The right to a second chance: lessons learned from the experience of early school leavers who returned to education

Abstract

Based on a holistic perspective of education that articulates school pedagogy and social pedagogy, the main goal of this paper is to identify effective ways to ensure the right to education to vulnerable and marginalised young people who have dropped out of school. The research leading to this paper was part of a European research project which investigated how young people’s responses to conflict can provide opportunities for positive social engagement. This specific study explored early school leaving and school re-engagement from the point of view of a group of 20 Portuguese young early school leavers who later returned to school through Second Chance Education. Through a qualitative approach using individual in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group, the study sought to offer a comprehensive reading of early school leaving and school re-engagement by addressing the diversity of motivations, experiences, factors and consequences associated with them, as well as the role that educational policies and school factors can play in it. The study’s findings revealed that, for many socially and economically vulnerable youngsters, mainstream schools are places of individual failure and interpersonal conflict where they don’t feel welcomed and from which they stop expecting positive outcomes. This favours a progressive disengagement from education that reinforces social marginalisation. However, the findings also showed that by engaging in second chance education projects, youngsters develop greater commitment to education and identify relevant positive changes in terms of personal and skills’ development, behavioural adjustment and establishment of life goals. According to the participants’ experiences, the holistic and individualised socio-pedagogical approach of such projects is particularly apt to respond to their needs. Community-based educational approaches, practical and participatory learning environments, and the emotional investment and support from teachers and staff are shown to be the most effective socio-educational features when trying to re-engage vulnerable young people in education.

Full text

[THE RIGHT TO A SECOND CHANCE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF EARLY SCHOOL LEAVERS…]
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CONTACT WITH THE AUTHORS
FILIPE MARTINS. Universidade Católica Portuguesa. E-mail: fmartins@porto.ucp. pt
THE RIGHT TO A SECOND CHANCE: LESSONS LEARNED
FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF EARLY SCHOOL LEAVERS
WHO RETURNED TO EDUCATION
DIREITO A UMA SEGUNDA OPORTUNIDADE: LIÇÕES APRENDIDAS DA
EXPERIÊNCIA DE QUEM ABANDONOU E REGRESSOU À ESCOLA
DERECHO A UNA SEGUNDA OPORTUNIDAD: LECCIONES APRENDIDAS
DE LA EXPERIENCIA DE QUIEN ABANDONÓ Y REGRESÓ A LA EDUCACIÓN
Filipe MARTINS, Alexandra CARNEIRO, Luísa CAMPOS, Luísa MOTA RIBEIRO,
Mariana NEGRÃO, Isabel BAPTISTA & Raquel MATOS
CEDH - Research Centre for Human Development,
Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto
Received date: 12.XI.2019
Reviewed date: 21.XI.2019
Accepted date: 12.II.2020
KEY WORDS:
early school leaving
school engagement
second chance
education
support relationships
social inclusion.
ABSTRACT: Based on a holistic perspective of education that articulates school pedagogy
and social pedagogy, the main goal of this paper is to identify effective ways to ensure the
right to education to vulnerable and marginalised young people who have dropped out of
school. The research leading to this paper was part of a European research project which
investigated how young people’s responses to conflict can provide opportunities for positive
social engagement. This specific study explored early school leaving and school re-engage-
ment from the point of view of a group of 20 Portuguese young early school leavers who later
returned to school through Second Chance Education. Through a qualitative approach using
individual in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group, the study sought to
offer a comprehensive reading of early school leaving and school re-engagement by address-
ing the diversity of motivations, experiences, factors and consequences associated with them,
as well as the role that educational policies and school factors can play in it. The study’s
findings revealed that, for many socially and economically vulnerable youngsters, mainstream
schools are places of individual failure and interpersonal conflict where they don’t feel wel-
comed and from which they stop expecting positive outcomes. This favours a progressive
disengagement from education that reinforces social marginalisation. However, the findings
also showed that by engaging in second chance education projects, youngsters develop
greater commitment to education and identify relevant positive changes in terms of personal
and skills’ development, behavioural adjustment and establishment of life goals. According
to the participants’ experiences, the holistic and individualised socio-pedagogical approach
of such projects is particularly apt to respond to their needs. Community-based educational
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Versión en español: https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/PSRI/article/view/75246/61095
139 2020 36 09

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approaches, practical and participatory learning environments, and the emotional investment
and support from teachers and staff are shown to be the most effective socio-educational
features when trying to re-engage vulnerable young people in education.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
abandono escolar
precoce
envolvimento escolar
educação de
segunda
oportunidade
relações de suporte
inclusão social
RESUMO: Partindo da articulação entre pedagogia escolar e pedagogia social, o principal
objetivo deste artigo é identificar formas eficazes de garantir o direito à educação a jovens
vulneráveis e marginalizados que abandonaram a escola precocemente. A pesquisa que levou
a este artigo fez parte de um projeto europeu que investigou como as respostas dos jovens ao
conflito podem oferecer oportunidades para um envolvimento social positivo. No presente
estudo explorou-se o abandono e o re-envolvimento escolar a partir do ponto de vista de um
grupo de 20 jovens portugueses que abandonaram a escola e que mais tarde a retomaram
via projetos de Educação de Segunda Oportunidade. Através de uma abordagem qualitativa,
utilizando entrevistas individuais, observação participante e grupos focais, o estudo procurou
uma leitura abrangente do abandono e do re-envolvimento escolar, abordando a diversidade
de motivações, experiências, fatores e consequências a eles associados, bem como o papel
das políticas educativas e dos fatores escolares nestes fenómenos. Os resultados do estudo
revelam que, para muitos jovens social e economicamente vulneráveis, as escolas regulares
são lugares de fracasso individual e de conflitos interpessoais onde não se sentem bem-vin-
dos e dos quais deixam de esperar resultados positivos. Isso favorece um distanciamento
progressivo da educação que reforça a marginalização social. Por outro lado, os resultados
também mostram que, ao envolverem-se em projetos de Educação de Segunda Oportunida-
de, os jovens demonstram maior comprometimento com a educação e identificam mudanças
positivas em termos de desenvolvimento pessoal e de habilidades, ajuste comportamental e
estabelecimento de objetivos de vida. A abordagem sociopedagógica holística e individua-
lizada da Educação de Segunda Oportunidade demonstrou ser particularmente adequada
para responder às necessidades destes jovens. As estratégias educativas baseadas na co-
munidade, os ambientes de aprendizagem prática e participativa e o investimento emocional
de professores e funcionários revelaram-se os recursos socioeducativos mais eficazes para
re-envolver jovens vulneráveis na educação.
PALABRAS CLAVE:
abandono escolar
temprano
participación escolar
educación de
segunda
oportunidad
relaciones de apoyo
inclusión social
RESUMEN: Partiendo de la articulación entre la pedagogía escolar y la pedagogía social, el
objetivo principal de este articulo es identificar formas efectivas de garantizar el derecho a
la educación de los jóvenes vulnerables y marginados que abandonaron la escuela temprano.
La investigación que condujo a este artículo fue parte de un proyecto europeo que investigó
cómo las respuestas de los jóvenes al conflicto pueden ofrecer oportunidades para una parti-
cipación social positiva. Este estudio exploró el abandono y la reincorporación escolar desde
el punto de vista de un grupo de 20 jóvenes portugueses que abandonaron la escuela y luego
la reanudaron a través de proyectos educativos de segunda oportunidad. Con un enfoque
cualitativo, utilizando entrevistas individuales, observación participante y grupos focales, el
estudio buscó una lectura integral del abandono y la reincorporación escolar, abordando la
diversidad de motivaciones, experiencias, factores y consecuencias asociadas con ellos y el
rol de las políticas educativas y factores escolares en estos fenómenos. Los resultados de lo
estudio han revelado que, para muchos jóvenes social y económicamente vulnerables, las
escuelas convencionales son lugares de fracaso individual y de conflicto interpersonal donde
no se sienten bienvenidos y donde ya no esperan resultados positivos. Esto favorece un dis-
tanciamiento progresivo de la educación que refuerza su marginación social. Por otro lado,
los resultados revelan que, al participar en proyectos educativos de segunda oportunidad, los
jóvenes muestran un mayor compromiso con la educación e identifican cambios personales
positivos de desarrollo personal y de habilidades, ajuste de comportamiento y establecimien-
to de objetivos de vida. El enfoque socio pedagógico holístico e individualizado de la educa-
ción de segunda oportunidad ha demostrado ser particularmente apropiado para satisfacer
las necesidades de estos jóvenes. Las estrategias educativas basadas en la comunidad, los
entornos de aprendizaje prácticos y participativos y la inversión emocional de los maestros
y el personal han demostrado ser los recursos socioeducativos más eficaces para volver a
involucrar a los jóvenes vulnerables en la educación.
1. Introduction
This paper explores Early School Leaving (ESL)
and school re-engagement from the point of view
of young people who have dropped out of school
before concluding compulsory education and lat-
er returned to school through Second Chance
Education projects1. In the last two decades ESL
has become a high priority social problem for Eu-
ropean institutions, policies, and governments,
as well as in academic research2. This focus has
oscillated between approaches that favour ed-
ucation as a basic right to self-development and
a precondition to citizenship and social inclusion
for all, and perspectives that give priority to the
qualification of young people to respond to the

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needs of the labour market and enhance produc-
tivity and international competitiveness (Magal-
hães, Araújo, Macedo, & Rocha, 2015). Within this
ambiguous framework, ESL has been largely ana-
lysed from an external “expert” point of view (by
researchers, policy makers, educational leaders,
and educators) and through quantitative and ex-
planatory approaches that ultimately reduce the
understanding of the phenomenon to the enunci-
ation of individual or family risk factors and to its
negative social and economic consequences (De-
Witt et al., 2013). This ‘individual-dominated’ view
of ESL (Nada et al., 2018) tends to stress young-
sters’ (and families’) disabilities and disruptive be-
haviours, as well as parents’ poverty and low qual-
ifications, in order to explain students’ academic
failure and inability to conform to school norms,
thus leading to school disaffection and, eventually,
to school dropout. Nevertheless, this view often
fails to take into account school-related factors
(DeWitt et al., 2013; Van Houtte & Demanet, 2016)
and ends up reinforcing stigmatised and blaming
visions of young people who drop out of school
(Ecker-Lyster & Niileksela, 2016; te Riele, 2006a;
Tilleczek et al., 2011).
In contrast, there is a lack of studies that seek
to understand the phenomenon from the point
of view of young people themselves, searching
for more procedural and contextualised readings
that can address the diversity of motivations, ex-
periences, factors and consequences associated
with ESL, as well as the role that educational pol-
icies and school-related factors can play in it (Ma-
gen-Nagar and Shachar, 2017; Smyth, 2007; Tillec-
zek et al., 2011). Nevertheless, some literature has
emerged, mainly in Anglo-Saxon contexts, which
has privileged an ethnographic approach to ESL,
often explicitly committed to the appreciation of
the voice and experiences of early school leav-
ers, as well as to the identification of alternative
socio-educational and pedagogical responses
that can promote their social inclusion and their
progressive empowerment (Jonker, 2006; Smyth,
2007; Smyth & Hattam, 2001; Smyth & McInerney,
2013; Tilleczek et al., 2011). These studies, however,
are scarce in Portugal.
ESL has been high in Portugal for most of
the past three decades, even though its rate has
been systematically decreasing, particularly in re-
cent years (50% in 1992, 43.6% in 2000, 28.3% in
2010, 11.8% in 2018) (FFMS, 2019). This decrease
is mostly due to the growing intervention of the
Child and Youth Protection Services in cases of
school absence and dropout, to the implementa-
tion of major national wide programmes and in-
clusive policies aiming to reduce school failure,
as well as to the increase of vocational training
programmes offered to young people with unsuc-
cessful and/or problematic school trajectories.
In 2018, according to official data, 11.8% of Portu-
guese youngsters between 18 and 24 were out of
school without completing compulsory education
(12th grade). ESL in Portugal has always been more
frequent among males (32.4% in 2010 and 14.7%
in 2018) than females (24.0% in 2010 and 8.7% in
2018) (FFMS, 2019).
Although ESL rates in Portugal have been
dropping, young people with diverse and
un-linear trajectories of cumulative disengage-
ment from education (Dale, 2010; Tomaszews-
ka-Pękała, Marchlik, & Wrona, 2017) continue
to be widely present in Portuguese society and
tend to be pushed to its margins. These are pre-
cisely the young people who are the focus of this
study. Second Chance Education (SCE) is one of
the rare socio-educational measures available
to early school leavers, both under and over 18
years old. In the context of educational research
and policy recommendations addressing ESL,
compensatory or SCE strategies have been rec-
ognised, alongside prevention and intervention
strategies, as essential for reducing early drop-
out rates (Dale, 2010; Day et al., 2013; European
Commission, 2013). These are well established
and recognised in many European countries, al-
though still incipient in Portugal3. SCE projects
welcome youngsters who had unsuccessful and
often conflicting paths throughout mainstream
school leading to prolonged school absences or
to effective school dropout before finishing com-
pulsory education. These projects aim to provide
psychosocial support, academic qualifications
and a positive educational experience to early
school leavers, mainly through individualised,
flexible and participatory pedagogical approach-
es and vocational and artistic training. They usu-
ally develop a community-based approach, con-
necting with other relevant institutional agents
(youth protection and youth justice services,
health services, education and training agents,
local enterprises and charities) to foster young
people’s social, cultural and economic inclusion
and initiative.
2. Objectives
Based on a broad and holistic perspective of edu-
cation that articulates school pedagogy and social
pedagogy, the main goal of this study was to con-
tribute to the identification of more effective ways
to ensure the right to education to all young peo-
ple, regardless of age or academic qualification. In
order to achieve this goal, the study was designed
according to the following specific objectives:

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1. To identify school related factors that con-
tribute to cumulative school disengagement
and early school leaving;
2. To identify the educational factors that mo-
tivate early school leavers to engage and
persist in SCE projects.
The study adopted a biographical approach
based on the trajectories and experiences of Por-
tuguese young adults (over 18 years old) who had
dropped out of school before completing lower
secondary education and who later reengaged in
education through SCE projects. The research
was led by the following questions:
1. How have early school leavers experienced
their previous educational paths? And how
did these experiences transform their iden-
tities and biographies?
2. Why did they engage in a SCE project and
how do they experience their current par-
ticipation in it?
3. What benefits do early school leavers iden-
tify from participating in a SCE project?
What factors contribute to achieving those
benefits?
4. What lessons can be drawn from the ex-
periences and perspectives of early school
leavers that are relevant to socio-educa-
tional intervention with young people in
similar situations?
3. Methodology
In order to address these research questions, the
study followed a qualitative approach based on
the analysis of the perspectives, daily activities
and interactions of young people engaged in SCE
projects. This approach was considered the most
appropriate, not only because there is a lack of
studies that seek to understand ESL by taking
the voice of young people into account (Tilleczek
et al., 2011), but mainly because it allows a more
contextualised and comprehensive reading of the
diverse reasons, meanings, choices, factors and
associated outcomes that are at play in ESL and
school (re)engagement (Jonker, 2006; Nada et al.,
2018; Smyth, 2007; Smyth & McInerney, 2013).
Participants in this study were part of a larger
group of young people with pathways of psycho-
social risk and deviant behaviour who participat-
ed in an 18-month ethnographic case study carried
out in Portugal within the PROMISE project (see
Matos et al., 2018). The participants in the present
study were recruited from two SCE projects in the
north of Portugal. In total, 20 young people par-
ticipated, 7 of them girls (this gender imbalance
was a direct reflection of the gender imbalance
among students in the SCE projects, and among
early school leavers in Portugal, in general). Most
participants were aged 18 (n=7), 4 were aged 19, 4
were aged 20, 1 was aged 21, 1 was aged 22 and 3
were aged 24. All respondents were single. One
respondent was a mother of a young child. Ap-
proximately half of the respondents (n=9) lived
at home with both parents or with their mother
(n=8); one lived with his father, one lived alone and
another one lived in a residential care facility. 10
participants mentioned to have had previous con-
tact with the Youth Justice System and/or with
the Child and Youth Protection System. Although
no quantitative socioeconomic data was collect-
ed, participants’ reports about place of residence,
employment situation and household life make
it possible to determine that most participants
come from a low socioeconomic context.
The two SCE projects where participants were
recruited are civil society initiatives (although
working in close collaboration with the public
education system, including taking place in pub-
lic facilities and recruiting teachers from public
schools) which offer a lower secondary education
qualification to young people from 15 to 24 years
old who have dropped out of regular school. One
of the projects welcomes around 60 students per
year; the other receives about 30 students. Both
projects have a pedagogical approach based on
the arts and on vocational training (mainly cooking
and catering), and foster students’ participation
in school management and in local community
artistic or solidarity projects or in catering servic-
es. Students can join these projects via a Youth
Protection or Youth Justice Services order (this is
the case of most students under 18 years old), or
by their own initiative (the case of most students
over 18 years old).
At first, all respondents were given an infor-
mation sheet outlining the research and providing
contact details of the researchers and were as-
sured that they could choose not to participate
in or withdraw from the research at any point.
Additionally, all participants were asked to sign a
consent form. No individual files were accessed
during the research and all information gathered
was provided directly by the participants.
Data to this study were collected over a pe-
riod of 7 months (January to July 2017) using
semi-structured interviews, participant observa-
tion and focus group. Individual in-depth voice-re-
corded interviews were conducted with all partic-
ipants by the same researchers who conducted
participant observation, with an average length
of 39 minutes per interview. The semi-structured
interview questions were specifically designed to
this study and explored respondents’ previous

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educational paths and experiences, their process
and reasons to engage in the SCE project, their
current experience in these projects, as well as
the perceived personal changes brought by this
engagement.
Due to the similarities between the two SCE
projects and to better access conditions to one
of them, participant observation was mainly con-
ducted in one of these projects. It lasted through-
out the whole research period, and it focused on
students’ daily activities and some key project
events (weekly assemblies, external visits, festive
events). Additionally, a focus group was held in this
project at the end of the research period. It was
attended by 9 participants (two girls and 7 boys
aged between 18 and 21), lasted for 28 minutes
and addressed participants’ past experiences in
mainstream school and how they compared it with
their present experiences in the SCE project.
The interviews and the focus group were tran-
scribed verbatim and the participant observa-
tions were recorded in field notes. Both sets of
data were anonymised, coded (using Nvivo 11) and
analysed thematically by all the research team
members.
4. Results
This section presents the key findings of the study,
organised in four main themes that related to the
study’s research questions: participants’ past ex-
periences in mainstream school and its’ perceived
consequences; the efforts made by the partici-
pants to change their lives by reengaging in ed-
ucation; the personal changes they recognised
as a result from this reengagement; and, finally,
the educational factors that made these changes
possible.
4.1. Conflicts in school
Several and overlapping structural challenges and
disadvantages were evident across the narratives
of the participants in the study, namely related to
low socioeconomic status (poverty and precari-
ous employment conditions), place of residence
(mainly deprived and stigmatised urban neigh-
bourhoods) or gender inequalities (mostly felt
by girls in terms of moral judgment, limitations to
individual freedom and barriers to access the la-
bour market). These disadvantages were pictured
by most respondents as determining their life op-
portunities and choices in several domains (edu-
cation, work, family, mobility), often putting them
in vulnerable, risky or marginalised positions. Con-
sequently, these young people were highly prone
to social stigmatisation, as well as to recurrent
conflicting or problematic experiences, namely
within their families, with their peers or intimate
partners, in their neighbourhoods, with the police
or other justice or protection agents and institu-
tions, and, of course, at school (for further detail
regarding young people’s experiences of conflict
see Matos et al., 2018).
Mainstream schools were the sites where the
participants referred to have had the most con-
flict-based experiences throughout their lives.
These were mentioned both in individual inter-
views and in the focus group and tended to be
particularly related to resistance or undisciplined
behaviours at school, as well as to the lack of in-
terest or motivation to be in school: ‘I didn’t want
to go to school, I didn’t like school’ (Óscar4, 18
years old); ‘At my old school, I beat the record of
disciplinary offences, really, ... there wasn’t a sin-
gle class where I wasn’t sent to the student’s office
with a disciplinary offence, because I was always
getting into trouble’ (Andreia, 18).
Some young people perceived their learning
difficulties as individual inabilities that justified
school failure – ‘I always had trouble in school,
even when I was younger... Some [kids] took the
test in five minutes, while I left with only half the
test done’ (Óscar, 18). Others mentioned to have
experienced violence at school (whether as vic-
tims or as perpetrators of bullying or aggression
to teachers or staff): ‘I had a hard time staying
focused, ignoring what others were saying about
me, not thinking about what would happen to me
if I were out on the break. I often came out [to
recess] and there were already people there to
harass me’ (Lourenço, 24).
However, the most prominent aspect respond-
ents referred to when recalling their past expe-
riences in mainstream schools were situations
where they felt that the school as a whole, and
teachers in particular, didn’t care about students.
Some referred to mainstream schools and its
teachers as having distant and non-supportive
relationships with the students, as well as low ex-
pectations and low commitment towards them:
‘School thinks we are not capable, doesn’t insist.
You don’t come, you don’t get. It’s finished. Give
up, go away. You’re expelled’ (Elsa, 20); ‘Main-
stream school teaches, but it doesn’t care about
students, basically. … many schools always want to
check our records, our past, and don’t mind about
our present or our future, they just want to know
our past’ (Telma, 19).
Moreover, the feeling of being discriminated
against by schools and teachers due to their low
achievement, place of origin (poor neighbour-
hoods) or past behaviour was recurrent among
participants, often referring to schools that would

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transfer them to other institutions or refuse
their enrolment: ‘We had school records, school
failure and all those things, bad behaviours, dis-
ciplinary offences, and all that’ (Sérgio, 18). This
fostered relationships with conventional schools
and teachers often built upon mutual negative ex-
pectations and distrust, individual accountability
for failures and mistakes, conflict and, ultimately,
marginalisation.
Based on the participants’ narratives, as well
as in other studies on ESL (Alves et al., 2014; Mc-
Fadden & Munns, 2002; Smyth, 2007; Tilleczek et
al., 2011), it becomes evident that, for many vul-
nerable young people, schools become places of
individual failure and interpersonal conflict where
they don’t feel welcomed and from which they
stop expecting positive outcomes. These unsuc-
cessful and/or problematic paths in mainstream
school favour the emergence of a vicious circle of
conflicting behaviours and conflicting institutional
responses and lead to the accumulation of sym-
bolic and material factors that distance and dis-
engage young people form education, eventually
ending in school dropout (Lessard et al., 2008).
‘I left school at 13, 14; it was a decision of mine’
(Martim, 20); ‘I wanted to do a vocational course
and get out of regular school’ (Elsa, 20).
However, despite these reported overall neg-
ative feelings and repulsive relations towards reg-
ular school, most participants in the study stated
that they would later regret having dropped out
of school because they felt school dropout turned
out to be just another step in the circle of their
social marginalisation, making them even more
vulnerable to unemployment, poverty and deviant
behaviour, as well as to social stigmatisation and
conflict:
‘Maybe a lot of people looked down on me because
they knew that I wasn’t doing anything with my life
[because he dropped out of school], because I
wasn’t working, they thought maybe I was going back
to what I was before [deviant behaviour], I wasn’t go-
ing anywhere.’ (Marco, 24).
4.2. Searching for a second chance
All the participants of this study have gone
through problematic, conflictual and/or unsuc-
cessful experiences in mainstream schools and
have felt discrimination and personal disadvan-
tage because of it. However, by having enrolled in
a SCE project, they felt they were also engaging
in a change-seeking path that would help them
to overcome this vulnerable and stigmatising sit-
uation. And for some this really felt like their last
chance to seek positive changes for their lives:
‘It’s an excellent opportunity. … For example, I’m
24 years old, I’m young, but to finish my education
I’m not that young anymore, right?’ (Santiago, 24).
In fact, education was, again, at the centre of
the life of these youngsters, not as a site of con-
flict, but as a site of agency. Many respondents
mentioned that they had made personal efforts
searching for new education opportunities and/or
striving to be successful in the educational paths
they were in. Five respondents claimed to have
arrived at the SCE project via institutional indi-
cation and ten others via the suggestion of fami-
ly or friends, some of whom had previously been
enrolled in SCE projects themselves. However,
most participants clearly stated that they came
to the projects – and stayed in the projects – be-
cause they wanted to, and not because they were
told to.
What motivated me was my conscience, my con-
science. Maturity increased, did it not? It got to a
point that I had to say, “I have to go back to school
and improve myself.” The social worker got me this
[the SCE project] and I came. I grabbed it, to make
people happy and that was it... (Edgar, 21)
When asked about the reasons for being in the
SCE project, most respondents tended to stress
the new opportunity to reengage with school and
continue or finish their education. Other reasons
referred were: more opportunities to find work in
the future, the possibility to ‘be someone in life’
and have a better future, and, finally, the willing-
ness to meet their own or others’ (family, teach-
ers) expectations regarding their future: ‘My fami-
ly and work, I have to be someone. If I were alone,
I wouldn’t mind being a bandit, my friends are all
in jail. But no, I have a sister, I have a mother, I have
a grandmother’ (Marco, 24).
This new engagement in education tended to
be experienced by the participants as an oppor-
tunity to set a new course for their lives. Conse-
quently, it became a source of pride in themselves,
whether because of their renewed commitment in
school activities, because of the positive way they
were seen by others for reengaging in education,
or because of their own sense of self-improve-
ment in aspects like maturity, responsibility, be-
havioural adjustment, effort and self-reliance: ‘Yes
[it changed the way I saw myself]. I gained more
self-esteem and confidence in myself’ (Elsa, 20).
4.3. Change in progress
Change was a central issue for the participants of
the study, as all of them were seeking to build new
life paths that differ from their problematic past

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experiences through reengaging – and succeeding
– in formal educational trajectories. When asked
about the personal (felt or expected) changes they
perceived as resulting from their engagement in a
SCE project, respondents were almost unanimous
in stressing positive outcomes in a wide diversity
of dimensions. The most referred set of benefits
was ‘personal growth and new ways of thinking’,
encompassing ideas like ‘growth’, ‘evolution’, ‘rec-
ognising past mistakes’, ‘willingness to change’,
‘new life goals’, ‘looking at life in a positive way’,
and ‘higher aspirations’: ‘how am I going to ex-
plain? Now I dream bigger than I dreamed before’
(Raquel, 19).
A second set of benefits highly referred by the
respondents was related to a greater well-being
and feelings of self-value, self-esteem and of ‘be-
ing capable’.
They give me the strength to go forward, and to me,
that raises my self-esteem, doesn’t it? And it makes
me see myself in a better light. You are getting there,
you have people who care about you, you already
have something to hold on to and move forward’
(José, 19).
Another relevant set of benefits recognised
by the respondents was related to the improve-
ment of personal and social skills (keeping calm,
respecting others, communication, team work),
the improvement and diversification of relation-
ships (better and/or new relationships with family,
teachers, peers, other adults), and the adjustment
of past behaviours that they now considered to
be problematic: ‘My mother didn’t like it very
much that I was getting home late, for example,
and when I told her that I was struggling to find
a training course, our relationship started to im-
prove’ (Miguel, 20); ‘Ahhh, like working in a team…
Knowing how to respect others… with everything’
(Manuel, 18).
One last cluster of positive changes identified
by the participants was related to education and
learning, namely building a better relationship
with education and/or the school, improving or ac-
quiring new skills or fields of interest, and specific
curricular learning: ‘Always being in school, always
going to school. It’s one of the things that changed
in me. There was no school that could hold me
there for so long’ (Hugo, 19); ‘I’m learning well.
They teach you mathematics in a very different
way from mainstream school, so that in a certain
way you can understand things better’ (Edgar, 21).
These positive experiences, in turn, made it
easier, or even possible for respondents to achiev-
ing a school degree and getting better academic
qualifications, thus improving their opportunities
to find better jobs and have a better future: ‘I fin-
ished this in an instant. The teachers thought that
I was going to bail on this’ (Óscar, 18); ‘It is knowing
that I can have continuity in my future, to know
that this can provide continuity’ (Martim, 20).
4.4. Supporting change
In the face of such positive impacts identified by
the participants, the study focused on the factors
that, according to them, made these changes pos-
sible. The narratives about the ways participants
experienced the SCE projects were very telling
on this regard. Such as the impacts they identified,
their experiences were also typically positive and
almost all respondents stated ‘to like’ or ‘to feel
good’ in the SCE projects. These positive feelings
tended to be strongly associated with a sense of
being welcomed, listened to, respected, not being
judged, and being valued and supported in this
new context, especially by the adults present.
Not here; here you have that help, even if you are
having a bad day you always have that call from the
other side, like, good mood, you know it’s the best for
you and we need you, like, no other school does that.
It’s like that. Ahh, in other schools if you don’t want to
go, do not go (Marco, 24).
They help us a lot. If I have to talk, if I have to vent,
you can go to them. They give advice; it’s like a sec-
ond mother and a second father, basically. I feel
good, it’s different. The warmth, the cosiness, the
trust, is completely different. (Júlia, 18)
So I consider the [project name] a good place to be.
Teachers strive to help us, in whatever they can. They
do not just teach us stuff here, do they? They help us
with many other problems. Personal problems, just
like anyone has. (Santiago, 24)
No teacher ever spoke as well about me as these
teachers do. (Óscar, 18)
The relationships established within these
contexts were highly valued by most respondents,
particularly the relationships with teachers and
staff. These were described in a highly positive
tone, invoking notions of family, warmth, friend-
ship, acceptance, conviviality, and closeness. Most
teachers were pictured as agents of trust, care,
persistence (‘not giving up’) and support, thus be-
coming significant adults that truly respected, ap-
preciated and expected the best out of the partic-
ipants. These aspects could be confirmed through
participant observations, as relationships between
students and teachers were indeed witnessed as

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close, affective, supportive and frequently joyful.
It was also striking to witness how most teachers
knew about students’ personal life circumstances
and challenges and were frequently available to
give advice and help them at this level.
For most participants these highly valued re-
lationships were acknowledged as major levers of
personal change, namely by helping them to im-
prove their self-esteem and self-efficacy, to reach
moral and behavioural adjustment, to reinforce
their commitment to school, work and/or family,
and to define long-term life goals. Although the role
of supportive and individualised relationships has
long been stressed in the academic literature as a
key success factor to promote behavioural rehabili-
tation (Caise and Haines, 2015; McNeill eta al., 2012)
and educational attainment (Bradshaw, O’Brennan,
& McNeely, 2008; Johnstonbaugh, 2018; McFad-
den & Munns, 2002; Meltzer, Muir, & Craig, 2018),
this kind of relationships came as quite a new expe-
rience for most participants and, for many, it seems
to have made a great difference in their lives.
One particular aspect that the respondents
appreciated in these educational settings, felt as
directly related to personal change, was the sense
of commitment that teachers and staff dedicated
to the projects and to each of their students. This
was confirmed by the participant observations
conducted in the SCE project in a wide variety of
moments and practices (e.g., teachers phoning stu-
dents who were missing classes or who were go-
ing through a tough period, having long talks with
students who were going through personal prob-
lems or who misbehaved in some way, welcoming
students back to the project after long periods of
absence, working until late or at weekends to pre-
pare school activities, helping students find new
training opportunities, internships or jobs, medi-
cal or legal consultations, going to court hearings,
etc.). According to some respondents, this kind of
commitment from the adults made them commit
themselves to school in a completely new way.
I like to feel responsible, I like to feel that I have re-
sponsibilities with this [the SCE project]. I like... be-
fore I would wake up and “Hey, school! What is this?!
I go there and do what? Now I wake up and come
straight away. This is not even school, it’s the [name of
project]. It’s 10 o’clock, teacher Elisa must be there al-
ready, teacher Jorge must be there already. Let’s go!
We call each other “let’s get up”. It’s this motivation,
you know? A person feels the need to come here. It’s
not like “school.” (Nelson, 18)
Another aspect that was strongly valued by
respondents were the teaching methods and the
structuring of the daily activities. These tended
to be described as flexible and adjustable to the
students’ individual needs, moods, preferences
and learning paces. This was something easily ob-
served in the SCE projects, as many students were
frequently out of the classrooms, happily mov-
ing through the school and performing all kinds
of practical activities or running errands for the
teachers inside or outside the school. The teaching
methods were also praised by participants for their
creativity (through the use of arts) and for their
practical nature (through vocational training and
real activities in/for the community). Respondents
felt these pedagogical features made learning eas-
ier and more appealing for them, because it made
them feel challenged and capable of reaching new
goals. They also valued the fact that learning was
more attuned with the labour market reality that
they would have to face in the future.
Sometimes, with a game you’ll understand better
[maths] than working on equations the whole week;
and in English as well. I really like English. Portuguese
too. They do not badger you with that boring subject,
pum pum pum ... they find a way for you to under-
stand things... with games, with books and with read-
ings and poems, etc. It’s pretty good stuff. (Edgar, 21)
Finally, the opportunities these students had
to make suggestions and choices about their
learning process as well as about the overall pro-
ject activities and rules (e.g., in weekly school as-
semblies, which could be observed as highly par-
ticipated moments) were also stressed as positive
by some respondents.
Maybe not doing everything the way the teachers
would. We give some ideas and then we see if it’s
possible or not. I think this would be interesting be-
cause it also draws more from the student as well,
motivates the student. That part also motivated me
in the project; it was also getting away from the ex-
pected and choosing something else. (Rita, 20)
These spaces for agency provided by the SCE
projects gave youngsters the opportunity to ex-
periment practical, ‘hands-on’ and creative tasks
and join in decision making processes, thus foster-
ing a sense of belonging and ownership regarding
the SCE project, alongside with self-pride and
self-value for discovering new interests and skills
and for being able to accomplish new challeng-
es. As widely referred in academic research and
recommendations about school (re)engagement
(Davies, Lamb, & Doecke, 2011; Rajasekaran and
Reyes, 2019; Smyth, 2007; Tomaszewska-Pękała
et al., 2017) and desistence from antisocial behav-
iour (McNeill et al., 2012), these aspects, in turn,

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showed to be particularly relevant for participants
to adopt more prosocial behaviours, (re)engage in
education, become open to new perspectives and
build new life goals.
Lastly, it is relevant to stress that most of these
highly valued aspects – respectful, trustful, com-
mitted and supporting relationships, adaptable
and participatory activities – were precisely the
ones respondents tended to stress as the most
different from the experience they were used to
in previous formal education contexts, particularly
in regular school:
‘Because I think here teachers are different from regu-
lar school. Regular school teaches but doesn’t want to
know about students, basically. But not here, here you
notice the affection that the teachers feel for us. They
make us feel good, like we are at home’ (Telma, 19).
Moreover, this perceived contrast made many
participants willing to share their own experience
with other young people who dropped out of
school and persuade them to participate in the
projects, much like some of them had been pre-
viously persuaded to come by other former stu-
dents. In their views, SCE projects were particu-
larly fit to many youngsters they knew and with
whom they shared similar circumstances: friends,
siblings or cousins, mates from their neighbour-
hood, peers from former schools, which they de-
scribed as the ‘more problematic’, ‘those whom no
one believes in’, the ones ‘at home doing nothing’,
the ones marginalised by the school or the family.
And if many primary and secondary schools don’t
want to know of these ‘non-students’ who will want
to? Are they going to stay on the streets? Are they
going to become drug addicts? If not for [project
name] nobody else will want to know about them. If
not for schools like [name of project] they are refu-
gees in the streets, they have nothing. (Roberta, 18)
I think these people, the problematic ones, I think
they should really come here to spend a day with
us. In what school have you seen a teacher cooking
with the students?! Nowhere ... right? And here it’s
wonderful, I like being here. I love it and I think these
people would love it too. (Andreia, 18)
Like, if I see a colleague of mine talking about school
and stuff, I’ll say, “Oh, come to my school.” (Hugo, 19)
5. Discussion and conclusions: learning
from the real ‘experts’
This study sought to call into attention and em-
phasise the responsibility of society as a whole to
give an adequate response to those vulnerable
young people to whom school has failed. The
findings evidenced, alongside academic literature
(Alves at al., 2014; McGregor & Mills, 2012; Smyth,
2017; Tarabini, Jacovkis, & Montes, 2017; Tarabi-
ni et al., 2019; te Riele, 2006a), that mainstream
school continues to have difficulties dealing with
the sociocultural diversity of students, making it
especially hard for young people from low socio-
economic status or the working class to meet its
expectations and be successful, pushing already
vulnerable young people to a cumulative process
of school disengagement and eventual dropout.
However, these young people are precisely the
ones to whom education can make a bigger differ-
ence. But instead, school keeps making many of
them even more vulnerable.
Alternatively, at the core of educational re-en-
gagement measures, particularly SCE projects, is
precisely the aim to meet the specific needs of the
socially and educationally excluded young people.
And this might be the main lesson to learn from
this kind of initiatives. Unlike many mainstream
schools, SCE projects focus on addressing the
specific life circumstances of marginalised youth,
trying to respond in an individualised, integrated
and flexible way to the cumulative debilitating ef-
fects of poverty, family ruptures, risky or antisocial
behaviour, social stigmatization and school exclu-
sion. As the participants in this study eloquently
voiced, it’s by getting to know each student and
his/her life challenges, as well as his/her interests
and skills, and by respecting, valuing and expect-
ing the best out of each one, that these projects
are able to make a positive difference in young
peoples’ lives.
Through listening to the voices of early school
leavers that later reengaged in education – the
real “experts” – it becomes clear that a holistic
and comprehensive socio-educational praxis that
foster personal development beyond strict aca-
demic goals responds the best to vulnerable and
marginalised young peoples’ needs (McPherson,
2019; Savelsberg, Pignata, & Weckert, 2017). Ac-
cording to the narratives and practices collected
in this and other studies (Llena-Berñe et al., 2017;
McGregor et al., 2015) it is possible to highlight
several aspects of the SCE socio-pedagogical
intervention model that seem to have a positive
impact on young people’s behavioural adjustment,
educational (re)engagement and social inclusion.
A first lesson to be learned from the SCE ap-
proach is the central role that students play in
these projects. Unlike most of their past expe-
riences in conventional schools, here students
feel they are listened to, respected and valued
for what they are and for what they can be, and
not for who they were in the past, or for who they
cannot become. In SCE young people feel they

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can have a ‘fresh start’ (Tarabini, Jacovkis, & Mon-
tes, 2017) as partners in the teaching and learning
process, treated and trusted as equal and entitled
to express their views, choose, create and take
responsibility for the projects’ activities and for
their own educational path (McPherson, 2019).
This promotes students’ sense of belonging and
ownership (Willms, 2003) about the educational
settings and paths they are in, thus strengthening
their commitment and autonomy towards educa-
tion and learning.
A second lesson to draw from early school
leavers’ experiences in SCE projects is about the
decisive role of emotions and affective bonds in
school (re)engagement (Macedo, Santos, & Araújo,
2018; McFadden & Munns, 2002). Students are ex-
tremely sensitive about the emotional investment
teachers and other staff put in their relationships
with them. And they tend to respond according-
ly to it. The ‘emotional labour’ made by teachers
(McGregor & Mills, 2012; Mills et al., 2016) to wel-
come, support and inspire their students leaves
strong positive marks on them, as widely stated by
the participants in the study. When expected the
best, students tend to give their best. Even by en-
gaging others like them in SCE through their own
example, which can be seen as an extraordinary
case of generative agency or ‘giving back’ (McNeill
& Maruna, 2007). This shows how much teaching
can be a profession of care (te Riele, 2006b) and
hospitality (Baptista, 2012, 2016), enabling stu-
dents, especially those most vulnerable and on
the margins of society, to feel at home in school.
Finally, one last lesson to learn from SCE pro-
jects is the usefulness of its’ community-based ap-
proach to education, making frequent pedagogi-
cal, experiential and support links with diverse
agents from public, private and third sectors. This
helps students to broaden and diversify their
learning experiences, as well as their social sup-
port networks and, consequently, enhance their
social capital and future opportunities (Johnston-
baugh, 2018; Smyth, 2004).
The in-depth nature of the research carried
out in this study, although providing a procedural
and contextualised understanding of the factors
promoting school disengagement and reengage-
ment, is also a limitation since it is unable to iden-
tify wider patterns and factors relevant to a larger
range of social and cultural contexts. The study’s
synchronic approach also limits the understand-
ing of the extent to which SCE attendance affects
young people’s life trajectories at different levels
(e.g. family, education, employment, social mobili-
ty, civic participation). Future lines of research on
school (dis/re)engagement factors should include
mixed methods of cross-regional and cross-cultur-
al comparations among different pools of young
people, both in and out of school, as well as a di-
achronic approach focusing on a multi-level life
course analysis. Further research and policy and
practice recommendations are also needed re-
garding efficient ways on how to adopt learnings
from alternative socio-educational arenas, like
SCE, to early school leaving prevention in main-
stream schools.
Notes
1. This paper results from a post-doctoral research that was carried out within the European research project PROM-
ISE – Promoting Youth Involvement and Social Engagement – Opportunities and challenges for ‘conflicted’ young
people across Europe (May 2016 to April 2019) which investigated how young people’s responses to conflict can
provide opportunities for positive social engagement. This project was funded under the European Commission’s
Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Grant Agreement no. 693221.
2. According to the European Union, ESL refers to “those young people who leave education and training with only
lower secondary education or less, and who are no longer in education and training” (COM, 2013, p. 8).
3. On August 6, 2019 SCE has finally been formally recognised by the Portuguese government through the Order No.
6954/2019 of the Secretary of State of Education. Until that date only two SCE projects existed in the country.
4. All participants’ names used in this paper are pseudonyms.
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HOW TO CITE THE ARTICLE
Martins, F., Carneiro, A., Campos, L., Mota, L., Negrão, M., Baptista, I., & Matos, R. (2020). The right
to a second chance: lessons learned from the experience of early school leavers who returned to
education. Pedagogía Social. Revista Interuniversitaria, 36, 139-153. DOI: 10.7179/PSRI_2020.36.09

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[THE RIGHT TO A SECOND CHANCE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF EARLY SCHOOL LEAVERS…]
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AUTHOR’S ADDRESS
FILIPE MARTINS. E-mail: fdmartins@porto.ucp.pt
ALEXANDRA CARNEIRO. E-mail: acarneiro@porto.ucp.pt
LUÍSA CAMPOS. E-mail: mcampos@porto.ucp.pt
LUÍSA MOTA RIBEIRO. E-mail: lmribeiro@porto.ucp.pt
MARIANA NEGRÃO. E-mail: mnegrao@porto.ucp.pt
ISABEL BAPTISTA. E-mail: ibaptista@porto.ucp.pt
RAQUEL MATOS. E-mail: rmatos@porto.ucp.pt
ACADEMIC PROFILE
FILIPE MARTINS. Filipe Martins is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Universidade Católica Portu-
guesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology and a member of the Research Centre for Human
Development (CEDH-UCP), where he conducted postdoctoral studies in Social Pedagogy. He
holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (2013), with
the thesis “Between Project and Conviviality: being young in the poor outskirts of Mindelo, Cape
Verde”. He has developed ethnographic research with vulnerable young people in urban contexts
in Cape Verde and in Portugal, with a focus on young people’s educational trajectories, education-
al inclusion and civic participation.
ALEXANDRA CARNEIRO. Alexandra Carneiro is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Universidade
Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology and a member of the Research Centre
for Human Development (CEDH-UCP). Currently, she is also coordinator of the Clínica Univer-
sitária de Psicologia (CUP). She holds a PhD in Applied Psychology from School of Psychology,
University of Minho, with the thesis Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Preschoolers: Risk
Factors and Assessment Issues. In the last years she developed research in the areas of psycho-
logical assessment and psychopathology in preschool age children, routine outcome monitoring,
and youth social participation. Her main scientific areas of activity are psychological assessment
in children and adolescents, psychopathology in preschool age children, attachment, routine out-
come monitoring with children and adolescents, and youth social involvement.
LUÍSA CAMPOS. Luísa Campos is Assistant Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Fac-
ulty of Education and Psychology and a member of the Research Centre for Human Development
(CEDH-UCP). In the last years has developed several research projects about mental health pro-
motion and has published articles and book chapters.
LUÍSA MOTA RIBEIRO. Luísa Mota Ribeiro, PhD is Assistant Professor in Universidade Católica
Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology and a member of the Research Centre for Hu-
man Development (CEDH-UCP). She teaches psychological intervention in educational settings
and community psychology. Her research interests include student involvement and self-regulat-
ed learning, classroom questioning, teacher and student’s perceptions of teaching and learning,
and education of vulnerable children and adolescents.

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MARIANA NEGRÃO. Mariana Negrão is Assistant Professor at at Universidade Católica Portu-
guesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology and a member of the Research Centre for Human
Development (CEDH-UCP). She has a degree in Psychology from Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciên-
cias da Educação da Universidade do Porto and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from University of
Minho. Her clinical, research and training activity focuses on Parenthood and Risk for child de-
velopment and Out of Home Care for children and youth. She is a psychologist and is the coordi-
nator of “Aprender a Educar”, FAPsi - Advanced Training in Psychology and University extension.
ISABEL BAPTISTA. Isabel Baptista is an Associate Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa,
Faculty of Education and Psychology and a Senior Resercher of the Research Centre for Human
Development (CEDH-UCP). PhD in Philosophy and Master in Philosophy of Education (University
of Porto). Ethics Ombudsman (UCP-Porto). President of the Ethics Committee of the Portuguese
Society of Education Sciences (SPCE). Diretor of the journal A Página da Educação (www.apa-
gina.pt). Coordinator of Master Courses in Educational Sciences - Social Pedagogy (UCP-Porto).
RAQUEL MATOS. Raquel Matos is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Universidade Católi-
ca Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology and a Senior Researcher of the Research
Centre for Human Development (CEDH-UCP). She was awarded her PhD in Psychology in 2008
from University of Minho. In the last decades she has developed research projects on gender,
crime and punishment and has published articles and book chapters about women in prison as
well as about gender and migrations control. More recently she has been coordinating in Portu-
gal several European projects on juvenile delinquency, being particularly interested in exploring
young offenders’ life pathways and experiences in the justice system. Raquel Matos recently co-
ordinated the Portuguese team of Project PROMISE – “Promoting Youth Involvement and Social
Engagement – Opportunities and challenges for ‘conflicted’ young people across Europe”, funded
by Horizon 2020.