The double uncertainty. Trajectories and professional identityin changing contexts

People do not live in fixed, immutable contexts; neither are their life-trajectories uniform. On the contrary, people experience discontinuities, breaks and transitions at various points in their lives, including their professional lives. The fundamental requirement for a transition is a social and cultural relocation, accompanied by the challenging, reworking or abandoning of former valid identities, routines and representations of reality. The construct of transition can be usefully applied to the study of professional trajectories, by offering a perspective that takes into account the dynamicity and uncertainty imposed by the change in professional practices, not just on the activities that take place in professional contexts, but also on the definition/redefinition/negotiation of individual professional identity. This paper suggests an intrinsic ‘‘dual uncertainty’’ of both the context and the individual during the change processes of professional trajectories. The paper provides a complementary outlook to the points raised in Daniels’ (2011) article on the mutual shaping of human action and institutional settings. Taking Daniels’ approach as a basis, it is possible to broaden the analysis of professional trajectories within rapidly-changing occupational settings, by adopting a perspective that takes into account the inherent open-ended nature of socio-cultural phenomena, the fluidity of living contexts, the permeability of the boundaries within which transitions take place and trajectories evolve, as well as the impact of these aspects on professional identity and on its role in processes of change

The work of schooling

The communication process between the school and home is a universal relation that is crucial for cultural organization of human development. Through the balcony metaphor, the chapter outlines how the school is a place in between, a border constantly interfaced with both internal aspects (practices, discourses and different actors) and the wider sociocultural climate. The school balcony, as a border zone, is an area of contact with other relevant educational settings. By standing on the balcony and by adopting a binocular-type vision focused inside and outside school, this contribution explores the many processes implied in the work of schooling, moving from the role played by the socio-economic and cultural dimensions, passing through the analysis of intersectional points with other educational contexts (such as family-school meetings), arriving at the definition of identity in the school (the suggested Educational Self notion). The choice to “be” on the school balcony, even if it’s an uncomfortable position, allows one to assume a perspective where one is able to grasp the inherent dynamism of the boundary phenomena

Contesti educativi e punti di intersezione: gli incontri scuola-famiglia

Il presente contributo ha come oggetto di analisi gli incontri scuola-famiglia. Tali eventi, configurandosi come veri e propri punti di intersezione tra contesti di vita, permettono di evidenziare la complessità e la varietà di articolazioni delle dinamiche interpersonali messe in atto dagli attori coinvolti (genitori, docenti, allievi). Da un punto di vista sistemico e culturale la cerimonia di “consegna dei giudizi scolastici” può essere definita come l’occasione in cui si rendono visibili le connessioni mesosistemiche tra il microcontesto famiglia e il microcontesto scuola (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). In questo capitolo, si è focalizzata l’attenzione sulle differenti “percezioni” possedute da genitori e docenti degli esiti dei processi educativi e sulle modalità con cui vengono negoziati, durante l’interazione discorsiva, i differenti punti di vista sull’educazione, sulla scuola e sulla relazione con il figlio/allievo

Hariduse varjatud mõjuväljad: pilk nurgatagustesse

Suur osa koolis ja lasteaedades omandatavast haridusest jõuab lasteni kõrvaliste kohtade ehk selliste paikade kaudu, mis asuvad küll haridusasutuste territooriumil, kuid ei ole otseselt õppetegevuseks ette nähtud. Samas puutuvad kõik kooliskäijad nendega oma igapäevaste toimetuste käigus tahes-tahtmata kokku. Hiina lasteaedades ja koolides saadud etnograafilisele kogemusele toetudes analüüsime hariva sisuga semiootiliselt kodeeritud salakirja õppeasutuste sissepääsude, koridoride ja trepikodade seintel ning sellistele kõrvalistele kohtadele seatud eesmärke. Näitame, et selline kodeerimine viib keskkonna kultuurilise organiseerituse täiuseni, mille puhul muutuvad otsesed hariva suunitlusega sõnumid üleliigseks.  Full tex

Analisi dei contesti di vita: prospettive psicologico-culturali

Lo studio dei processi evolutivi oggi si va sempre più caratterizzando per un’attenzione volta alla comprensione della relazioni dinamiche che intercorrono tra la persona e i diversi contesti di vita in cui la crescita si realizza. Questo approccio allo studio dello sviluppo umano focalizza l’attenzione sulla relazionale persona-contesto all’interno di un preciso ambito storico-culturale. Negli ultimi decenni, difatti, si è consolidata una prospettiva “multidimensionale” che considera essenziali, nella definizione delle traiettorie evolutive, le caratteristiche dell’individuo, quelle dell’ambiente e le modalità di partecipazione alle reti di relazioni nei diversi contesti di vita. In altre parole oggi, più che in passato, si riconosce una chiara interdipendenza fra fattori di tipo “individuale” e le condizioni “socio-ambientali” nella spiegazione dello sviluppo umano

Educational Self. A fruitful idea?

The school is the first and one of the most significant experiences in the individual's life outside the family. It is thus not exaggeration to say that the history of educational experiences plays a crucial role in the construction of the Self (Bruner, 1996). Every educational institution is the expression of a given culture and will tend to transmit, reproduce and cultivate knowledge, beliefs, norms of conduct and even emotions on the basis of which students interpret the natural and social world. Even the idea of Self, with its limits and characteristics, is typical of a given culture. School therefore contributes to the formation of the student's Self in such a way as to fit with the cultural requirements: for instance, the emphasis on the values of individuality rather than affiliation, the role of agency and individual effort rather than cooperation, etc. (Bruner, 1996). This is the starting point of the reflection that led to the idea of Educational Self, introduced and theoretically developed in this chapter, considered as a specific dimension of the Self, a regulatory process emerging from the experiencing of the I-Other relationship (Bakhtin, 1986) in the educational context (Iannaccone & Marsico, 2007). Twentieth century psychology has often adopted the Self and the Identity as important objects of study (Holland & Lachicotte, 2007). The relationship between Self and Identity, their development, stability and consistency and their nature of social and cultural objects have been stressed from different perspectives by Baldwin (1898), Erikson (1980), Mead (1934) and Hermans (1996) to mention but a few authors. Although these scholars have provided different definitions of Self and Identity, considering them sometimes as separated entities and sometimes as synonyms, some shared ideas can be understood as basic dimensions of the Self. First, the Self is a sense of consistency and awareness, a process rather than an “entity” located somewhere “inside” the person. Second, the Self is related to the symbolic nature and the semiotic activity of human beings. With respect to the social experiences of the individual, the Self can be considered an dynamical organisation of the various identities of the person. These identities are made up of an internalised set of meanings, knowledge, concepts, beliefs attached to the person's role in the network of social relationships in a given context and at a given moment of his/her life (Stryker, Owens, & White, 2000; Tajfel, 1981). Starting from these general remarks, we will now focus on a specific topic: the socio-genesis of Self, the relevance of school experiences in the emergence of Self and the contribution of these experiences to the definition of lifespan identity