SlideShare a Scribd company logo
1 of 25
Observatory of Childhood, Youth and Youth Foster Care
Hardship and End of the Tunnel
Luxembourg, 9th and 10th july 2015
Tackling early school leaving and promoting success in
school
Michel Vandekeere
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
2
Plan
• Hardship: What can be learned from listening to
NEET’s?
 Method
 Lessons
 Recommendations
• End of the tunnel: Unlikely Routes
 Method
 Objectives
 Lessons
 Recommendations
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
3
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Method (1)
• Starting from the point of view of young people concerned
• The most vulnerable young people: disengaged / discouraged
• Reality as they experience it and reality as other people see it:
testimonies
• Objective: to better understand ...
• ... initial circumstances, routes, coping strategies, social
resources - interpersonal and institutional -, network, meaning,
activities
• Identify the factors that increase or otherwise neutralize
vulnerabilities
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
4
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Method (2)
• Participatory qualitative survey
• Mixed sample
• 31 young people aged 18 to 30 years
• Neither in employment, education or training
• For at least one year
• Interviewed between February 15 and June 28, 2013
• By a not-for-profit organization (RTA, Namur)
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
5
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Lessons (1)
• Young people met are not "disabled" but over-
occupied by the necessities of survival
(-> Extract)
• They suffer lasting disrepute because of the dominant
representations: stigmatisation
• They struggle against the effects of disaffiliation and
de-subjectivation (formatted rather than trained)
• The difficulties of integration and inclusion alternate,
mutually reinforcing each other with cumulative effects
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
6
Unoccupied?
• "It's running all the time, all the time; I always have to go
introduce myself, do that; and next to that, I have FOREM
(employment agency). At first I had the municipality, health
insurance ... And when you have to go from left to right, they,
they think we will not come ... But we on the one hand, we also
have our life, one also has things to do. It's like the district
officer: I had to see for my furniture, I had to see the CPAS
(social services agency), I had to go to FOREM, to health
insurance agency, to the municipality; then the district officer I
missed him and what happened is that, finally, he believed that
I did not live there, so when he came, he was a bit .. . it was a
bit there .... They believe that we are all the time available to
them. We also have a life beside. " Manu
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
7
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Lessons (2)
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
8
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Lessons (3)
• Position 1: integration +/inclusion +
• Position 2: integration -/ inclusion +
• Position 3: integration +/ inclusion -: vulnerability
• Position 4: integration -/ inclusion -: disaffiliation (loss of rights)
• Process oriented analysis : better able to account for very
busy « inactivity »
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
9
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Lessons (4)
Aggravating factors:
 Logic of optimal activation: inadequate
 Symbolic violence: degradation of self-image,
contamination, disruption of the subject with his actions,
alienating effects ...
•  Alternative Intervention Model for professionals
•  Changes to structural policies: badly needed
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
10
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Recommandations (1)
• The singularity of situations requires proper
individualized help: to listen to and build custom
solutions
• Recognize and take into account the activity of NEETs
• Recognize and support social inclusion efforts of
young people who go through other channels than
work or training in the formal system
• Basic support: access to housing, income
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
11
What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?
Recommandations (2)
• Provide actors (including in schools) with adequate
tools for “empowering” young people and make them
more familiar with their rights and the rules prevailing
in the institutions, including those of employment
assistance
• Promote links between the various help and
assistance agencies
• Support lifelong learning associations
(multidimensional accompaniment)
• Challenge the overall ideology of the activation policy
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
12
Unlikely Routes?
• Trajectory correction
• Survivors of (social) fate
• Unlikely routes
• (significant) positive inflections
• • ... and "supporting devices"
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
13
Unlikely Routes: Which Youth?
• N = 30
• [19-30 years]
• Supported by various "devices" in three “sectors/areas”:
• Extracurricular (School Persistence Services, Help Center to access
to higher education, Alternate Learning Centres...)
• Socio-professional integration (On-the-job Training Enterprises,
accompaniment by Public Centres for Social Welfare, ...)
• Socio-cultural (Youth Centers, Open Educational Support, Youth
Organizations ...)
• Interviewed by researchers in sociology (Girsef-UCL)
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
14
Unlikely routes: Method
• Identification via relays people in the three types of support
devices
• Life stories: retrospective survey
• Analysis:
• Tension between subjective and objective dimension: ex. : Speech of
individual merit versus luck factor
• Importance of the temporal dimension (tracking, process): ex. :
Typical configuration "biographical parenthesis promoting reflexivity"
• Joints and overlap between spheres of life (school, family,
professional, ...): ex. : Reconstruction of the network of friends
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
15
Unlikely Routes: Strengths and limitations
• The own view of the interested parties (youth)
• ... invited to look back
• Experience lived, but written into singular social
constraints
• Who should not be taken for ...
• .... A diagnosis of the devices which supported them
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
16
Unlikely Routes: Objectives
• Identify the levers that contributed to a significant
positive change in trajectory
• Make assumptions about the success factors and
success conditions of supporting “devices”
• Imagine ways for disseminating such testimonies to
professionals and young people.
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
17
Unlikely Routes: What we learned?
• Plurality of routes and of experiences through the supporting
devices
• Plurality of levers on which young people can build: hence
sometimes unexpected effects
• Young people tend to individualize (even psychologize)
success factors:
• Individual or interpersonal frame of reference rather than a collective
or political one
• Motivation, work on oneself, supportive entourage ...
• Relations with other beneficiaries of the device: less important to
young people (but variable according to type device)
• Reflection of the prevailing representation of the contemporary
individual: sovereign individual, who believes to be the author of his
own life (Ehrenberg).
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
18
Unlikely Routes: Three Logics of Action
• Integration logic: social norms, at school or at work: relation
to work, punctuality, responsibility
• Strategic Resource Acquisition Logic: professional
experience, academic capital, useful skills, specific or
crosscutting, useful relationships (social capital), information
about the functioning of public institutions (wellfare assistance,
employment agency, social housing ...), the educational
system or the work market
• Subjectivation Logic: self-confidence, self-image (correction
of the previous negative image), working on oneself (better
knowing oneself, finding out what one likes, what one wants to
do, taking stock, failure mourning process, exploring one’s
potential,…), opening oneself, discovering another world than
the family or the neighborhood, self-expression
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
19
Unlikely Routes: Three Typical Configurations (1)
• Substitute to family
 Effect: secure and stable environment
 Effect: severing of family ties
 Effect (paradoxical): dependance, difficulty to cut ties
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
20
Unlikely Routes: Three Typical Configurations (2)
• Biographical Parenthesis Promoting Reflexivity
 Effect: self-confidence: break the grip of stigma
 Effect: renegotiating and sieving prior social ties
 Effect: taking responsibility
 Effect: shift (concrete testing of new latent preferences)
 Effect of the trip as a resource for independence (ie being
capable of)
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
21
Unlikely Routes: Three Typical Configurations (3)
• Equip to Fill a Gap or Alleviate a Failure
 Effect: taking charge of a specific problem (repair of a
biographical fault)
 Effect: dedramatization
 Rebound effect (temporary fault)
• • & Hybrid Configurations: Alternate Learning
Centres, School Persistence Services, Training
Centers, Housing support...
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
22
Unlikely Routes: Levers (1)
• Trigger event that initiates or activates a de-centering
from oneself (hammer blow on the head)
 Take charge of one’s own life and take control
 Mirror effect: awareness of one’s own passivity
 Switch to adulthood
• The chance, luck
• The importance of the state of mind on arrival in the
device (alignment between supply and demand)
• Charisma and moral authority of social workers
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
23
Unlikely Routes: Levers (2)
• Key role of others: social workers, the peer group, the
entourage of young people
• Protected confrontation to real life scenarios
• One rarely changes things only for oneself but for
others: to prove something, to prove them wrong, that
they be proud of us
• Self-constrain: act according to what they have
learned to value and consider as important
• Having objective integration chances
• Adhere to the meritocratic ideology?
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
24
Unlikely Routes: Recommendations
• Motivation: a pseudo-lever
• Identify what helps create and maintain motivation: ie
experiment a success in a protected area
• Promote the presence of the three logics in each
device
• The relational competence, a key asset
• Reaching young people who could benefit from some
devices but are not yet involved
• Question: How to put the young in capacity to solicit
and accept the intervention of a device?
09/07/2015
Tackling Early School Leaving
…
25
NEETs & Unlikely Routes : Next
• To find out more:
• Qu’ont à nous apprendre les NEET’s?
• http://www.oejaj.cfwb.be/index.php?id=11412
• Parcours improbables: trente jeunes témoignent
• http://www.oejaj.cfwb.be/index.php?id=10248
• Valorisation vidéo des parcours improbables:
• http://www.oejaj.cfwb.be/index.php?id=12371
• Ongoing Research:
• Le non-recours aux droits et aux services d’éducation et de
formation des jeunes âgés de 15 à 24 ans en Fédération
Wallonie-Bruxelles : réalités et leviers

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (6)

15 ans Jeunesse
15 ans Jeunesse15 ans Jeunesse
15 ans Jeunesse
 
Ra oejaj 2012_ca03
Ra oejaj 2012_ca03Ra oejaj 2012_ca03
Ra oejaj 2012_ca03
 
Amd education citoyenné_oejaj
Amd education citoyenné_oejajAmd education citoyenné_oejaj
Amd education citoyenné_oejaj
 
Information des jeunes en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Information des jeunes en Fédération Wallonie-BruxellesInformation des jeunes en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Information des jeunes en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
 
Présentation THEMA - Evaluation des politiques publiques
Présentation THEMA - Evaluation des politiques publiquesPrésentation THEMA - Evaluation des politiques publiques
Présentation THEMA - Evaluation des politiques publiques
 
Esquisse de parcours d'une génération en IPPJ
Esquisse de parcours d'une génération en IPPJEsquisse de parcours d'une génération en IPPJ
Esquisse de parcours d'une génération en IPPJ
 

Similar to Neets&parcours improbables gdl_tacklingearlyschoolleaving_20150709

Every Child Matters Presentation
Every Child Matters PresentationEvery Child Matters Presentation
Every Child Matters PresentationMMUSecondary
 
Imagine if.... the future?.pdf
Imagine if.... the future?.pdfImagine if.... the future?.pdf
Imagine if.... the future?.pdfDerek Wenmoth
 
A guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying preventionA guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying preventionEDITHA HONRADEZ
 
A guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying preventionA guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying preventionEDITHA HONRADEZ
 
Managing Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital Literacy
Managing Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital LiteracyManaging Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital Literacy
Managing Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital LiteracySamantha Oakley
 
Blandford 7 presentation
Blandford 7 presentationBlandford 7 presentation
Blandford 7 presentationtblandford91
 
Role of education in socialization of child
Role of education in socialization of childRole of education in socialization of child
Role of education in socialization of childDrPritiSonar
 
Bystander Intervention for Middle Schoolers
Bystander Intervention for Middle SchoolersBystander Intervention for Middle Schoolers
Bystander Intervention for Middle SchoolersJuliette Verrengia
 
Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS & GUIDANCE OFF...
Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS  & GUIDANCE OFF...Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS  & GUIDANCE OFF...
Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS & GUIDANCE OFF...Kerry O'Brien
 
Community service projects
Community service projectsCommunity service projects
Community service projectsTricia Larsen
 
Future of youth work 4 june 2015
Future of youth work 4 june 2015Future of youth work 4 june 2015
Future of youth work 4 june 2015robertk6220
 
Disability Awareness by SKEP
Disability Awareness by SKEPDisability Awareness by SKEP
Disability Awareness by SKEPCitizen Network
 
Donna cross
Donna crossDonna cross
Donna crossi4ppis
 

Similar to Neets&parcours improbables gdl_tacklingearlyschoolleaving_20150709 (20)

Every Child Matters Presentation
Every Child Matters PresentationEvery Child Matters Presentation
Every Child Matters Presentation
 
Imagine if.... the future?.pdf
Imagine if.... the future?.pdfImagine if.... the future?.pdf
Imagine if.... the future?.pdf
 
revo6
revo6revo6
revo6
 
A guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying preventionA guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying prevention
 
A guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying preventionA guide to bullying prevention
A guide to bullying prevention
 
Managing Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital Literacy
Managing Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital LiteracyManaging Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital Literacy
Managing Your Online Presence - Promoting Digital Literacy
 
Blandford 7 presentation
Blandford 7 presentationBlandford 7 presentation
Blandford 7 presentation
 
Fast Forward
Fast ForwardFast Forward
Fast Forward
 
Education for Social Justice: Issues and Failures
Education for Social Justice: Issues and FailuresEducation for Social Justice: Issues and Failures
Education for Social Justice: Issues and Failures
 
Essay About School
Essay About SchoolEssay About School
Essay About School
 
Role of education in socialization of child
Role of education in socialization of childRole of education in socialization of child
Role of education in socialization of child
 
Bystander Intervention for Middle Schoolers
Bystander Intervention for Middle SchoolersBystander Intervention for Middle Schoolers
Bystander Intervention for Middle Schoolers
 
Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS & GUIDANCE OFF...
Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS  & GUIDANCE OFF...Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS  & GUIDANCE OFF...
Lawsense Conference 2015: DUTY OF CARE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELLORS & GUIDANCE OFF...
 
The ethics of (not) knowing our students
The ethics of (not) knowing our studentsThe ethics of (not) knowing our students
The ethics of (not) knowing our students
 
Community service projects
Community service projectsCommunity service projects
Community service projects
 
Future of youth work 4 june 2015
Future of youth work 4 june 2015Future of youth work 4 june 2015
Future of youth work 4 june 2015
 
Module1.culture[1]
Module1.culture[1]Module1.culture[1]
Module1.culture[1]
 
Disability Awareness by SKEP
Disability Awareness by SKEPDisability Awareness by SKEP
Disability Awareness by SKEP
 
Donna cross
Donna crossDonna cross
Donna cross
 
Division Meeting - Meeting Generation Z, Keith Ellis - January 2017
Division Meeting - Meeting Generation Z, Keith Ellis - January 2017Division Meeting - Meeting Generation Z, Keith Ellis - January 2017
Division Meeting - Meeting Generation Z, Keith Ellis - January 2017
 

Neets&parcours improbables gdl_tacklingearlyschoolleaving_20150709

  • 1. Observatory of Childhood, Youth and Youth Foster Care Hardship and End of the Tunnel Luxembourg, 9th and 10th july 2015 Tackling early school leaving and promoting success in school Michel Vandekeere
  • 2. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 2 Plan • Hardship: What can be learned from listening to NEET’s?  Method  Lessons  Recommendations • End of the tunnel: Unlikely Routes  Method  Objectives  Lessons  Recommendations
  • 3. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 3 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Method (1) • Starting from the point of view of young people concerned • The most vulnerable young people: disengaged / discouraged • Reality as they experience it and reality as other people see it: testimonies • Objective: to better understand ... • ... initial circumstances, routes, coping strategies, social resources - interpersonal and institutional -, network, meaning, activities • Identify the factors that increase or otherwise neutralize vulnerabilities
  • 4. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 4 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Method (2) • Participatory qualitative survey • Mixed sample • 31 young people aged 18 to 30 years • Neither in employment, education or training • For at least one year • Interviewed between February 15 and June 28, 2013 • By a not-for-profit organization (RTA, Namur)
  • 5. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 5 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Lessons (1) • Young people met are not "disabled" but over- occupied by the necessities of survival (-> Extract) • They suffer lasting disrepute because of the dominant representations: stigmatisation • They struggle against the effects of disaffiliation and de-subjectivation (formatted rather than trained) • The difficulties of integration and inclusion alternate, mutually reinforcing each other with cumulative effects
  • 6. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 6 Unoccupied? • "It's running all the time, all the time; I always have to go introduce myself, do that; and next to that, I have FOREM (employment agency). At first I had the municipality, health insurance ... And when you have to go from left to right, they, they think we will not come ... But we on the one hand, we also have our life, one also has things to do. It's like the district officer: I had to see for my furniture, I had to see the CPAS (social services agency), I had to go to FOREM, to health insurance agency, to the municipality; then the district officer I missed him and what happened is that, finally, he believed that I did not live there, so when he came, he was a bit .. . it was a bit there .... They believe that we are all the time available to them. We also have a life beside. " Manu
  • 7. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 7 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Lessons (2)
  • 8. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 8 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Lessons (3) • Position 1: integration +/inclusion + • Position 2: integration -/ inclusion + • Position 3: integration +/ inclusion -: vulnerability • Position 4: integration -/ inclusion -: disaffiliation (loss of rights) • Process oriented analysis : better able to account for very busy « inactivity »
  • 9. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 9 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Lessons (4) Aggravating factors:  Logic of optimal activation: inadequate  Symbolic violence: degradation of self-image, contamination, disruption of the subject with his actions, alienating effects ... •  Alternative Intervention Model for professionals •  Changes to structural policies: badly needed
  • 10. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 10 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Recommandations (1) • The singularity of situations requires proper individualized help: to listen to and build custom solutions • Recognize and take into account the activity of NEETs • Recognize and support social inclusion efforts of young people who go through other channels than work or training in the formal system • Basic support: access to housing, income
  • 11. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 11 What can be learned from listening to NEET’s? Recommandations (2) • Provide actors (including in schools) with adequate tools for “empowering” young people and make them more familiar with their rights and the rules prevailing in the institutions, including those of employment assistance • Promote links between the various help and assistance agencies • Support lifelong learning associations (multidimensional accompaniment) • Challenge the overall ideology of the activation policy
  • 12. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 12 Unlikely Routes? • Trajectory correction • Survivors of (social) fate • Unlikely routes • (significant) positive inflections • • ... and "supporting devices"
  • 13. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 13 Unlikely Routes: Which Youth? • N = 30 • [19-30 years] • Supported by various "devices" in three “sectors/areas”: • Extracurricular (School Persistence Services, Help Center to access to higher education, Alternate Learning Centres...) • Socio-professional integration (On-the-job Training Enterprises, accompaniment by Public Centres for Social Welfare, ...) • Socio-cultural (Youth Centers, Open Educational Support, Youth Organizations ...) • Interviewed by researchers in sociology (Girsef-UCL)
  • 14. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 14 Unlikely routes: Method • Identification via relays people in the three types of support devices • Life stories: retrospective survey • Analysis: • Tension between subjective and objective dimension: ex. : Speech of individual merit versus luck factor • Importance of the temporal dimension (tracking, process): ex. : Typical configuration "biographical parenthesis promoting reflexivity" • Joints and overlap between spheres of life (school, family, professional, ...): ex. : Reconstruction of the network of friends
  • 15. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 15 Unlikely Routes: Strengths and limitations • The own view of the interested parties (youth) • ... invited to look back • Experience lived, but written into singular social constraints • Who should not be taken for ... • .... A diagnosis of the devices which supported them
  • 16. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 16 Unlikely Routes: Objectives • Identify the levers that contributed to a significant positive change in trajectory • Make assumptions about the success factors and success conditions of supporting “devices” • Imagine ways for disseminating such testimonies to professionals and young people.
  • 17. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 17 Unlikely Routes: What we learned? • Plurality of routes and of experiences through the supporting devices • Plurality of levers on which young people can build: hence sometimes unexpected effects • Young people tend to individualize (even psychologize) success factors: • Individual or interpersonal frame of reference rather than a collective or political one • Motivation, work on oneself, supportive entourage ... • Relations with other beneficiaries of the device: less important to young people (but variable according to type device) • Reflection of the prevailing representation of the contemporary individual: sovereign individual, who believes to be the author of his own life (Ehrenberg).
  • 18. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 18 Unlikely Routes: Three Logics of Action • Integration logic: social norms, at school or at work: relation to work, punctuality, responsibility • Strategic Resource Acquisition Logic: professional experience, academic capital, useful skills, specific or crosscutting, useful relationships (social capital), information about the functioning of public institutions (wellfare assistance, employment agency, social housing ...), the educational system or the work market • Subjectivation Logic: self-confidence, self-image (correction of the previous negative image), working on oneself (better knowing oneself, finding out what one likes, what one wants to do, taking stock, failure mourning process, exploring one’s potential,…), opening oneself, discovering another world than the family or the neighborhood, self-expression
  • 19. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 19 Unlikely Routes: Three Typical Configurations (1) • Substitute to family  Effect: secure and stable environment  Effect: severing of family ties  Effect (paradoxical): dependance, difficulty to cut ties
  • 20. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 20 Unlikely Routes: Three Typical Configurations (2) • Biographical Parenthesis Promoting Reflexivity  Effect: self-confidence: break the grip of stigma  Effect: renegotiating and sieving prior social ties  Effect: taking responsibility  Effect: shift (concrete testing of new latent preferences)  Effect of the trip as a resource for independence (ie being capable of)
  • 21. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 21 Unlikely Routes: Three Typical Configurations (3) • Equip to Fill a Gap or Alleviate a Failure  Effect: taking charge of a specific problem (repair of a biographical fault)  Effect: dedramatization  Rebound effect (temporary fault) • • & Hybrid Configurations: Alternate Learning Centres, School Persistence Services, Training Centers, Housing support...
  • 22. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 22 Unlikely Routes: Levers (1) • Trigger event that initiates or activates a de-centering from oneself (hammer blow on the head)  Take charge of one’s own life and take control  Mirror effect: awareness of one’s own passivity  Switch to adulthood • The chance, luck • The importance of the state of mind on arrival in the device (alignment between supply and demand) • Charisma and moral authority of social workers
  • 23. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 23 Unlikely Routes: Levers (2) • Key role of others: social workers, the peer group, the entourage of young people • Protected confrontation to real life scenarios • One rarely changes things only for oneself but for others: to prove something, to prove them wrong, that they be proud of us • Self-constrain: act according to what they have learned to value and consider as important • Having objective integration chances • Adhere to the meritocratic ideology?
  • 24. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 24 Unlikely Routes: Recommendations • Motivation: a pseudo-lever • Identify what helps create and maintain motivation: ie experiment a success in a protected area • Promote the presence of the three logics in each device • The relational competence, a key asset • Reaching young people who could benefit from some devices but are not yet involved • Question: How to put the young in capacity to solicit and accept the intervention of a device?
  • 25. 09/07/2015 Tackling Early School Leaving … 25 NEETs & Unlikely Routes : Next • To find out more: • Qu’ont à nous apprendre les NEET’s? • http://www.oejaj.cfwb.be/index.php?id=11412 • Parcours improbables: trente jeunes témoignent • http://www.oejaj.cfwb.be/index.php?id=10248 • Valorisation vidéo des parcours improbables: • http://www.oejaj.cfwb.be/index.php?id=12371 • Ongoing Research: • Le non-recours aux droits et aux services d’éducation et de formation des jeunes âgés de 15 à 24 ans en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles : réalités et leviers

Editor's Notes

  1. Partir du point de vue des jeunes concernés afin de comprendre au mieux la situation qu'ils vivent et la manière dont ils la vivent Jeunes qui présentent la plus grande vulnérabilité, c'est-à-dire les jeunes qui disposent, en première analyse, de capitaux culturels, économiques et sociaux plus faibles et semblent le moins susceptibles de pouvoir sortir facilement, sur base de l'activation rapide de leurs capitaux, de la situation de NEET (Catégorie Eurofound: jeunes qui ne recherchent pas de travail ou de formation et qui ne sont pas obligés d'agir de la sorte en raisons de contraintes ou d'obligations externes. Entrent dans cette catégorie les jeunes découragés par le marché du travail aussi bien que les jeunes menant une vie dangereuse ou non conforme aux normes sociales L'idée centrale consiste à considérer que ces personnes peuvent mobiliser une attitude réflexive sur leur situation et leur trajectoire et que leur analyse peut mettre à jour des éléments du « flux de la vie » non pris en compte par la réalité telle qu'elle est instituée, notamment par les marchés du travail, de l'enseignement et de la formation – mais aussi du logement- et par les politiques qui contribuent à les produire Objectif: comprendre au mieux la situation qu'ils vivent et la manière dont ils la vivent … circonstances initiales, parcours, stratégies d’adaptation, ressources sociales – interpersonnelles et institutionnelles - , réseau, sens, activités (Cf. canevas d’entretien in rapport RTA) L'objectif est d'identifier, au travers de ces témoignages, les facteurs qui accentuent ou au contraire neutralisent les vulnérabilités engendrées par la situation afin de pouvoir fonder des politiques publiques de soutien qui évitent la stigmatisation ou l’aggravation des vulnérabilités de ces jeunes
  2. enquête qualitative participative auprès d'un échantillon diversifié de 31 jeunes de 18 à 30 ans qui rentrent dans la définition des "NEETs", c'est-à-dire des jeunes qui ne sont ni en emploi, ni aux études, ni en formation, depuis un an au moins, (interrogés entre le 15 février et le 28 juin 2013), réalisée par RTA asbl (réalisation, téléformation, animation).
  3. Lorsqu'ils décrivent leur situation, ce qui l'a produite et ce qu'ils tentent dans ce cadre, les jeunes interrogés nous montrent l'inadéquation des représentations de sens commun à leur égard. Les jeunes rencontrées ne sont en effet pas « désactivés » : les nécessités de leur survie les sur-occupent. Il y a donc un énorme travail à faire sur les représentations dominantes qui opèrent à partir de la catégorie de l'« activation ». Les chercheurs rappellent à cet égard que le mécanisme réel de la stigmatisation - soit le discrédit durable et profond jeté sur une personne ou un groupe, au départ d'un attribut - est très présent dans bien des situations rencontrées. La situation des jeunes rencontrés correspond en fait aux effets d'un processus de désaffiliation qu'ils s'efforcent d'endiguer. Pour le dire en un mot, les processus de désaffiliation observés sont (aussi ?) des processus de désubjectivation : les jeunes se voient dépossédés de leur possibilité d’advenir en tant que sujet. Les trajectoires qui ont été confiées aux chercheurs montrent que les difficultés d'intégration et d'insertion alternent, se renforcent mutuellement, cumulent leurs effets pour constituer cet engrenage de désubjectivation ; bien des personnes interrogées se sont senties par exemple plus formatées que formées et les nouveaux « standards » des politiques sociales (d’insertion ?) et éducatives (soutien au projet individuel, à l'autonomie, à la créativité...) se révèlent bien peu effectifs.
  4. Robert Castel: axe de l’intégration: concerne la possession ou non d’un travail: travailleurs garantis (travail stable et équitablement rémunéré par rapport à leur contribution) versus absence de revenus, même de remplacement ET positions intermédiaires Robert Castel: axe de l’insertion: concerne les solidarités sociales, d’abord familiales, puis celles qui sont liées aux soutiens de réseaux de proximité (quartier, groupes divers...). A l’extrême, nous trouvons la personne isolée en quelque sorte matériellement (affrontant son destin dans la plus grande solitude), mais aussi la personne symboliquement retranchée de la communauté des humains du fait de la présence d’un stigmate qu’elle porte et qui la déconsidère au point qu’elle n’est plus jugée digne d’entrer dans des interactions sociales « normales »
  5. La position 1 désigne ceux dont le droit fondamental au travail est respecté et qui peuvent jouir d’interactions sociales soutenantes ou à tout le moins constitutives d’une identité sociale légitime. La position 2 concerne ceux qui sont confrontés à une situation économique défavorable, mais qui continuent à être soutenus par des solidarités familiales et sociales qui leur permettent de « tenir » au moins provisoirement. Les aides publiques, sous la forme de revenus de remplacement par exemple, constituent un élément-clé qui prévient souvent la dégradation d’autres dimensions de l’existence. La position 3 désigne des situations vulnérables, par exemple lorsqu’un manque de soutien social rend les personnes excessivement fragiles par rapport aux aléas de l’existence, comme un divorce, la maladie d’un enfant... La situation est d’autant plus préoccupante qu’on se trouve plutôt dans une position médiane par rapport à l’axe de l’intégration. La position 4 désigne ceux qui sont soumis à un risque que Castel définit comme celui de la désaffiliation ; nous proposerions volontiers de dire : soumis au risque de la perte de tous les droits qui font de nous des semblables. Un grand intérêt de la pensée de Castel est de nous permettre de réfléchir en termes de processus, qui peuvent de fait se produire dans les deux sens : nous pouvons avoir affaire à des situations qui se dégradent, comme à des situations qui se reconstruisent ou des positions qui se reconquièrent ou à tout le moins s’améliorent. Cette logique « processuelle » rend mieux raison des « vides très remplis » que nous avons découverts dans les premières interviews : nous comprenons les multiples petits combats qui peuvent saturer plus ou moins le quotidien de personnes, comme l’importance des connexions qui peuvent relier une séquence de vie à une autre : qu’adviendra-t-il d’Antoni à la fin de sa séquence « volontariat », les combats « de la dernière chance » d’Océane ou de Théodore seront-ils gagnés ou perdus ?
  6. Les récits recueillis obligent également à évoquer l'existence de facteurs aggravants, agissant au niveau des interactions entre les professionnels et les « bénéficiaires ». Un premier mécanisme isolé dans les récits consiste en une logique d' « optimum activatif » inadéquatement déployée par certains agents. Comme l’écrivent les chercheurs : « Les politiques dites d’« activation » renforcent l’inadéquation de la représentation, puisqu’elles plaquent sur ce vide supposé la fiction d’une absence d’énergie, qu’il appartiendrait aux politiques publiques et aux pratiques professionnelles qu’elles organisent de « stimuler » Un deuxième mécanisme est la mise en œuvre des procédés attribués aux « institutions totales », et qui ont pour effet de détruire l'autonomie culturelle du sujet : dégradation de l'image de soi, contamination, rupture du sujet avec ses actes, effets aliénants... qui peuvent conduire à la mise en œuvre de procédés de destruction culturelle. «  Il faut dès lors réorienter en profondeur la manière dont l’aide individualisée est dispensée. Elle ne doit pas porter sur la vérification que les personnes se sont bien imposé des épreuves d’activation, par ailleurs souvent artificielles voire inadéquates (par rapport à l’articulation des dynamiques d’insertion/intégration). La singularité des situations exige bien une individualisation de l’aide, mais pas sous cette forme. Il devrait plutôt s’agir d’une analyse participante de la réalité de vie des personnes pour étudier avec elles les possibles stratégiques les plus adéquats, ici et maintenant ». Les chercheurs ont donc construit un modèle d'analyse des pratiques d'aide sociale qui pourrait permettre aux agents de se prémunir de la mise en œuvre de tels procédés et ont proposé un modèle alternatif d'intervention pour les agents professionnels, qui s’affranchirait du mélange d'aide et de contrôle dont l'exercice s'impose aux agents. Cette recherche rappelle in fine qu'une plus grande vigilance au niveau des pratiques professionnelles ne suffit pas, loin s'en faut, pour réduire les violences symboliques et plaide pour un changement radical de cap au niveau des politiques structurelles. « C'est le modèle de l'Etat social actif qui doit être ici mis en cause, parce qu'il n'a pas tenu ses promesses de protection sociale plus étendue, plus dynamique et plus individualisée ; au contraire, sa mise en œuvre a consacré une série impressionnante de régressions. »
  7. La singularité des situations exige une individualisation adéquate de l’aide Reconnaître et prendre en compte dans les dispositifs d’accueil et d’accompagnement des jeunes considérés comme « Neets » les actions et activités qu’ils et elles mettent en œuvre au quotidien pour assurer leur survie (cf. témoignage Manu). Abandonner la logique du « projet » individuel dans les dispositifs d’accompagnement pour se mettre réellement à l’écoute des réalités vécues par le jeune et construire avec lui des réponses à ses difficultés, en tenant compte de la dimension collective et sociale de celles-ci. Reconnaître et soutenir les efforts d’insertion sociale des jeunes qui passent par d’autres canaux que le travail ou les formations dans le circuit formel ; ce qui devrait, dans certains cas, conduire à considérer qu’une amélioration en termes d’insertion est plus nécessaire qu’un énième envoi de C.V ou qu’une inscription en formation (cf témoignage Océanne 2). Mettre en place des supports de base pour les jeunes notamment en termes d’accès au logement et des revenus décents.
  8. Equiper les acteurs de l’orientation et de l’accompagnement (y compris en milieu scolaire) afin que les jeunes connaissent mieux leurs droits et les règles prévalant au sein des institutions, notamment celles d’aide à l’emploi (cf. témoignage Océanne 1). Revoir certaines règles à l’œuvre dans les institutions d’aide à l’emploi et d’aide sociale qui créent des zones de non droits pour certaines catégories de jeunes ; favoriser les passerelles entre dispositifs plutôt que les ruptures (l’accès à un dispositif d’aide exclut parfois l’accès à un autre) cf. témoignage Nellie). Soutenir les associations, notamment d’éducation permanente, qui réalisent un accompagnement du jeune dans toutes ses dimensions et lui permettent de développer des compétences et une confiance en soi non directement liées à la mise en emploi. Réinterroger globalement l’idéologie de la politique d’activation