From access to retention: inequality and school dropout in Latin American upper secondary education

Abstract

School dropout in Upper Secondary Education (USE) in Latin America is a complex phenomenon associated with structural inequalities, educational segmentation, and institutional limitations. While most studies have focused on identifying causes and risk factors, little is known about the trajectories young people follow after leaving school. This article, derived from the doctoral research: What Comes After School Dropout? A Reconstruction of the Narratives of Colegio de Bachilleres Students, aims to analyze post-dropout trajectories and the meanings that young people attribute to this process. A qualitative case study with a phenomenological approach was conducted through semi-structured interviews with students who had dropped out of upper secondary education, as well as with family members and school staff from a Colegio de Bachilleres campus in Xochimilco, Mexico City. The findings indicate that school dropout is not an isolated event but a process shaped by the interaction of structural, institutional, family, and subjective factors. The study concludes that understanding the period following school dropout broadens the traditional explanation of the phenomenon by showing that school disengagement constitutes a process of reconfiguring young people's life trajectories, in which structural inequalities, subjective experiences, and forms of youth agency interact.