INCLUSION AND REPRODUCTION. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HABITUS AND PERCEIVED MASTERY OF STRATEGIC COMPETENCES

Abstract

The hypothesis informing this study was that students’ habitus, via their scholastic disposition, is associated with their self-perceived mastery of strategic skills. We set out to test this hypothesis by conducting multiple correspondence analysis followed by cluster analysis on a dataset collected from a convenience sample of 1,012 first-year students attending seven upper secondary schools. Through the Su Misura (Made to measure) service provided by the Anicia publishing house, the subjects completed a reading comprehension test, a math test, Michele Pellerey’s Learning Strategy Questionnaire, and a short student questionnaire. Five groups were identified via the statistical analyses. Examination of the properties of the different groups seems to show that the group with the poorest school disposition were disoriented but relatively capable of managing volition and anxiety. They also obtained low scores in the reading and math tests. The group with the best scholastic disposition achieved the highest scores on the two tests and scored higher in volition and tendency to attribute success to controllable causes than the mean of the validation sample. These results appear to confirm that there is a relationship between scholastic disposition and strategic skills, but one of moderate strength. This outcome can inform inclusion dispositives by prompting, for example, the activation of policies designed to engage and support families.