KENNIS & KUNDE

Werken aan een toekomstperspectief voor

kansarme jongeren

Een Argentijnse
benadering
Gabriela Aisenson, Leandro Legaspi & Viviana Valenzuela

Het team Counseling and Guidance Psychology van de Universiteit van

Buenos Aires werkt al jaren aan de ontwikkeling van methoden voor de be-
geleiding van jonge mensen in kwetsbare sociale situaties. Denk aan tiener-
moeders, criminelen en daklozen. De ontwikkelde interventies zijn gebaseerd
op analyses van de levensomstandigheden en de diepe impact daarvan op
hun identiteit. Hoe beschouwen deze jongeren hun toekomst en hoe antici-
peren ze daarop? Gert van Brussel ontmoette de onderzoekers in Madrid op
de IAEVG-conferentie en nodigde ze uit de essentie van hun onderzoeks- en
ontwikkelactiviteiten te beschrijven.

62 LoopbaanVisie augustus 2017


In the current context of globalized societies, the
aspiration of sustainable life path and securing
decent work set as essential objectives, although
it is difficult to reach at times. In the context of
increasingly precarious life paths, reflected in the
augment of poverty, indigence, unemployment
and job insecurity, the following question is priority:
How can interventions in guidance and counse-
ling accompany the development of people's life
paths, considering their institutional and community
insertions, while keeping in mind the achievement of
sustainable development and ensuring decent work
for all? Argentina's current outlook sets a discoura-
ging picture. The country is experiencing a complex
period of changes at political, economic and cultural
levels, which are expressed in the rise of social con-
flicts and overall increased inequality.
Social vulnerability
The Counseling and Guidance Psychology team
in the University of Buenos Aires has an extended
trajectory of work concerning vulnerable populations
in three developed and articulated areas of academic
activity (under-graduate and postgraduate teaching,
research and services) that are connected to the
particular issues and challenges that people in our
country face nowadays. Social vulnerability is one of
the problem areas in Argentina, a context in which
large groups of people engage in their occupational
and educational decision making and activities. This
circumstance reduces people’s possibilities and op-
portunities to actively participate in the social world.
In our work we have focused on groups of young
people in different vulnerable situations: discon-
tinuous educational trajectories, homelessness,
teenage motherhood and offenders of the legal
system. We also have worked with young people that
participate in social inclusion programs like school or-
chestras. We developed a program of work that stu-
dies the relationship between psychological factors
and social determinants, involved in the processes
of project development and identity construction. In
addition, we created intervention approaches based
Hoofdartikel
on the results of our research that aim to respond to
the specific problems of these populations.
Typologies
From life path narratives we aim to understand
the individual patterns that young people use to
interpret and give meaning to their life experiences,
characterized by material conditions that hinder their
personal development and limit them in achieving
significant social involvement. The pathways of these
young people are marked by poverty and preca-
riousness, tough family experiences, institutional
and social violence, numerous discontinuities and
ruptures in their environment, school failure and
work difficulties. These circumstances have a deep
impact on their identity construction, and contribute
to how they give meaning to what happens to them,
and influence how they can anticipate the future in
different ways, as an opportunity for openness or in-
stead a situation involving repetition of old patterns
and hopelessness.
These circumstances have a deep impact
on their identity construction
Our research results have allowed us to build typo-
logies related to ways to consider and anticipate
the future, with special stress in the constructive
outcomes that these anticipated futures can enable
young people to achieve. These typologies progres-
sively go from 1) a “Ruined future”, denied since
the beginning in their life stories; 2) the future
as unimaginable, which translates into a “Day by
day” way of living; 3) a future linked to hope and
change, as a “way to repair” their history; 4) “Step
by step” future, considering it as a series of actions
that involve personal learning and changes that are
recognized by the subject as valuable, and taking to
the achievement of more decent insertions.
LoopbaanVisie augustus 2017 63
 KENNIS & KUNDE
Links FUTURE – IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION in the typologies
RUINED DAY
FUTURE BY
DAY
F: non-
F: transformable / something
F: denied - IC: A inimaginable /
hope - IC: New different - IC:
poten/al lost/ a norma/ve
roles to iden/fy Meaning
waste projects - IC:
Being
TO DECENT INSERTIONS –SUSTAINABLE LIVES
F: future; IC: identity construction
Figuur 1. Future life typologies of adolescents
Proper contexts
From Guidance and Counseling Psychology per-
spective, it is a priority to investigate and create
approaches and interventions with the intention of
understanding and providing assistance to the most
disadvantaged populations. This enables the deve-
lopment of conceptual tools and specific approa-
ches, needed in community work, to promote more
successful integration of disadvantaged groups and
in promoting social justice. It´s necessary to create
proper contexts to help young individuals recover
and value their personal and environmental resour-
ces. Also, principal objectives should be to make
critical reflections and considerations about the
social representations of work, and denature certain
meanings that can perpetuate inequality and lack of
opportunities. It is also necessary for the counselors
to adopt an analytical stance to their practices. It is
noted that, even from well-intentioned ideas, certain
practices, far from accompanying in building sus-
tainable trajectories, actually block the possibility of
constructing validating narratives of personal stories.
64 LoopbaanVisie augustus 2017
FUTURE ACTION:
AS A STEP BY
WAY TO STEP
REPAIR
F: doing
with Worthwile/
Personal Value
The social stand “build projects for their future”
that is held from many social institutions in which
vulnerable individuals participate, may disqualify
and paralyze them. We can observe in young peo-
ple's stories how they try to comply with society’s
imposition of having to "build a project", which they
associate with being someone socially accepted
and recognized. Many times they feel inadequate
and without resources to satisfy these demands,
but when they manage to distance themselves
from others’ expectations and take charge of their
own stories, a creative new personal construction
appears. From this experience, they can discover
themselves as being day to day constructors of their
own lives, capable of achieving things, and provi-
ding a whole new range of possibilities. Accordingly,
we accompany the construction of their life stories
and projects, with the purpose of creating new pos-
sibilities for insertion focused on decent work.
Social inclusion
In the context of 21st century guidance and counse-
ling practices general objectives, we aim to help
people develop a strong and positive sense of them-
selves, and develop anticipations of the future that
allow a satisfactory social inclusion. We recognize
that, in recent years, these issues are also part of
many countries' agendas. In our country, we have
been working on these issues for more than three
decades, with a tradition of research and practices
that studies and tries to help those who need it the
most. Furthermore, in Latin America, as has been
seen in the Congress of the International Association
of Educational and Professional Orientation (AIOEP)
2016, there are developments that can certainly
contribute to these objectives, related to the XXI
century guidance and counseling practices. Our
participation in the Congress, has enabled us to
transmit, share and discuss experiences, research
and theoretical conceptions with Latin American
colleagues, and has made our contributions more
visible to conference participants from other regions
of the world.
Nawoord Gert van Brussel
Argentinië en Nederland zijn op het eerste gezicht
moeilijk te vergelijken. Er zijn grote culturele en
sociaal-economische verschillen. Het publieke debat
wordt in ons land momenteel vooral bepaald door
zaken als klimaatverandering, migratie, Europese
(de)stabilisering, et cetera. Argentijnen hebben
vandaag andere zaken aan hun hoofd. Maar toch
hebben wij ook onze criminaliserende jeugd. Zo
verscheen zaterdag 11 juni een onthullend artikel:
‘Criminelen op het schoolplein’. Voor collega's werk-
zaam in het onderwijs niets nieuws, voor mij toch
een eye-opener. Verschillen, maar zeker ook overeen-
komsten dus. We kunnen de nodige inspiratie halen
uit het engagement van de Argentijnse onderzoe-
kers en leren van hun ervaringen en benadering van
kansarme jongeren. ■

Gabriela Aisenson, Ph.D in Psychology. University of Buenos Aires -

CNAM Paris. Buenos Aires Argentina. Conceil de direction UNESCO
chair of Life Long Guidance and Counseling

Leandro Legaspi, Lic. in Psychology. Mg in Educational Psycho-

logy. University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Co-director of research.
Professor in under-grated and post-grated area of Vocational and
Gabriela, Viviana en Leandro Occupational Counseling and Guidance.

Viviana Valenzuela, Lic. In Psychology. Ph.D scholarship- University of

Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor in under-grated and post-grated
area of Vocational and Occupational Counseling and Guidance.

LoopbaanVisie augustus 2017 65

 MACHT & INVLOED

NOLOC LOOPBAANCONGRES

1 dag | 4 sprekers | 1000 vakgenoten!

Thema: Verbinden!

BEATRIXTHEATER | UTRECHT | 14 NOVEMBER 2017

66 LoopbaanVisie augustus 2017

 KANTELING Hoofdartikel

In gesprek met Liesbeth Kramer, Congrescommissie

‘Verbinding’ als hoofdthema, waar moeten we aan denken?
“Verbinding staat voor ontmoeten, met elkaar in gesprek gaan, met delen waar we aan werken, met van
elkaar weten wat ons drijft. Verbinding binnen de vereniging, maar ook daarbuiten. Noloc speelt een verbin-
dende rol tussen loopbaanontwikkeling, jobcoaching en onderwijs. En zet ook nadrukkelijk in op samenwer-
king met HR-management binnen organisaties. Verbinding staat voor deze dag, een inspirerende, motive-
rende, verdiepende en vooral gezellige dag waarbij zo’n 1000 vakgenoten elkaar ontmoeten.”

Hoe is de dag opgebouwd?

“Om deze dag vakkundig aan elkaar te praten kunnen we rekenen op de verbindende kracht van onze
dagvoorzitter Anouschka Laheij. Dit jaar is het programma verdeeld in 4 themablokken met plenaire
sprekers. Tijdens de ochtend gaan Jitske Kramer en Kim Spinder respectievelijk in op de thema’s Verbinden
en Verbeelden. De thema’s Verkennen en Verwonderen komen in de middag aan bod en worden gepresen-
teerd door Ans de Vos en Jaap Bressers. Direct na de lunch zal Aaltje Vincent haar nieuwe boek Jobmarketing
3.0 lanceren en presenteren. Gedurende alle pauzes, de lunch en de borrel na het middagprogramma is er
volop ruimte om te ontmoeten en om de diverse inspirerende exposanten te bezoeken. Ook dit jaar hebben
de exposanten diverse aanbiedingen, activiteiten en demonstraties op hun stands.”

Voor wie is het Loopbaancongres bedoeld?

“Voor iedereen die met carrières en het loopbaanvak te maken heeft. We hebben een afwisselend en voor
iedereen aansprekend programma samengesteld, van student tot senior loopbaanadviseur, HRM’ers en
jobcoaches. Er is veel relevante informatie over actuele ontwikkelingen te krijgen en je kunt er nieuwe
inspiratie en contacten opdoen. We zijn trots dat we mooie sprekers en goede exposanten hebben en onze
vakgenoten volop ruimte bieden om te verbinden en te netwerken.”

Utrecht als locatie?

“Het Noloc Loopbaancongres 2017 vindt dit jaar op dinsdag 14 november plaats in het Beatrix Theater in
Utrecht. Een toplocatie, centraal gelegen en uitstekend bereikbaar. Alle ruimte voor onze ambitie om voor
het eerst meer dan 1.000 vakgenoten te mogen ontmoeten, met wie we het evenement tot een groot succes
gaan maken!”

Nieuwsgierig geworden? Kijk op www.nolocloopbaancongres.nl.

Tot 1 september kun je nog gebruik maken van de vroegboekkorting!

Tot dinsdag 14 november 2017 in het Beatrixtheater!

www.nolocloopbaancongres.nl

LoopbaanVisie augustus 2017 67