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Educational trust: Relational and structural perspectives on young people on

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DOI: 10.1080/00131881.2015.1030857

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Educational trust: relational and

structural perspectives on young
people on the margins of the education
system
a a
Anne Görlich & Noemi Katznelson
a
Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Published online: 29 Apr 2015.

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structural perspectives on young people on the margins of the education system, Educational
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 Educational Research, 2015
Vol. 57, No. 2, 201–215, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2015.1030857

Educational trust: relational and structural perspectives on young

people on the margins of the education system
Anne Görlich* and Noemi Katznelson

Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

(Received 31 July 2014; final version received 29 January 2015)
Downloaded by [Aalborg University Library] at 01:22 11 May 2015

Background: Across Europe and the Nordic countries, it is widely agreed that the
high proportion of 15–30-year olds not in employment, education or training is a
challenge, which needs to be tackled by focusing on education. The political and
institutional focus is on individual training readiness, individual qualification pro-
cesses, individual building of confidence in oneself and so forth, culminating in an
overall individual perspective.
Purpose: The study argues for a shift in focus away from an individual perspective
on young people on the margins of education and towards a relational perspective
that takes the social environment and the education system into account.
Sample: Respondents were 20 young people aged 17–24 who were participating in a
specific project in a provincial town in Denmark, the aim of which was to encourage
the youths to re-enter education.
Design and methods: Qualitative data were collected through: (1) 40 semi-structured
qualitative interviews with 11 young people on the margins of the education system,
and (2) observations of 11 respondents’ participation in educational activity. The
analysis was based on relational and social constructionist theories.
Findings: The analysis of data from this small-scale study provides evidence to sug-
gest that a shift in the current focus on the individual young person on the margins
of education is needed. The concept of ‘educational trust’ is introduced as a supple-
ment to the individual concept of self-confidence in order to capture the socially con-
structed aspects of the young adult’s participation in education.
Conclusions: We identify three overall components of educational trust: (1) social
security and recognition, (2) flexibility in structures and (3) progression in skills. The
concept of educational trust, it is suggested, creates a shift in focus from the individ-
ual young person to the role and function of the education system in aiming to reach
the target of more young people completing education.
Keywords: NEET; educational policy; self-confidence; trust; educational trust

Introduction
In Denmark, as well as in the rest of Europe, there is a continued high degree of politi-
cal awareness of young people’s education and the residual group who have not com-
pleted their formal education, and who, therefore, have a higher risk of not being able
to get a job in the future. The focus is not only on young people not in education,
employment or training (NEET) in general, but particularly on how to educate those
young people (OECD 2012). In light of the economic crisis, the importance of young
people’s educational level seems beyond doubt and there is no shortage of evidence that

*Corresponding author. Email: ag@learning.aau.dk

© 2015 NFER
 202 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

young people who have not completed upper secondary education are more vulnerable
in the labour market compared to those who have completed formal education (Bell and
Blanchflower 2010; Scarpetta, Sonnet, and Manfredi 2010; Halvorsen, Johnny Hansen,
and Tägtström 2012). In relation to focusing on and investing in education as the main
tool to reduce the number of young people who are unemployed, Denmark has been
described as a spearhead (Pedersen 2011). Therefore, in this paper, we analyse the Dan-
ish approach towards increasing educational completion rates amongst young people.
The paper draws on national policy documents as well as analysis of qualitative data
from a small-scale study on processes of learning and change among young people in a
provincial part of Denmark. The aim of the paper is to introduce the concept of educa-
tional trust, which involves a shift in focus from an individual to a relational perspective
on unemployment and educational challenges among some youth. We outline the Dan-
ish approach and place it in a recent and international tendency to seek explanations
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and solutions to structural problems through individualised approaches and methods.

This is followed by a discussion of the methods used, a theoretical outline, an analysis
and a concluding discussion.

The Danish example – compulsory training

Denmark has launched numerous political initiatives to get as many young people as
possible into education, achieve higher completion rates and prevent students dropping
out from upper secondary and tertiary school (Markussen 2010; Halvorsen, Johnny
Hansen, and Tägtström 2012, 40). The initiatives focus on three different political are-
nas. Firstly, within educational policy, Denmark has addressed the Europe 2020 strategy
(European Commission 2010) by setting the goal of 95% of all young people complet-
ing upper secondary education (equivalent to minimum 12 years of schooling) by 2015
(Ministry of the State of Denmark 2011). This goal sets Denmark apart from other
European and Nordic countries and is unquestionably politically ambitious (Halvorsen,
Johnny Hansen, and Tägtström 2012, 19). Additionally, the Danish education system
consists of a dense network of vocational training opportunities for those young people
pursuing non-academic routes. Secondly, within social and health policy, numerous
experimental and developmental initiatives have been launched, which aim to ensure
that young people are competent at managing everyday life and to encourage them to
engage in education and work. Finally, within labour market policy, there has been a
considerable escalation of ‘active labour market policy’ enacted by subjecting all 15–
30-year olds who have not graduated from upper secondary or vocational education to
so-called ‘compulsory training’. One of the central elements of this policy is that all
young people under the age of 30 without formal qualifications must accept education-
ally directed training in order to continue to claim benefits. This form of compulsory
training is particular to Denmark. In order to contextualise further, there follows an
excerpt from the ‘Act on reforming the social security system – more people in educa-
tion and jobs’ (Ministry of Employment 2013, 3: authors’ translation and summary of
key points):

• All young people are considered ready for education. A thorough assessment will
define resources and barriers and will ensure that the right intervention for each
individual will be implemented.
• Everyone under 30 is to reach the level of primary school leaving examination,
and systematic training courses in reading, writing and maths will be offered.
 Educational Research 203

• The focus of the individual interventions is the young person’s resources and
needs and they will be offered, e.g. alternative education programmes, internships
and courses in reading, writing and maths. If needed, a mentor will be assigned to
provide support until the young person is integrated into the ordinary education
system.
• A follow-up procedure based on the young person’s individual needs will be
implemented. This procedure will be offered to the extent that it is needed in order
to secure a steady focus and progression in educational activities.

As our summary shows, the current focus of labour market policy is characterised by
initiatives directed at individuals, rather than focussing on measures addressing the
labour market as well. Currently, there are no political changes concerning the labour
market but solely concerning young people. In practice, this implies that the approaches
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and methods of reaching the political target of 95% of all young people in ordinary
education have a consistent focus on the individual and on motivating and challenging
the individual to be responsible for their own competences and development. Strategies
of individual training readiness, on individual qualification processes, individual opti-
mising of confidence in oneself, etc. are being launched in order to achieve the Danish
government’s political ambitions (Jørgensen 2011; Katznelson 2014). This represents a
commitment to ideas of ‘labour-focussed self-realisation’ in which professional compe-
tency is perceived as the bridge to realising oneself as an independent and reflexive
young person in the labour market (Salamon 2007; Pedersen 2011).

Challenges to the focus on education

The Danish approach, with its strong focus on education, is widely accepted politically
and by the professionals involved in the education system and employment sector
(Katznelson, Pless, and Stigaard Stenkjær 2012, 172). The focus on helping each indi-
vidual under the age of 30 years to enter ordinary education is considered to be an
effective way of reducing youth unemployment. However, some criticism has also been
levelled at the approach. Pedersen (2011) claims that the focus of education today is not
to educate young people to citizenship and democracy but to become competent and
employable members of the work force; much like ‘training soldiers in the Competition
State’. As in the UK, the focus on ‘education, education, education’ (Simmons and
Thompson 2011, 5) is regarded as a neoliberal rethinking of the Danish welfare model.
Meanwhile, paradoxically, the consequence of the recession following the financial crisis
is a continued lack of employment and placement opportunities for young people in
general. Due to specific labour market agreements, the risk of employing is placed on
the employer, which reduces employers’ incentive to hire young people who have not
completed training or who are otherwise challenged by the demands of the labour mar-
ket (Olsen and Tägström 2013, 22). The combination of a strong political focus on
education and structural barriers into the labour market creates a complex and challeng-
ing situation. Meanwhile, an internationally accepted discourse, which focuses on the
individual, applies concepts like disengagement and non-participation to young people
not in education and employment (Simmons and Thompson 2013). The very use of the
acronym NEET as a label seems to simplify the problem in hand, and creates an idea of
a homogeneous group who share the same characteristics. As MacDonald (2008) argues,
those normative labels enjoy widespread currency in policy and academic discourse,
and it matters. In practice, however, a lot of the young people we meet in our research
 204 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

have been in education; some of them have work experience and as the educational pol-
icy dictates, all of them are in training. This raises the question: do young people NEET
exist as a coherent group in reality and can they be characterised as such? While this
discussion is highly relevant, the scope in this paper is, rather, to argue for meaningful
participation as seen from the perspective of the young people. Our focus is on a group
that can be described as ‘young people on the margins of the education system’ and
hence this is the way that we will make reference to them in this paper.

From individual to relational

The positive outcome of the extensive focus on young people on the margins of the
education system is political willingness to invest in this particular group of young peo-
ple. However, research also indicates a tendency for those young people to attribute
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their status to individualised factors such as low ability, lack of work experience and
low self-esteem (Simmons and Thompson 2011). Rather than seeing the complexities
and associated meanings from the young people’s perspective, the problem is con-
structed as being ‘the fault’ of young people (Smyth, McInerney, and Fish 2013). This
form of individualisation may lead to individuals considering themselves as being
responsible for factors which belong to collective responsibilities (Gergen 2009). Thus,
young people on the sidelines of education increasingly seem to seek solutions to their
challenging life situations on an individual rather than a collective basis (Furlong and
Cartmel 2007).
Similarly, the approach of alternative education projects is often to focus on the indi-
vidual and the restoration of the devalued competent self, as in this example, where a
stakeholder expresses the motivation for the specific project which is the focus of this
article:

Young people have a need to believe things are possible. No one is born without self-confi-
dence; it must be possible to re-establish it. What if we can develop a method that in a year
or two enables them to re-create self- confidence? It’s all about building self- confidence.
Let’s look at what they are able to do instead of what they are unable to do. (Interview
with stakeholder)

The project referred to above aims to prevent dropout and re-engage young people in
education by use of a portfolio model and easy access to psychological help. The idea
is to strengthen the self-confidence of each individual, assuming that this will re-engage
them into ordinary education. This illustrates the assumption that disengagement can be
traced back to individual characteristics, e.g. competences and self-confidence. However,
international research indicates that disengagement from school cannot be solely
explained by individual factors, but is constructed in processes that include multiple fac-
tors within the school context (Fine 1991; Brown and Rodríguez 2009). Disengagement
is not only caused by factors inherent to young people, but rather by a complex
interplay between an individual’s disposition and structural barriers and circumstances,
such as socio-economic, class-related barriers or the educational setting (Shildrick,
Shane, and Robert 2009). Hence, strategies for supporting young people on the margins
of the education system require approaches that acknowledge educational transition as
non-linear, complex and often contradictory processes that vary in determination, tempo
and direction (MacDonald and Marsh 2005; Roberts 2011). Furthermore, the develop-
ment of strategies for supporting youth on the periphery of education has to be founded
 Educational Research 205

on an understanding of educational transitions based on individual as well as relational

and structural terms. In the following description of methodology, we make explicit the
way in which our approach to understanding these young people is fundamentally rela-
tional, with the focus not only on how individuals specifically navigate towards educa-
tion, but also how relational and structural factors are interwoven in such processes.

Methodology
In our research, we set out from the very beginning with a relational rather than an indi-
vidual conceptualisation of the problem. Our stance is influenced by a rather prominent
counter-discourse to the concept of ‘self’ that flourished in the 1990s within social con-
structionist and post-structural thinking (Shotter 1993, 1997; lleris et al. 2002; Gergen
2009). In this way of thinking, the concept of self is replaced by concepts like ‘subject
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positions’ (Davies and Harré 1990), ‘narrative selves’ (Polkinghorne 1988) and ‘rela-
tional selves’ (Gergen 2009). We therefore argue for a theoretical and empirical focus
on concepts that enable us to explore the initiatives in a relational framework. Our
understanding of young people on the margins of education and the concept of
educational trust has been influenced by social constructionist/post-structuralist thinking
(Staunæs and Søndergaard 2005; Gergen 2009) and aims to understand those young
people in ways that exceed the psychological individual model and, instead, encompass
the complexity of social and educational processes. Consequently, the analytical ques-
tions that inform the research process have individual, relational and structural compo-
nents. For example, an individually informed question like: ‘how do the perceptions of
the respondents’ self-confidence change?’ adds insight into the change of perception
over time, but not what has caused the change or how it interacts with other factors.
Furthermore, it produces knowledge that reflects the individualistic discourse, but does
not challenge it. Hence, the research process is highly shaped by relationally and struc-
turally informed questions; those will be described later. As we shall see, we take the
view that this approach adds valuable insight into the complexity of transition pro-
cesses.

Sample and data collection

The research presented in this article was conducted in a town of 20,000 inhabitants in
Denmark between October 2011 and April 2013. The town is representative of Danish
towns of this size in terms of its socio-economic structure. Furthermore, this particular
town is of research interest because it has a tradition for working collectively with
young people on the margins of the education system, e.g. through a well-established
youth network across different municipal entities working with youth (schools, social
welfare office, job centre, career guidance office). The research explored the experiences
of the young people in different educational settings. It aimed at understanding how the
project (which sought to build individual self-confidence as the motivator to re-enter
education) contributes to processes of change and learning in terms of the young peo-
ple’s self-confidence and self-perception and how this contributes to: (1) their educa-
tional and work experience and considerations; and (2) the likelihood of their
completing secondary education, entering the job market and staying off social benefits.
The paper is based on an in-depth qualitative study of 20 respondents from three
educational institutions within the mainstream system and three alternative education
programmes and the processes of change during the course of 18 months. The
 206 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

respondents were identified by the coordinator of the project as either being at risk of
dropping out from education or they had already dropped out and were enrolled on an
alternative education programme. We aimed to secure equal numbers of female and
male respondents aged between 15 and 19 years. The sample we achieved comprised 11
female respondents and 8 male. Two male participants were not re-interviewed after the
first round. The data were collected in a period of 18 months from qualitative semi-
structured interviews and observations of 11 informants’ educational activities. The
extensive period of data gathering allowed us to build relationships of trust with the
respondents, which made it easier for them to talk openly about self-confidence. The
research is based on the respondents’ freely volunteered informed consent.
In total, 40 qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted, the duration of
which varied from half-an-hour to one-and-a-half hours. Most of the interviews took
place at the educational institutions, although some were conducted at the apprenticeship
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companies and one at a café. Interviews were held with the respondents two or three
times in the course of the 18 months, depending on their availability at the time of the
interview. Each round of interviews followed a flexible approach, although they were
structured around different themes. The first round of interviews focused on: current and
past school experiences; outlook on the future; experience of self-confidence. The sec-
ond round included the themes: current and past experiences of the social environment
of the schools; learning experiences; outlook on the future; experience of self-confi-
dence. Finally, the third round of interviews focused on: contact with teachers, mentors
and psychologists; thoughts on dropping out and retention; and self-confidence. We con-
tinuously maintained a focus on particular changes in relation to participation in school
activities, the experience of self-confidence and in relation to outlook on the future.
Furthermore, we conducted observations of 11 respondents’ participation in educa-
tional activities. By the time we conducted the observations, it was no longer possible
to contact 9 of the 20 respondents, as they had already left the project. It is worth not-
ing that the ‘contract’ with the young people was that if they left the project, we would
not contact them for research purposes. In the analysis, we have focused on the respon-
dents who we were able to stay in contact with, as well as with the school, leaving out
an analytical focus on the reasons for dropout. The observations took place at the educa-
tional institutions and were planned to fit in with the respondents’ schedule on the day
of observation. They were followed up by informal questions that arose from the
observations, which gave the respondents the opportunity to reflect on the educational
activity. We followed an inductive method so that the data collection was initially open,
flexible and unstructured, but could then be refined in the light of the emerging data
(Hammersley and Atkinson 2007). This article builds primarily on data from the inter-
views, and is supported by data from the observations. In order to assure the partici-
pants’ confidentiality, we have changed their names and anonymised the educational
institutions.

Data analysis
A content analysis was conducted on the data using the QSR NUD*IST Vivo (Nvivo)
software, which allowed us to codify, analyse and explore the transcripts of the inter-
views and observation notes in a flexible and explorative yet structured process. The
coding of the transcripts was based on: (1) themes derived directly from the problem
matter (experience of self-confidence, appreciation and development of competences);
(2) themes derived from the theoretical focus (experience of relations, communication
 Educational Research 207

of expectations and trust); and (3) themes emerging from the interpretation (e.g. experi-
ence of belonging and collaboration). The themes used for coding were defined in an
ongoing dialogical process between the authors of this article, who were both involved
in the coding process. Additionally, for each respondent, we compiled a biographic
description of previous and current educational experience and a detailed description of
particular changes and their effects during the 18 months. The thematic analysis evolved
during an analytical process of condensation and categorisation (Kvale and Brinkmann
2009) directed by the analytical questions that has an individual, relational and structural
perspective: what is the respondents’ perception of self-confidence? How does it
change? What contributes to this change? What changes in educational readiness charac-
terise the respondents’ processes towards ordinary education? How has the project con-
tributed to these changes? What else has contributed? How does the respondent
experience the (perceived) conditions for completing qualifications? How do they
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experience themselves in relation to these conditions? How do they experience others

(students, teachers, mentors, friends, etc.)? How do these relations seem to influence
changes in educational readiness?
These analytical questions are to be understood as a lens through which we try to
identify the patterns in the data material; in this research project, the lens is particularly
wide in order not to focus solely on the individual processes, but also on the context,
the relations and the structures. The analysis comprises two analytical strategies; the
horizontal strategy whereby we created thick (Geertz 1994) case descriptions of each of
the 11 respondents’ experiences over time, and the vertical strategy whereby we traced
patterns that run through the case descriptions (Glaser and Strauss 1967; Søndergaard
1996). These patterns were thematic and form the components of the concept of educa-
tional trust.
In practice, the research process was characterised by movements back and forth
between the empirical data and theory. This process means that the theory can direct the
empirical lens, but also that the empirical data can direct the theoretical lens. In the fol-
lowing section, we describe these movements back and forth, and how the concept of
educational trust developed from this process.

Theoretical perspectives: from self-confidence to trust

During the initial field work, the concept of self-confidence was the point of departure,
but soon the concept unfolded as a complex and multifaceted experience from the
respondents’ point of view. Empirically, we found that when we initially asked the
respondents about their understanding of self-confidence, it was evident that their per-
ception exceeded that of individual competences and self-worth. When answering the
question: ‘what do you understand by self-confidence?’, they pointed on the one hand
to common definitions like: ‘daring to be oneself’, ‘believing in oneself’, ‘believing in
one’s abilities’ but also alternative definitions like: ‘belonging’, ‘respect for other peo-
ple’, ‘believing in other people’, ‘helping other people’. Thus, the everyday understand-
ing of self-confidence among the young people in this research has an evidently social
and relational component. This supported our relational and structural focus in the
remainder of the research process.
Consequently, while the theoretical starting point would normally stimulate curiosity
about the concept of self-confidence, we decided to follow stringently the relational
approach and the idea of relational selves (Gergen 2009). Hence, we searched for rela-
tional theories that would enable us to understand confidence as something that is not
 208 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

only directed inwardly at the self, but also outwardly at relations. A Danish article on
self-confidence (Pedersen 2009) introduces the concept of trust in this analysis. Pedersen
argues that self-confidence, trust and trustworthiness evolve through the trust relations
we enter into, and as such self-confidence and trust emerge as a result of ongoing
exchanges between persons. This view was the first step of developing the concept of
educational trust, which implies a shift in focus from individuals to relations. By intro-
ducing the concept of trust in this analysis, we also introduce the ontology of social
interdependence between individuals.

Perspectives on trust
Trust is fundamental in human living and is necessary for reducing the complexity of life
today (Luhmann 1979). Trust requires time, transparency and communication and it
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evolves between people or between people and systems. Giddens (1990) points towards
different forms of trust: basic psychological trust (Erikson 1950), ontological trust and
trust in abstract systems, all of which are necessary components of the ability to navigate
in a world of complexity. Giddens, as well as Luhmann, regards trust as a necessity for
our groundedness in the world, but contrary to Luhmann, Giddens argues that psycho-
logical trust, following Erikson’s theory, is essential for the ability to engage in relation-
ships. Furthermore, Giddens argues that trust in abstract systems is important if an
individual is to experience everyday life as reliable, thereby securing a degree of stability,
which is crucial for life today. The bridge between personal trust and trust in abstract sys-
tems can be strengthened by experiencing trustworthy face-to-face interaction (Giddens
1990). In other words, an individual’s trust in systems can be increased by engaging in
trustworthy and reassuring interaction and ‘facework commitments’ (Giddens 1990, 88).
This is parallel to Luhmann’s focus on communication; in order for trust to appear,
there has to be some sort of reassurance that enables one to trust others and their knowl-
edge. In relation to youth and education, it means that young people on the periphery of
education have to experience ‘facework commitments’: in other words, the mentors, the
teachers, the social workers – as committed and trustworthy representatives of the sys-
tem and as communicators of their knowledge. According to this theory, trust will
increase if the young people engage in processes in which they experience having
access to the knowledge relevant to their context. Rather than an individual approach,
the focus on trust allows for an approach in which social and relational processes as
well as an understanding of the system are involved.

Relational trust
Bryk and Schneider (2002) have researched the role of social trust in school communi-
ties and argue that even the most basic operations in schools are conditioned by a com-
plex web of social exchanges. In this context, trust is defined as a complex and
multidimensional construct. On the basis of a vast amount of empirical data, they have
developed the concept of ‘relational trust’ that asserts that the social exchanges of
schooling are organised around a distinct set of role relationships:

Maintenance (and growth) of relational trust in any given role set requires synchrony in
these mutual expectations and obligations. (…) Relational trust diminishes when individuals
perceive that others are not behaving in ways that can be understood as consistent with
their expectations about the other’s role obligations. (Bryk and Schneider 2002, 21)
 Educational Research 209

In this view, trust depends on the maintenance of mutual expectations; a high level of
maintenance increases trust and vice versa. The concept of relational trust is relevant for
our analysis, as it explicitly highlights the relational perspective of educational pro-
cesses. However, for the purpose of this analysis, the structural perspectives of Luh-
mann and Giddens are needed to ‘widen the lens’ further.
Based on these theoretical perspectives on trust, we want to investigate empirically
and analytically how young people on the edge of the education system experience self-
confidence and trust. During this analysis, we developed the components of educational
trust as presented in this paper. In the following section, we discuss how this analysis
grasps the collaboration between young people, the education system and the profes-
sional personnel as an alternative to individualising approaches, which, in contrast,
solely focus on the effort of the young people on the margins of education.
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Findings and discussion: educational trust

During the analysis, it soon became evident that the initiatives in the project (i.e. the
implementation of a portfolio model in which individual competences and resources
were listed and there was easy access to psychological help) had very little impact on
the respondents in the research project. The implementation of the portfolio model had
not been completed during the fieldwork, and the respondents did not pay much atten-
tion to the psychological help. Often they found that it helped with one specific prob-
lem, but on a larger scale they considered that the five sessions they were offered were
not much help. The analysis of self-confidence and trust in individual, relational and
structural perspectives produced some interesting findings in terms of how the project
did support the young people. During the aforementioned vertical analysis, the follow-
ing themes were created: ‘social security’, ‘flexible structures’ and ‘progression in
skills’, which we consider to be the components of the concept of educational trust. In
the following presentation of the findings, we have included excerpts from the biogra-
phies to illustrate the analytical points. Those have been translated from Danish. We use
pseudonyms, the deletion of identifying place names, etc. to preserve the informants’
anonymity.

Social security and recognition

In the study, we convey a relational understanding, and one of the conclusions is that
working with a strong focus on appreciation and resources positively strengthens the pro-
cesses of change for young people on the periphery of the education system. However,
we also underline the fact that this is a relational process that occurs not only between
the young people and the practitioners, but equally importantly between the young peo-
ple themselves, and in general, as an overall practice that characterises the school culture.
Here, one of the young people, Maria, firstly talks about a previous school from which
she had dropped out when we first met her and then, in the second excerpt, about another
school where she had started when we met her for the second time:

I didn’t like going to XX school. I didn’t really talk to anyone and I found it very difficult.
I really didn’t like the place. The teachers didn’t pay attention and I could sit for an hour
with my hand up and no one would come to help me. Then I stopped asking for help. I
don’t even know if the teachers could help because we were so many. Almost 30 when
everyone was there. They couldn’t help me the way I needed. They didn’t have time for it.
 210 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

Now I am YY school. I had tried different things and I was going to try this school for one
week and I really liked it. It was easy for me. I actually knew things. Now I am in the ordi-
nary program and it is still easy. Group work is easier for me now. I feel safe with the peo-
ple here. They have been very welcoming right from the beginning. They help me to be a
part of the group. They say ‘good morning’ to you. Or ‘good bye’ when I go home. ‘Have
a nice weekend’ or ‘see you tomorrow’. They pay attention. Ask questions. We learn about
communication. How to acknowledge other people. I feel more self-confident. More self-
worth. I am happy and like being at school.

In general, the analysis shows that the social environment of the educational institutions
co-produces self-confidence. Being part of a social space, where the atmosphere is car-
ing, is essential for young people on the margins of education if their continued involve-
ment in educational activities is to be assured. In such a space, those young people feel
safe and report that they experience a notable progression in skills. A sense of social
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security is crucial not only for a subjective experience of self-confidence, but also for
learning and progression that contributes to the building of educational trust. When the
interaction with the school is based on trust, it opens up processes in which self-
confidence can subsequently be built.
In this conceptualisation, acknowledging or praising the achievements of others is a
social phenomenon. In the analysis, we identify a form of ‘collective skills experience’
in which self-confidence takes a social and relational form. Appreciation in this sense is
more than simply one-to-one appreciation. Rather, it is a social phenomenon that co-
produces collectively as well as individually experienced self-confidence. Across the
case descriptions, it seems that paying attention and acknowledging fellow students is
practised in particular educational settings that have incorporated such practices into the
curriculum to be taught to the students as well as forming a basis for teaching. In this
sense, caring is more than individual nurturing. Similarly, international research suggests
that negative educational experiences can be dealt with by a nurturing and caring
approach, although this should not be at the expense of intellectual challenges and the
building of generic, transferable skills and knowledge (Simmons and Thompson 2011;
Smyth, McInerney, and Fish 2013). Finding oneself in an environment that offers intel-
lectual challenges where it is safe to ask for help is, we argue, the core of educational
trust. If young people on the edge of the education system trust the school to provide
these ‘safe’ spaces, they are more likely to enter processes of change in which they can
develop the trust necessary for furthering their competences and skills.

Flexible structures
Many of the young people in this study often experience a certain degree of pressure
(homework, attendance, grades) from the educational institution as an expression of a
lack of trust. Camilla describes how she experienced a positive transformation when she
dropped out (first quotation) and later started at another school (second quotation):

I started at XX School two and a half years ago and didn’t finish it. If anything, I really felt
how pressure doesn’t do any good. ‘You have to get an education now’. ‘You should do
this’. You don’t get a chance to think about what you want. You just have to move on, but
I just got tired. I suffered from stress. They told you things like: ‘If you don’t turn up,
you’ll get kicked out and if you don’t hand in assignments you’ll also get kicked out’. All
the time. When you are told things like: ‘If you don’t hand this in by Monday, you are
out’, it creates such a pressure and you cannot concentrate. I would hand it in anyhow, but
 Educational Research 211

it is just that pressure. Constant pressure. I had enough. It’s a lame way to run things, if
you don’t trust young people.
…

I am happy here. If you tell the teacher: ‘Next week I have too much on my mind, I can’t
make it’, they say’: ‘Sure, that’s ok, you can hand it in later’. It’s not like you don’t have
free time and everything is dark. It’s more free, if you can put it like that. It’s just like:
‘You were not here yesterday, that’s ok’. Now I have told myself to continue as long as I
can without being absent and as far as I know I am the only one who hasn’t been absent. I
am pretty proud. I’d like to leave here with good grades and I would also like to feel that I
get up every day and get going. It’s a good school. Good environment.

Seen from Camilla’s perspective, she experiences the pressure from the school as an
expression of a lack of trust. When seen from the perspective of the institution, one
may assume that the pressure is in fact an expression of trust as it constitutes the nor-
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mal expectations and demands involved in attending upper secondary education. Trust
is about communication; that ‘both parties know that the other knows’ (Luhmann
1979). In this study, the young people describe trust as being based on flexibility and
dialogue. In the case of Camilla, her attending another educational institution rebuilds
her trust.
The analysis shows the interplay between trust and the communication of expecta-
tions. When young people on the edge of the education system experience a lack of
mutual maintenance of expectations, they experience a decrease in educational trust and
vice versa. And similarly; a high degree of flexibility and dialogue enhances self-
confidence, while a low degree has the opposite effect. Consequently, educational trust
is not only about what the young people on the margins of education can do in order to
experience a progression in skills and competence, but equally what the educational
institution can do to create an environment that allows the young people on the edge of
education to experience being competent via communication, dialogue and the mutual
maintenance of expectations. Furthermore, the case of Camilla clearly demonstrates how
the structural focus and ‘compulsory training’ for some of the young people can be
counterproductive. Across the cases, the respondents describe how flexible time frames
in which they consider possible ways towards education has had a positive effect on
their process.

Progression in skills
Being in a process towards entering the labour market is essential for the educational
trust of many young people on the periphery of the education system, who are prone to
a lack of academic commitment. Peter talks here firstly about being stuck in vocational
training programmes and then explains what happens when he decides to shift to a dif-
ferent profession and succeeds in getting an apprenticeship:

I am still at the XX program. I am trying to find an apprenticeship. Or I’ll have to figure

something else out. I need to have a life-line. If I cannot find an apprenticeship or find
work, maybe I will try another program. I try to avoid wasting time. Since there are no
apprenticeships to be found, I’d rather spend my time here than sleeping until 12 and not
get anything done at all. But it would be great to get out and do some work.
…
 212 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

I have found an apprenticeship as YY. It’s like an ordinary education, only you don’t start
at the school but at the company. Now I know what is going to happen in the future.
Instead of just hanging out at school. Now it’s high speed. I like that. You work twelve
hours, one hour break, you can tell that it’s a bit rough. Before I was ‘lazy tired’ now I am
physically tired. I like that. I also have some good colleagues, which means a lot. There is
not one single person from work who I don’t get on with. It’s a part of wanting to get up
and go to work. It’s the best thing that has happened for a long time.

Being serious and moving on is an important driving force for some young people on
the edge of the education system and it seems to be important to experience a sort of
‘work-directedness’. However, this strategy could be undermined by a lack of appren-
ticeships which, together with the current educational policy, means that those who do
not do well in the competition for apprenticeships are forced to stay in education. The
question is, how long will they manage to focus on education as a meaningful road to a
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job? In our data, there are examples of young people who do not manage to maintain
the focus and who find their educational trust decreasing. Educational trust for them is a
more general trust in the education system; the belief that education really is going to
secure them a future job. This is essential for their completion and illustrates how
important it is for the system to communicate in words and actions that help is available
to find apprenticeships and/or jobs. Peter has experienced a change during his time at
vocational school:

Before, you just signed up to another programme. No one thought: ‘is that a good idea’?
You could end up doing ten different programs. But that’s not cool. I needed to move on.
They pulled me into a meeting and that made me start thinking. They went through every-
thing with me and took their time to explain possibilities and told me what they thought
would be best for me. They took their time.

In our data, time appears as a vertical theme of importance just as it appears in situa-
tions, like the one above, where Peter describes how the professionals spending of time
to talk to him built confidence and trust. However, time also appears as a theme in situa-
tions where some of the respondents are expressing a need for enough time to settle and
develop. In this sense, time is understood as a form of appreciation that can be seen as
a precondition for the building of educational trust. The respondents report that when
mentors and teachers set aside a lot of time to talk to them, it is interpreted as an
expression of trust, which engages them in a positive process towards education. The
fact that the professionals within the system actually ask about their intentions, talk
about possibilities and offer them guidance enhances the young people’s trust in the sys-
tem. For young people on the margins of education, this is particularly important. Fur-
thermore, the focus on ‘bridging strategies’ (Strathdee 2013) is needed; Peter is an
example of this, he found his apprenticeship through an acquaintance of his friend’s
father. For this group of young people, this is particularly relevant as they often lack
social networks and therefore bridging strategies can act as a conduit through which
young people get easier access to placements and future opportunities of employment.

Conclusion
On the basis of the research reported in this article, we have identified three overall
components of educational trust: socially secure environment, flexibility in structures
and progression in skills. We have argued that the concept of educational trust creates a
 Educational Research 213

shift in focus from the individual young person to the role and function of the education
system in reaching the target of more young people completing education. With this
shift in focus, we ask the question: what can the educational institutions do differently
to support the participation of young people on the margins of education into education?
This research suggests that resources spent on strengthening the educational environ-
ment offering a supportive and acknowledging sphere, flexible approaches to learning
and focus on support towards apprenticeships are all worthwhile, as they enhance a
fundamental educational trust that can secure the completion of education and also
young people’s future prospects on the labour market.
The intention from the outset has been to explore the respondents’ perception of
self-confidence in a broad perspective, which led to the concept of educational trust. As
a result of the interaction between the empirical data and the theory, a conceptualisation
has evolved, which we find highly relevant for research on young people on the margins
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of the education system. In relation to this, we want to add a methodological comment.

The fact that we interviewed and re-interviewed the respondents is of value, we feel, as
it improved the qualitative depth and quality by allowing the respondents to ‘protest
against the presumptions of the researchers’ questions and interpretations’ (Kvale and
Brinkmann 2009, 270). For example, during the interviews, we returned to the concept
of self-confidence in order to let the respondents elaborate on their perception as well as
verifying our interpretations. This process added a qualitative depth to the study. How-
ever, there are also limitations to the method. In this research, the limitation is that we
have only empirically explored the concept of self-confidence and not fully the concept
of ‘educational trust’. Hence, there is an un-researched area addressing youth and educa-
tional trust as well as the methodological exploration of methods that facilitate research
on the interaction between youth and education with a focus on trust.
With the research presented here, we want to encourage a perspective on the interac-
tion between youth and the educational institutions and systems, rather than focussing
on the individual youths and their competences, vulnerabilities, self-perceptions, etc. We
argue that a focus on the education system and young people’s trust of the same can
contribute to new ways of supporting young people on the margins of the education
system to re-enter education.
This article calls for more research on youth and educational trust; how do young
people on the margins of education experience trust? How can educational institutions
use this knowledge to develop and qualify alternative education programmes and initia-
tives aimed at ensuring more youth actually meaningfully complete education? We need
research to identify solutions that will help rebuild the trust of the young people and
thereby help them to successfully complete their education in ways that will qualify
them for the future labour market.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This project was funded by the Central Denmark Region.
 214 A. Görlich and N. Katznelson

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