The meaning of being at school: The Models of Signification of the school context in a sample of high school students

Abstract

The present research concerns the analysis of the Models of Signification of a national sample of high school students. The survey concerns, in particular, the analysis of the ways in which the students interpret the school environment and their daily interactions. Interpreting the Models of Signification as the outcome of a process of inter-subjective construction, in turn expression of a specific setting of activities to which the actors take part and of their shared value systems, the educational setting qualifies as the context in which the students define the meaning given to the school and to its practices, according to which they adopt specific modes of behavior, relationships with others, study and participate in collective activities. The patterns of meaning emerging from the analysis constitute as many dimension diverging either from the point of view of their content and at the level of the ways of affectively symbolizing the school context. The knowledge of their organization is therefore a useful tool to orient those who work in the school context to interpret and understand how these meanings can operate as anchors and criteria for the definition of the intervention strategies and the development of the teaching-learning setting.