1373. sredin seminar: Angela Pacca: The Role of Peer Friendship Networks in Shaping Students’ Educational Pathways
The Role of Peer Friendship Networks in Shaping Students’ Educational Pathways
Angela Pacca
The research analyses how peer friendship networks within school classes influence students' post-secondary educational choices. Drawing on theories of social capital and reference groups, the study interprets the classroom as a closed relational arena in which daily interactions, patterns of reciprocity, and mutual recognition shape individual aspirations, expectations, and decision-making processes. Within this framework, peers are key reference points for comparison, imitation, and validation, thereby influencing how students perceive their educational opportunities and constraints.
The analysis relies on socio-centric network data collected from a large and stratified sample of secondary schools in the Campania region of southern Italy. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) are employed to examine the extent to which specific structural properties of the networks — such as mutuality, transitivity, and overall cohesion — influence the emergence of friendship ties and their association with students’ educational orientations. The study provides new insights into the micro-level mechanisms through which peer interactions contribute to shaping educational pathways and, ultimately, to the reproduction of social inequalities within school contexts.
PS. Kdor bi rad kaj povedal na naslednjih seminarjih, naj mi sporoči naslov teme in doda kratek povzetek.
