That's not fair! The effects of teacher justice and academic achievement on Self and Other's resistant agency.

BACKGROUND: Notwithstanding the emphasis on the idea that students should be actively and accountably engaged in their educational pathways, little research has investigated learners' agentic behaviours that take the form of student resistance to adult authority. AIMS: This paper presents an experimental study aimed to assess whether, and to what extent, student Self and Other resistant agency depends on perceptions of teacher justice and student achievement. METHODS: Participants were asked to read one of four scenarios concerning a generic student asking for the possibility to retake a test she/he had previously failed, with an experimental design including two levels of teacher justice × 2 levels of academic achievement. Then, they answered two items regarding the likelihood of protest on the part of the student depicted in the scenario and enforced by themselves in having to deal with a similar situation. RESULTS: The multilevel analysis indicated a principal effect of justice and target, with resistant agency rated as more likely in the unjust condition and for the Other. The justice effect was further qualified by an interaction with the achievement level, with resistant agency higher in the unjust and low achievement condition. Finally, a three-way interaction appeared, with Self resistant agency higher in the just and high achievement condition. CONCLUSIONS: These results are discussed in terms of their implications for teacher practices, as they emphasize the importance just learning environments have in allowing students to express their opinions as well as dissent.

Agency and responsibility in adolescent students: A challenge for the societies of tomorrow.

BACKGROUND: The literature in educational psychology converges on the idea that students should take an active and accountable position in their learning processes. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of research that has systematically put the constructs of agency and responsibility at the core of their interests. AIMS: In this study, we explore whether good experiences at school - here conceptualized as the general level of basic needs fulfilment and interpersonal justice - impact on student agency and responsibility, which in turn are considered as possible mediators between a good educational experience and two outcome measures, that is, academic achievement and career decision-making self-efficacy. PARTICIPANTS: The study was held on a sample of 911 high school students equally distributed between males and females. METHOD: Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire comprising six measures assessing students' basic psychological need fulfilment, interpersonal justice, agentic engagement, responsibility for learning, academic achievement, and career decision-making self-efficacy. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Structural equation modelling indicated that basic needs fulfilment positively predicts agency, responsibility, academic achievement, and career decision-making self-efficacy. Interpersonal justice positively predicts responsibility. The indirect effect from basic psychological needs on career decision-making self-efficacy through the mediating effects of student agentic engagement and student responsibility was significant. The indirect effect from interpersonal justice on career decision-making self-efficacy through the mediating effect of student responsibility for learning was significant. These results are commented at the light of their implications for teacher practices, as they emphasize the importance of good experiences at school for promoting in students an active civic sense and a greater accountability.

Microtransitions and the dynamics of family functioning.

This paper presents a qualitative observational study aimed at exploring microtransitions in the relational dynamics of family functioning when the children are adolescents. Three concurrent levels were considered central for family functioning in this period: the acknowledgment of emerging competences, the redefinition of the power structure, and the regulation of interpersonal distances. Twenty-eight non-clinical Italian families with at least one adolescent child were interviewed and video-recorded in their homes. A stance-taking process analysis was carried out on the family interactive sequences arising in the course of the interviews. This analysis was based on the stances taken by all family members in relation to their reciprocal evaluations, positions, and alignments, which allowed us to point out the interlocking of competences, power and distances. Out of all the possible theoretical combinations of these three dimensions, we identified four forms of interaction. In two forms, the emerging changes were not incorporated in the families' interactive repertoires by either reconfirming family stability or resisting family changes. In these ways of interacting competences, power, and distances were not reorganized. In the other two forms, instead, family microtransitions were observable in the extent to which family members either explored family changes or legitimated family reorganizations. In these processes, they could redefine and readdress their ways of interacting.

A sequential analysis of classroom discourse in Italian primary schools: the many faces of the IRF pattern.

BACKGROUND: A sequential analysis of classroom discourse is needed to investigate the conditions under which the triadic initiation-response-feedback (IRF) pattern may host different teaching orientations. AIM: The purpose of the study is twofold: first, to describe the characteristics of classroom discourse and, second, to identify and explore the different interactive sequences that can be captured with a sequential statistical analysis. METHOD: Twelve whole-class activities were video recorded in three Italian primary schools. We observed classroom interaction as it occurs naturally on an everyday basis. In total, we collected 587 min of video recordings. Subsequently, 828 triadic IRF patterns were extracted from this material and analysed with the programme Generalized Sequential Query (GSEQ). RESULTS: The results indicate that classroom discourse may unfold in different ways. In particular, we identified and described four types of sequences. Dialogic sequences were triggered by authentic questions, and continued through further relaunches. Monologic sequences were directed to fulfil the teachers' pre-determined didactic purposes. Co-constructive sequences fostered deduction, reasoning, and thinking. Scaffolding sequences helped and sustained children with difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: The application of sequential analyses allowed us to show that interactive sequences may account for a variety of meanings, thus making a significant contribution to the literature and research practice in classroom discourse.

Family microtransitions: observing the process of change in families with adolescent children.

The aim of the study is to explore the process of microtransitions in families with adolescent children. Original methodological procedures were designed in order to have families as the objects of study and to analyze data with particular attention to the family process of change. A family interview focused on the adolescent and family change was conducted with 12 families having an adolescent child. As indicators of change, we used coordination and oscillation. Our results highlight different patterns of family interactions, illustrating various ways through which families deal with change. Conclusive remarks focus on the theoretical relevance of the study, the method and the implications for family practice and policy.