| Key Year |
The first year in the higher education is the one in which the student must learn his/her craft or he/she ends up failing (catastrophic year) |
The sixth grade in middle school is the grade with the highest rate of retention. It is when the student receives more autonomy and he/she is no longer so much tutored. |
| Autonomy acquisition |
Coulon refers to the change of the place of knowledge, the opposition to the parents’ speech using new speeches constructed among peers. |
With the changes of adolescence and of teaching institution, it is about the autonomy acquisition through the expansion of their social network and of the first movements of separation from parental references. The relationship among the peers and the appropriation of the new reality with multiple school subjects and teachers can facilitate the autonomy acquisition or not. |
| Simultaneous disruptions that occur in the life and in the school |
Passage to the higher education followed by changes in the conditions for existence, affective life (leaving the bosom of the family) and pedagogical disruption (change in their relationship with teachers) - “Anonymity Time” |
Passage to middle school marked by the beginning of the adolescence, body changes, first sexual experiences, questions about gender identity and sexual orientation, change in the place occupied by the family as a central reference, exploration of new territories in his/her city, contact with multiteaching models, less familiar relationship with teachers. |
| Institutional responsibility with the success of the student |
Adoption or lack of institutional devices affect the development of the student’s affiliation. |
Here, our argument is equal to Coulon’s, without the necessity of adaptation. Isolated actions by teachers, for example, are not enough in the process of affiliation. We need to think about institutional devices in the analysis of the processes of affiliation and permanence. |
| Changes in the relation with time |
There are changes in the university’s requirements (larger and looser) for the student, which implies the necessity of reorganization of time and pace of work. |
There are changes in the number of school subjects, different classes each day, which implies reorganization of study time and life time. It is important to point out the “social networks” as an important element in the resizing of the relation with time and space. |
| Changes in the relation with the space |
To the author, the students claim that the space of a university is larger than that of a school, which makes them get lost initially and makes it necessary to learn to move. |
The change from a small school to a larger one in the passage from elementary school to middle school may bring the challenge of identifying classrooms, canteen, common areas, and bathrooms, among others. What’s more, the way they appropriate these spaces, for example, canteen, represent the power relations among students. |
| Changes in the relation with the knowledge |
Larger knowledge breadth, more necessity of summarizing and relating to the future professional activity. |
The organization of middle school is closer to the high school than elementary school; passage from a concrete thought to a formal logical reasoning. |
| Changes in the relation with the rules |
The student needs to master the complex system of institutional and non-institutional rules, seeking the “game meaning” to manage to do his/her affiliation. |
Similarly, the sixth grader needs to learn the explicit new rules and those ones that derive from the informal culture in middle school, concerning to the school routine and space appropriation. On the other hand, there is a great demand on the part of teaching staff for family’s participation in the school, which, mostly, does not happen. |
Thumbnail
Source: Authors’ elaboration.