implicated in the processes of identity formation and negotiation. The educational choices these young people are called to make are situated within the broader socioeconomic and discursive milieu and within the structural arrangements of the post-16 institutional landscape of Greece. The issue of youth agency as grappling against the structural limitations of a given milieu, with its cultural particularities is at the backdrop of the present qualitative study. Young people’s identities are conceptualized as being produced, negotiated and contested in a shifting context through the interactions with significant others, namely their peers, teachers and families and through the interplay of identifications, social positions, capitals, transforming individual habituses and the institutional contexts of the two schools. In more detail, the subjectively felt classed, ethnic and gendered positions are analyzed as perceived, invested and discoursively performed by the young participants. Central role is attributed to the notion of habitus as embodying the complex interweaving of dispositions, discourses, collective and individual histories. It is argued that the processes of activation and re-conversion of capitals (economic, social, cultural) in which young people engage, along with the dynamic change of habitus in the face of evolving conditions in the host country, can be a potentially useful conceptual schema for understanding the ways migrant and non-migrant young people experience and make sense of their positioning in social space. The processes of drawing distinctions between perceived others and themselves mediate the ways young people engage in the weaving of their identities through a more or less ascribed, constrained and perpetually negotiated sense of belonging. In addition analytical attention is paid to the parental engagement and in particular the resources and dispositions that young people’s families invest and transmit in relation to their schooling and their academic and occupational future. In this frame the narrated educational choices are embedded in young people’s learner identities and familial histories and are closely linked with their projections and envisioning of the future. To conclude, the decision-making dynamics emerge through a matrix weaved by differing resources, positions and dispositions that grant young people with unequal opportunities for constructing selfnarratives and engaging with school choice

Youth, family and education: exploring the Greek case of parentocracy

Based on a qualitative study conducted in austerity-stricken Greece, the paper provides a micro-level exploration of the mechanics of intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage. Utilising the Bourdieusian toolbox, the paper enquires into familial practices through the lens of young people’s perceptions, focusing on the mobilisation of capitals, the inculcation and transformation of habitus taking place in the Greek educational field. In-depth interview material unpacks the pedagogic efforts young people and their families make, indicating that these are contingent on the varied volume and composition of capitals and the distinct distances from necessity that in turn constrain or afford the exercise of agency and the investments in the academic market. Further, the analysis sheds light on young people’s accounts of educational and occupational expectations illustrating how these are tightly interweaved with familial legacies and parental wishes, and underpinned by the projects of distinction, mobility and respectability through education

Young migrants’ narratives of collective identifications and belonging

The article sheds light on the intricate relationship between migration, ‘identity’ and belonging by focusing on young migrants in the context of Greek society. Based upon a qualitative study of youth identities, the key objective is to examine their collective identifications, formed through the dialectic of self-identification and categorization. The analysis of young migrants’ narratives unpacks how their sense of belonging and emotional attachments to their countries of origin and settlement are mediated by processes of racialization and ‘othering’

Degrees of Success: The Transitions from Vocational to Higher Education

Policies to promote high participation in Higher Educations (HE) systems aim to deliver social justice and economic development through widening participation of under-represented groups. Degrees of Success provides a critical test of this through examination of participa-tion and success of learners progressing to HE with a vocational background. Employing an original conceptual framework that combines the ideas of Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu the authors analyse the various transitional frictions experienced by learners with VET backgrounds on their journeys into and through the HE system. The findings indi-cate that including students with vocational qualifications does lead to widening participation but that their modes of participation may not provide fair access and outcomes. In part this is due to the epistemic incompatibilities between higher and vocational education which remain unresolved despite constant VET qualification reform. This book, therefore, extends the debate about widening participation beyond metaphors of barriers to access to consider the epistemic and pedagogical challenges of increasing student heterogeneity in high participation HE systems. The analysis and policy suggestions therefore have relevance for all seeking to support students' HE learning journeys, and policy makers concerned with how best to utilise HE systems as means of furthering social mobility and justice