LEFTOVER STUDENTS: MOTIVATIONS AND CAUSES OF SCHOOL FAILURE IN YOUNG CHILEAN STUDENTS

Abstract

Current discussions on school failure have emphasized three distinct, but closely interconnected dimensions, namely the individual, the school context, and the family/community context. At the same time, they have pointed out the importance of the contexts of vulnerability for their study, especially in countries such as Chile, where education has undergone structural transformations which in recent decades have exacerbated problems such as segregation, and the deterioration of the quality in public education offered to these sectors. In this sense, this manuscript explores the discourses of a group of youngsters reporting their experiences of school failure in Temuco, Chile. Employing a case study, this research also pursued an exploratory scope with a qualitative paradigm; in turn, it included the discourses of eleven young people, seven professionals from the Chilean National Service for Minors, and four education professionals. The results show that the discourses of the youngsters make explicit reference to the 3 dimensions mentioned above. The concepts of demotivation and problematic students, in the individual dimension; school culture and exclusion of difference, in the school dimension; and transgenerationality, peer group and vulnerable neighborhoods, in the family/community dimension, stand out.