SCIENCE, BELONGING AND FUTURE POSSIBILITY: A NARRATIVE CASE STUDY OF A SECOND-GENERATION ALBANIAN STUDENT IN GREECE

نویسندگان

  • Joseph Xhuxhi Faculty of Education, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, Spain orcid.org/0000-0002-4450-4142

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v13i8.6854

کلمات کلیدی:

Albanian immigrant students, Athens, science education, STEM aspirations, narrative inquiry, self-determination theory, Bourdieu, science capital, bicultural identity

چکیده

This article explores how Alba, a 19-year-old second-generation Albanian student living in Athens Greece, narrates school science, wider schooling and future educational possibility within the Greek education system. Building on the framework proposed by Altunbas, Mulcahy and Reiss (2024), the study combines self-determination theory with Bourdieu's concepts of capital, habitus and field. The study is a qualitative single-case, participatory narrative inquiry based on semi-structured interviews with Alba, her mother Ana, and a contextual interview with Sister Maria, a Catholic religious sister whose congregation supports Albanian and other immigrant families in Athens. Narrative analysis shows that the case is organised around four tensions: strong Albanian identification alongside practical attachment to Athens; educational aspiration shaped by family sacrifice but constrained by high-stakes examinations and economic limits; school belonging produced through multicultural peer life but weakened by institutional neglect; and a relationship to school science marked by early practical curiosity but later passive teaching, limited laboratory work and almost no institutional use of STEM language. The analysis argues that science education was not rejected because it lacked value. Rather, science failed to become a meaningful field for competence, autonomy and relatedness. Science capital remained thin because it was weakly present in in-home networks, school trips, teacher practices, community support and institutional guidance. The case extends research on Albanian-origin youth in Greece by placing school science within broader narratives of citizenship, language, belonging, religious-community support, institutional recognition and social mobility.

بیوگرافی نویسنده

  • Joseph Xhuxhi، Faculty of Education, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, Spain orcid.org/0000-0002-4450-4142

    Joseph Xhuxhi graduated from Imperial College London with a degree in Biology, specializing in Neuroscience. He has a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in Science Education from the Institute of Education in London as well as a PGCE in Leading Innovation and Change in Education from the University of Saint Mary’s in London. Joseph completed a master’s degree in science education at University College London. Joseph has and maintains significant international Science teaching experience in secondary and primary state as well as private schools employing the Albanian, American, British and Spanish curriculums. He is a member of the Research Group “Active Methodologies and Mastery Learning” at UNIR and a lecturer of Innovative teaching in Undergraduate degrees at UNIR. Joseph also maintains a strong interest in Initial Teacher Training as well as ongoing Teacher Professional Development, especially in the Balkan countries.

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دانلودها

چاپ شده

2026-07-14

شماره

دوره 13 شماره 8 (2026)

نوع مقاله

Articles

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