Inside and beyond the classroom

This chapter focuses on main areas of explorations of the school experience, or gravitating around it, namely familial ties, peer relationship and community belonging, language adaptation, and the broad realm of self-identification. Such areas of exploration are, in fact, deemed critical in order to fully understand the school experience, such as its success or the hardships that come with it. For instance, families carry for them can be used to predict occupational performance and destinies. School environment and relationship with peers are also fundamental, although not necessarily part of the scholastic institution. As school represents the first milieu of socialisation outside the familial context, the literature stresses how peer relations at school influence children’s behaviour and understanding of their surroundings.