The meaning of being at school. The models of signification of the school context in a sample of high school students. Il senso dello stare a scuola. Modelli di significazione del contesto scolastico in studenti di scuola secondaria di secondo grado

Contemporary literature in the field of education has shown an increasing interest in the impact of culture on the ways people take part in school settings and in the outcomes of such participation (inter alia Jegede 1995, Ogawa 1986; Ogunniyi 1988; Phelan, Davidson & Cao, 1991). Some authors (inter alia, Cobern & Aikenhead, 1998; Costa 1995; Phelan, Davidson & Cao, 1991) specifically suggested that academic success largely depends on the way the student learns to negotiate the boundaries which separate the different cultural worlds of which he is part (family, group of peers, school, within its specific class...). In other papers (Guidi, Salvatore & Scotto Di Carlo, 2012; Venuleo & Mossi, 2012; Venuleo, Mossi & Salvatore, submitted) we have argued that educational success is a function of the compatibility between the sub-cultures expressed by the students and the student role expected by the training setting.