'NON FA PER TE'. ORIENTAMENTO SCOLASTICO E SCELTE DI INDIRIZZO NELLA SCUOLA SUPERIORE IN ITALIA.

TITLE: "Your are not meant for it". An ethnographic reserach on school counselling at the transition from lower to upper secondary school in Italy. ABSTRACT: The transition from lower to upper secondary school is crucial in reproducing educational inequalities in Italy. Based on one year ethnographic research carried out in two middle school in the city of Milan, the thesis highlight the role of teachers and school advisers in shaping students' educational identities and expectations. Participant observation and interviews with teachers, school advisers, students and parents have been carried out throughout the last year of middle school. The process leading to upper secondary school choices has been conceived as a social construction accomplished by actors differentially endowed with symbolic power. Through the concepts of field, habitus and cultural capital, the thesis show how in supporting and advising students and families, teachers and school advisers often, and unwittingly, reinforce the relation between ascribed memberships and school choices, thus contributing to the reproduction of social disparity in accessing to the different tracks that characterize upper secondary school within the Italian educational system.