Are Youth at Risk, Juveniles or Just Kids? Analysis of the Current Educational Resistance of Minors from Attendance Centers in Culturally Diverse Societies

Abstract

The phenomenon of educational resistance shown by minors from disadvantaged backgrounds and placed in attendance centers is the main subject of interest in this article. This is a special group of students, because their attitude towards education is shaped by factors determined by dysfunctional families, antisocial pressure from peers, poor neighborhood, poor infrastructure, experience from the foster care institutions and a school curriculum, implemented without taking into account their specifics. Resistance is a reaction to their educational experience and perceived as a manifestation of a dominant culture associated with a form analyzed by Paul Willis. According to this concept, the connection between the hegemonic culture and subordinate groups is created not only by ethnic or national, but also by socio-cultural and economic factors. Young people from the underclass, shaped by various cultural patterns, norms, values, language and socio-economic conditions, reject the educational offer of the cultural hegemon, generating behaviors leading to school abandonment and truancy. Based on the research material collected during in-depth interviews, the educational resistance of minors was analyzed with particular attention to its causes, patterns and trajectories.