Alternative learning arenas in Portugal: hope for young adults?

This chapter focuses on the pathways and subjectivities of young adults who left compulsory school at some point in their lives but still find hope for their futures by reinvesting in education. The chapter provides insights into the mechanisms and processes behind students’ decision to leave school early and, simultaneously, to re-engage in schools or alternative learning arenas (ALA) that offer compensatory pathways. The question underlying this chapter is, ‘What makes young adults disengage and reengage in education?’ Early school leaving (ESL) results from processes of school disaffection associated with institutional, social and educational matters. With this concern, the singularities of different pedagogies and educational approaches in keeping young adults in education are highlighted. We make use of 16 interviews and four focus group discussions with young adults engaged in ALA. Findings indicate that, although young adults are limited in their citizenship by structural relations of power, their reengagement in education may be seen as the assertion of their voices as they struggle for the rights of inclusion, participation and enhancement, which shapes their educational citizenship (Macedo, 2018). Concurrently, we recognise that the educational policy has provided space for these voices to emerge through diverse educational offers. The tension between the social structure of citizenship discourses and the claim for Bernstein pedagogical and democratic rights is also analysed.