Bites of presentation for the ECER 2021 Conference. The presentation is on educational and professional aspirations of upper-secondary TVET students in transition to adulthood in Chile, which is part of a broader longitudinal qualitative doctoral research.

1. Understanding aspirations:
Why do secondary TVET students aim so high in Chile?
Alice Aldinucci, PhD Candidate, School of Education, University of Glasgow
a.aldinucci.1@research.gla.ac.uk
ECER 2021 Geneva (online)

2. Understanding educational and professional aspirations
RATIONALISTIC AND
CLASS-BASED
ASSUMPTIONS
Educational
aspirations = proxies
of educational
expansion
Higher aspirations /
Higher achievements
/ Higher or Tertiary
Education (HE/TE)
Importance of looking at the
meanings attributed to aspirations

3. The context of TVET
transitions in Chile
Source: https://data.oecd.org
33%
34%
90%
30%
45%
81%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
TE enrolment
(19-20 years old)
TE attainments
(25-34 years old)
Secondary graduation rate
Expansion of Education Chile/OECD average
OECD Chile
Source: author (data from https://data.oecd.org) 2016-2020

4. Typological analysis
ASPIRED TRAJECTORIES POST-SECONDARY
EDUCATION
University TVET Work
4 F / 7 M 6 F / 7 M 3 F / 1 M

5. Conclusions
Instrumental rationality
too simplistic even when
students showed some
forms of rationality.
Structuralism too
simplistic as it limits
the understanding of
the majority of the
students’
aspirations.
Reflexivity to
understand
students’ response
to high social
inequalities and
neoliberal
meritocratic culture.
Aspirations

6. Post-school transitions

7. Thank you