ZEBO: Collaborating with socio-economically disadvantaged parents in vocational orientation
Parents and guardians are the most important reference persons for many young people in phases of professional orientation. Nevertheless, decisive inequalities and uncertainties are emerging in the cooperation between schools and parents. Socio-economically disadvantaged families in particular are prematurely overlooked. After the previous project "BOGyO - Berufliche Orientierung für die gymnasialen Oberstufen" (Professional Orientation for Upper Secondary Schools) made a further contribution to the systematic improvement of Bremen's PO structures, the project is now being deepened in order to be able to better organize the active cooperation with socio-economically disadvantaged parents on the part of the schools.
In the previous project "BOGyO - Berufliche Orientierung für die gymnasialen Oberstufen" (BOGyO - Professional Orientation for Upper Secondary Schools), important steps were taken with regard to the development and integration of teaching and learning materials as well as the specific interface between professional orientation and dealing with heterogeneity. This is now followed by the six-month project "Deepening Professional Orientation in the State of Bremen", which is divided into two sub-projects, of which sub-project 2 is located at the ITB and is described here in more detail. While sub-project 1 focuses on the realization of career and study-oriented content in the classroom and is implemented by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schröder and Dr. Tina Fletemeyer (IÖB), sub-project 2 addresses the perspective of parents and guardians from socio-economically disadvantaged households in cooperation with schools. This subproject is being conducted by Prof. Dr. Alisha Heinemann and Julia Tietjen.
Professional orientation proves to be an important phase in the lives of young people, which can have a decisive impact on the further course of their lives. Young people still consider their parents and guardians to be the most important people they can relate to during this eventful time. However, there are serious uncertainties and inequalities when it comes to cooperation between schools and parents. This makes it all the more fundamental for teachers to have career-oriented skills in educational partnerships and to critically examine social inequalities during this phase. Parents in precarious life situations in particular are less likely to experience trusting cooperation. Therefore, the sub-project 2 "Cooperation with socio-economically disadvantaged parents in PO" aims to find out the assessments, needs and wishes for a cooperation and to develop recommendations for action for teachers, school administrators and educational policy makers.
As of 2018, the nationwide poverty rate is at its highest level since reunification, while at the same time, young people's educational trajectories still depend on their parents' educational background and social origin. Classist discrimination causes adolescents to experience repeated negative experiences over the course of their educational careers, which can significantly affect their confidence in the future and their experience of self-efficacy. The research project therefore focuses on the interaction of professional orientation and the handling of heterogeneity. In the sub-project led by the ITB, the research gap with regard to difference-sensitive parental work in the context of PO is addressed in order to pave the way for an equal educational partnership between teachers and parents.