REICE. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación

Early school leaving reflects the need to improve the current educational system. School failure and dropout show the school loses its social meaning. Current educational policies have proposed different measures and strategies to solve this situation. However, in practice they have constituted parallel educational systems, which do not modify what happens in school. Our study analysis of the educational keys from 13 life stories with young people who did not finish their studies of compulsory or post-compulsory secondary. The results show a progressive disengagement, from the educational and emotional point of view. The results show a progressive disengagement, from the educational and emotional point of view, especially with the transition from primary to secondary. The decision of early school leaving denotes a crisis in the feelings of recognition and belonging to the school. Young people look outside for what they did not find in school: learning from their motivations. Los jóvenes aprenden y son capaces de construir un proyecto personal y profesional a partir de estos aprendizajes en contextos informales. Consequently, they propose an educational model focused on learning rather than teaching. We need to identify and understand the learning in non-formal systems and transfer it to the school environment.