Students from GOETE case studies contributed their views on educational trajectories in a number of videos and essays. Here we are giving a flavour of what GOETE topics mean to them.

GOETE Video - Me, my education and I

The research project GOETE investigates the different pathways young people take through their education across eight European countries. While GOETE researchers have compiled long and very relevant but bulky reports this video gives the young respondents of our study a chance to express their own views, feelings and thoughts.

The young people involved in the project produced a variety of formats to present their views: some collected statements from their peers and others produced a fiction movie. The GOETE video presents a variety of expressions that reflect the different meanings that education has for these young people.

Watch the video from our website and read the background article.

Student Voices on Education: Essays written in the framework of the GOETE project

Finnland

The Ideal School

My ideal school would consist of more free and independent studying e.g. it wouldn't be mandatory to attend all lessons if one feels that one manages in tests with independent studying. My ideal school would also be very wealthy and the school building would be new and full with all sorts of modern technique for studying. It would also be great if the books and notebooks could be replaced by for example laptops. The classrooms would be cozy and not only white boring paint and uncomfortable chairs everywhere. The school days and lessons would be shorter so one would be able to concentrate the whole time during lessons.

The food in school would be of better quality and the quantity larger. During breaks it wouldn't be mandatory to go outside and the common rooms in the hallways would be cozier. Also the outdoor surroundings could be nicer and students would be allowed to exit the school area during the school day. In the ideal school teachers would be very professional in their subject and the quality of teaching would be good.

Turku, Boy

What I will do after the 9th grade and how I came up to this decision

I started thinking in the beginning of the 9th grade what I will become when I grow up. The decision was hard, because I wanted to graduate to so many professions. I decided anyways to apply to the Turku Vocational Institute. Behind the decision was that my father has his own firm and I wanted to be a part of it so I applied to xxx(name of branch) branch and I wish very much that I will manage in the entrance tests.  In the application I also put the Turku XX (name of school) the tenth grade, because in there was the opportunity to apply for language support, languages are taught as a main subject. I applied to that school because my English is not very good because my skills in language from primary school are inadequate.

I very much hope that I will get accepted to Turku Vocational Institute or to the 10th grade, because the 10th grade would help improve my numbers and give me more time to think if the Turku institute is the right place. I have also thought about double exam, but my mother said that it might turn up to be too hard. I nevertheless think about it and do not listen to my mother in this case, because I am the one studying there and not her. And after vocational school I am going to the University of Applied Sciences so a double exam would help me get there. :-)

Germany

My future

I can hardly see a bearable future, people destroy the Earth, they kill each other and are getting colder and colder and are focused on themselves.

Why should I want to see me in a future, when they do not see a future either; a future in which I would like to have children or even want to live with my wife when I’m 60 years old.

But our politicians are mainly interested in the point that we are doing well in Germany now, but in 30-40 years our children or their children will ask why we haven’t done anything.

Italy

Thinking about my future

I’m a boy and I’m almost 13 years old. I go to the Pestalozzi school and in the next two years I will go to the upper secondary school, but I don’t know yet where I will go.

I don’t have a dream, I only know that I’d like to do a honest job which can give me happiness to feel well.

One day, I’d like to take the qualification and, why not, to work and to become an important person. When I will be adult, I wouldn’t like to do “sophisticated” jobs (astronaut) but simple (as the chef or the lawyer).

The best subjects that I like are English, History, and Geography.

Since I was 7 years old I have been always fascinated by the idea to go to England, to the college, to learn English and also to visit the Great Britain. I hope that one day I will be able to go to Great Britain and to study the English language. Or, I’d like to open a restaurant where people can eat everything they want, it will be the best in Catania city. I would call it with an original name to attract more people.

GOETE has published a whole volume on student views from this collection of essays under the title "Far from frozen…"