Publish at June 05 2024 Updated June 05 2024
Guiding a student through his or her school career is not a task to be taken lightly, as poor guidance can hinder the future adult's development. Despite this reality, for a long time guidance was based on social criteria that left learners with virtually no career choices. Fortunately, the democratization and reform of the school system have changed all that, making the guidance system more flexible, even if a number of factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic to the student, influence the teaching staff's choice of career direction.
In other words, there are socio-cultural factors such as social origin and gender, as well as strictly academic factors such as results and attitude in class, which all play a part in guiding the student's career choice.
Audrey Farcy, being well-informed on this subject, proposes in her Master's thesis to question the influence of these factors in the judgment of the teaching profession. The title of her thesis is revealing: "Orientation subie, orientation choisie: dans quelle mesure les facteurs extérieurs jouant un rôle dans le processus d'orientation de l'élève influence-ils le jugement du corps enseignant?" (Undergone orientation, chosen orientation: to what extent do external factors playing a role in the student's orientation process influence the teaching staff's judgment?
To help answer this question, the researcher begins with a hook that acts as a springboard. Next, she presents the socio-cultural factors likely to influence supervisors. Finally, she identifies the field of investigation and presents the research findings.
At the outset of her presentation, the author of this research work lifts the veil on the semantic content of the notion of "orientation". She defines it as "the set of social, psychosocial and psychological processes through which students are assigned to certain training streams rather than others".
Audrey Farcy goes on to justify the choice of this theme by pointing out that some learners, especially those from vocational education backgrounds, tend to have a difficult time with their educational orientation. This is because of the social label attached to this category of learners: students with academic difficulties. Such a pejorative categorization not only affects the student's self-esteem, but also makes the guidance process a source of anxiety and constraint, and above all a reinforcement of social inequalities, whereas guidance should be based on criteria such as the learner's skills. But there's every reason to believe that it goes beyond this, since school choice is the result of a combination of "individual freedom", "objective constraints" and "social structures". This reality offers a number of possibilities for analyzing this theme, including socio-cultural factors.
The factor that tops the list is gender. Here, the gendered division of labor in France, and in most countries around the world, forms the basis of educational and even vocational guidance. According to Unesco, there are female-dominated fields such as teaching, health, communications, arts and letters, and male-dominated fields such as architecture, maths and transport.
In addition to gender, it's important to note social background. In fact, unconsciously, parents' professions and level of education tend to influence students. As a result, "91% of teachers' children and 88% of executives' children obtain the baccalauréat, compared with less than 50% of blue-collar workers' children. What's more, 29% of blue-collar children have a CAP or BEP diploma, while only 5% of teachers' and executives' children do" (Racine B, 2OO8:12).
Apart from gender and social origin, the people around them play a major role in the choice of professional career, insofar as their negative opinions on their profession, for example, are warning signals for young people in search of their own path.
Far from being an irrelevant question, career choice is driven by the desire to assert one's social identity in relation to the group. In reality, it's nothing more than a quest for recognition. In a particularly difficult economic climate, the spectre of unemployment haunts people's minds, prompting them to opt for courses that reassure rather than excite them.
In order to carry out her study, the researcher had to determine an anchor point.
Audrey Farcy is conducting her study in a general and technological high school located in the sensitive area of the city of Angers. Her field of study is second-year classes X and Y. There were 5 students in seconde X and 4 in seconde Y. As for the teachers, Audrey Farcy is interested in 8 teachers from Seconde D and E.
Through direct and participatory observation, the researcher was able to collect the data needed to analyze the influence of external factors, particularly academic and extracurricular, on the students' orientation process, by taking part in class councils. At the end of the day, it produces results.
To conclude her study, the researcher arrives at the following conclusions:
In conclusion, the guidance process is based on social and academic criteria. This requires a good knowledge of the child and his or her family environment. From a personal point of view, however, if there's one thing that has struck me throughout my reading of this work, it's the stereotyping of vocational streams. Students should be taught that all trades are equal, and that no matter what trade you're in, the most important thing is to be useful to society and satisfied with what you're doing.
Illustration: Stockrojoverdeyazul - DepositPhotos
Reference
Farcy Audrey, 2028, "Orientation choisie, orientation subie: dans quelle mesure les facteurs extérieurs jouant un rôle dans le processus d'orientation de l'élève influencent-ils le jugement du corps enseignant?", Education, online https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01809181
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