So what IS disengagement?

A workshop presented by Gideon Arulmani (2010)

Self Efficacy as a framework to engage the disengaged:

Strategic Approaches

15th March 2010.(9.30 to 12.00)


Dimensions of disengagement

Not in:

• education

• employment

• training

NEET


Manifestations of disengagement

• Flight: Absent and disconnected: - irregular, truancy, dropout

• Fight: Present, but absent - disruptive, destructive, - behavioural problems


Why disengagement?

1. Impact of educational structure: Comprehensive vs. selective

2. Effect of inclusion and exclusion:segregation may exacerbate disengagement.

3. Disengagement from ‘prescribed’ modes of career development:boredom, distraction, disconnect from existing attitudes to work, unchallenged.


Why disengagement?

4. Socio-economic and community factors

• Home background and area of residence were seen as being key influences on disengagement.

• For example, in the UK socio-economic status was seen as being a stronger predictor of achievement than early attainment.

• In five of the countries, minority ethnic groups were noted as being over-represented in the disengaged group – this was evident in the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Spain and England.


Why disengagement?

5. Family environment

• parents do not value school.• condone non-attendance.• have low or too high expectations. • family events: such as bereavement, divorce,

or new stepfamily, can also have an impact.


Why disengagement?

6. Pupil factors

• Lack of social skills. • Not attending school, for example, due to bullying.• Friends beyond school resulting in non-attendance and

disengagement.• Influence from truanting peers.• Lack of academic ability.• Having special educational needs.• Substance misuse.• Previous negative experiences of school.• Students who have to repeat a school year or those who have to

change from a higher to lower level of education.


Why disengagement?

7. Curriculum factors

• The perceived irrelevance of the curriculum to life.• Divisions between vocational and academic education

resulting in pupils becoming ‘locked’ into courses inappropriate to meeting their learning needs.

• Inappropriate exam and assessment procedures.• Reduced time for ‘pastoral’ provision because of the

pressure to cover the prescribed curriculum.• Inappropriate teaching methods with schools focusing on

curriculum and subject content rather than on learners.


Why disengagement?

8. Influence of vocational education:

• Vocational qualifications do not have parity of esteem with academic qualifications.

• There is a danger of seeing vocational education as the ‘solution’ to disengagement.

• Greater focus is required on person-centered approaches to employment rather than providing a vocational ‘alternative’.


“Established models, associated with

outcome-driven thinking based on lists of

personality traits and job factors, or ideas

based on linear development through

education to a lifetime career, may be useful

for some but are unlikely to engage all

young people.”

Reid, 2008.


Social Cognitive Theory (SCT): Key Concepts

• Formulated by Albert Bandura in the 1980s as a refinement of his Social Learning Theory.

• SCT analyses the diverse ways in which beliefs of personal efficacy operate within a network of socio-cultural and socio-economic influences, to shape life paths.

• SCT concepts are structured around the central theme that people’s beliefs in their personal efficacy to manage life’s demands affect their psychological well-being, their accomplishments and the direction their lives take.

• SCT has been gaining support as a framework for furthering our understanding of the career development process.


Three Social

Cognitive Mechanisms

Self Efficacy

Outcome Expectations

Goal Setting

...are particularly relevant to understanding career development


Social Cognitive Theory

1. Self Efficacy Beliefs 2. Outcome Expectations 3. Goal Setting

Performance Accomplishments

Vicarious Experience

Verbal Persuasion

Imagined outcome

Projected anticipation

Future orientation

Symbolically represent future outcomes



Self-efficacy Beliefs:

• Beliefs about one’s ability to be successful in the performance of a task

• Self-referent thought influences behaviour

• Quality of self efficacy beliefs influence whether:

- behaviour will be initiated- how much energy will be expended- maintenance of this behaviour in the face of

obstacles


Influences on self efficacy beliefs

Performance Accomplishments (Success Experiences)

• Actual performance on a task.

• Accomplishments that are success experiences move the individual closer to mastery experiences.

• Success experiences of sub units of a task move the individual onto the unit and so on until the entire task is successfully performed.

• A success experience contributes to self-efficacy only when the individual is able to attribute the reason for success to personal effort.

“I got one right... Now let me try the next.”




• Observation of a social role model

• Promotes a similar belief in oneself and influences personal self-efficacy for that task

• The more similar to oneself the more powerful is the vicarious experience

• The greater the real or assumed similarity of the model to the observer, the powerful is the model’s success or failure on the observer’s self-efficacy

• The failure of important role models causes a decline in self-efficacy for that task

“If she can do it... Maybe I can too.”



Verbal Persuasion

• The nature of verbal persuasion for a task affects the quality of self-efficacy the person develops for that task

• Encouragement from someone else that they possess the capabilities to be successful at a particular task

• Repeated verbal feedback that questions a person’s capabilities could lead to:

- Avoidance of that activity- Giving up in the face of barriers- Weak engagement with the task

• Undermines motivation and promotes disbelief in one's capabilities

“She told me I can do it... She believes in me.”



to affect the quality of

Self Efficacy beliefs



Verbal Persuasion

interact reciprocally

I tried and it worked!

If she can do it let me try...!

She told me I can do it...!






Verbal Persuasion

Imagined outcome


Future orientation




Outcome Expectations• Expectation that a certain consequence would result from a certain

action

• Estimation of the quality of the outcome

• Are only imagined and notional outcomes

• Particularly relevant in an environment where the linkage between effort and outcome are imperfect

• A person may not invest effort in an activity for which she has a high potential, if the outcome expectation for that activity is negative


Outcome Expectations: Implications for career development

• If outcome expected does not match projected anticipation or imagined outcome, may not engage with the process.

• If a service or a scheme is not congruent with what the person thinks he/she deserves, may not value the scheme

• Examples:

- going against the common belief

- scepticism

- loss of support from others if that action is taken

- loss of prestige

- gender incongruence






Verbal Persuasion

Imagined outcome


Future orientation




Goal Setting • Capacity to symbolically represent and conceptualise future effects of

present actions.

• Engagement in an activity that has an effect in the future

• Commitment to effecting a certain outcome

• Determination to reach a target

• Requires:

- ability to react in a self-evaluative manner to own behaviour- internal standards of performance

• Such goals play a self-regulatory function that calls for sustained action over a period of time


Social Cognitive Theory: Impact and Relevance

• Merely believing does actually record success

• Expectation alone will not produce the desired outcome

• Must be mindful of the individual’s ability levels


Social cognitive framework: Recognising risk for disengagement


• Are there opportunities for ‘small successes’?• Are there more failures than successes?


• What kind of role models are available?

• Is there a close similarity between the role model and the young person?


Social cognitive signs of risk for disengagement

Verbal Persuasion

• Cajoling, pleading, enticing?• Challenging? • Promoting expression of personal potentials? • Reward oriented or promotion of self-mediation?

Outcome Expectations

• Is there a perception that the service or scheme is congruent with what the person thinks he/she deserves?

• Is outcome expectation self-mediated? Or system-dependant?


Social cognitive signs of risk for disengagement

Goal Setting and Planning

• Is there an orientation to how actions of the present affect outcomes in the future?

• Is future orientation affected by difficulties of the present?

• Is there an orientation to ‘starting small’ or ‘making it big’?


Tackling disengagement

Curative Preventative • focused on routes. back into learning. • enabling appropriate targeting of resources. • evaluation of initiatives.

• strengthen transition stages.• bridge gap between vocational and academic education.• promote self-efficacy.• strenghten self-mediation.• realistic goal setting.• promote future orienation.


Almost eight months after Time 3 of this study, a young man visited theresearcher. Full of confidence he walked into the researcher’s officeand said that he had attended a six month course on screen printingand now had a regular job.

Then, rather shyly he said had something to give the researcher. Hedrew a soiled envelope from his pocket and said “I received my firstsalary today. I want you to use this to help someone else in the wayyou helped me.” Inside the envelope was a fifty rupee note. A largesum of money for a boy from his background.

Moved, but curious I asked him which of the intervention groups he hadbelonged to. The boy looked up and said, “The group where we learned tothink differently.”

Outcomes of a study on the promotion of self-efficacy for career development


Thank you!


Theory to Practice• Group 1: Performance accomplishment and career

development• Group 2: Vicarious experience and career development • Group 3: Verbal persuasion and career development • Group 4: Outcome expectations and career

development • Group 5: Goal setting and career development

30 minutes for small group discussions30 minutes for short presentation.


Thank you!


Sources• Kendall, S. and Kinder, K. (2005). Reclaiming Those Disengaged

from Education and Learning: a European Perspective. Slough: NFER. (Austria, England, Belgium Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Wales).

• Enhancing career development: The role of community-based career guidance for disengaged adults (2005) National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

• Helena Kasurinen and Mika Launikari (2009) Career Guidance for Youth-at-risk in Finland

• It’s Crunch Time: Raising youth engagement and attainment (2007)Australian Industry Group.

So what IS disengagement?

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