Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

Descrizione del progetto

The transition to upper secondary school is a crucial stage for individuals' school careers and employment futures. Several empirical studies highlight that in Italy inequalities of social origin in school choice at the end of middle school are particularly strong and that the differences are only partly due to differential educational achievement. Moreover, contrary to what is observed in several European countries where higher levels of aspiration help reduce the disadvantage of foreign pupils in school choice, in Italy pupils of immigrant origin, are doubly disadvantaged because they tend to make even more downward choices than their Italian peers with the same level of achievement and socioeconomic background.
Effective orientation at the end of junior high school thus assumes crucial importance, especially for the weaker social groups, who possess less information and tools to navigate the school system and make informed choices, neither overly ambitious with respect to their abilities and interest profile, nor downward choices. Downward choices, while reducing the pupil's risk of school failure, represent the renunciation of education as an opportunity for social mobility and the dispersion of potential skills/talents for the local area. And it is precisely for the weakest groups that the need for guidance interventions aimed not only at providing information regarding existing opportunities, but also at helping young people understand their aptitudes and interests, and identify the most appropriate school or training path.
The explicit goal of school guidance activities is to provide the appropriate tools to make an informed choice, so as to help each student choose the best school path, and minimize the risk of failure and dropout. Reducing social inequalities in education, on the other hand, is not a goal of school guidance and is rarely linked to it. Nevertheless, because of the very strong inequalities in our country, reflecting on the role played by guidance in countering the reproduction of social inequalities is of great interest. The Val_Orienta research project aims to investigate this relationship, with reference to the case study of activities conducted in the City of Turin.
More specifically, the original main objective of this research project was to evaluate the causal impact of a secondary school choice orientation or vocational training intervention proposed on an experimental basis to five high-critical middle schools in the city of Turin ("5-school pathway"). The intervention, implemented in the fall of 2017 by the COSP (Centro Orientamento Scolastico Professionale - School and Vocational Guidance Center) of the City of Turin, in collaboration with Città Metropolitana and Obiettivo Orientamento of the Piedmont Region, aimed to respond to the need detected in the territory - and in particular in schools with a high density of pupils of immigrant origin and disadvantaged social groups - for actions aimed at providing the necessary tools to make an informed and informed choice. The intervention consisted of several meetings aimed at informing children about the existing opportunities, but also and above all to help them identify the most appropriate educational path, leveraging their activation in defining their interests and aptitudes, and also involving parents and teachers.
The research hypothesis that motivated the research was that a school orientation that induces individual students to reflect on themselves, to become more aware of their personal aptitudes and interests, can foster autonomous decisions untethered from the social influence of parents and peers, and possibly help disadvantaged students gain confidence in themselves, their abilities, and their potential for success.
The research project thus had as its focus the evaluation of the causal impact with a counterfactual approach of the Choice Education Pathway called "5 schools" on social inequalities in choices after eighth grade and on outcomes in the first year of high school (so as to assess whether any increase in ambition by some social group resulted in worse outcomes).To support this objective, we also developed a quantitative analysis of school choice in the entire Turin area, in order to analyze in depth the general context in which the guidance intervention operates, also with a view to its possible reshaping and extension to other schools. Moreover, we conducted in-depth interviews with pupils involved in the "5 schools pathway," aimed at shedding light on the processes of choice and the role of the guidance pathway, and with the guidance counselors who conducted the intervention, in order to better understand its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the interactions between the different actors involved.

Risultati e pubblicazioni

Borgna C., Contini D., Pinna Pintor S., Ricucci R., Vigna N. (2022) Old habits die hard? School guidance interventions and the persistence of inequalities, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, vol 81

Borgna C., Contini D. (2021) Despite the Best Intentions. Educational Inequalities in Highly Stratified but Choice-Driven Tracking Systems, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the Journal Scuola Democratica, “Reinventing Education” Volume II Learning with New Technologies, Equality and Inclusion

Borgna C., Contini D. (2019) Divided we stand? Immigrants’ and natives’ decision making processes at first tracking in Italy, Proceeding of the First International Conference of the Journal Scuola Democratica, Vol 1, Politics, Citizenship, Diversity and Inclusion, 5-8 June 2019, Cagliari, Italy