Educational Disengagement Trajectories
in Young Women from a Basic Vocational Training Perspective

Trayectorias de desenganche educativo en mujeres jóvenes: una mirada desde la Formación Profesional Básica

Sandra Obiol-Francés and Alícia Villar-Aguilés

Key words Early School Leaving Gender Youth Subculture Vocational Training

Abstract Basic Vocational Training was initially implemented in an attempt to reduce the high rates of early school leaving in Spain, as compared to other European countries. Data analysis reveals that only a minority of girls further their education through basic vocational training and those that do tend to be concentrated in a small number of professional specialties. Using qualitative methodology, this study examined the perceptions of girls enrolled in Basic Vocational Training courses in Valencian schools regarding their academic evolution. It was concluded that the disengagement processes experienced by these girls enrolled in vocational training are mainly due to a distancing from a position of emphasized femininity or conformity to patriarchy. It was found that Basic Vocational Training is a mechanism that minimizes this separation.

Palabras clave Abandono educativo temprano Género Subculturas juveniles Formación profesional

Resumen La Formación Profesional Básica (FPB) se implantó como una vía para intentar revertir las elevadas tasas de abandono educativo temprano que presenta el sistema educativo español en relación con el conjunto europeo. El análisis desagregado por chicas y chicos presenta una imagen donde las chicas se matriculan en un porcentaje muy reducido y se concentran en unas pocas familias profesionales. Haciendo uso de metodología cualitativa se ahonda en las percepciones de las chicas matriculadas en una FPB en diferentes centros valencianos acerca del significado que otorgan a su trayectoria académica. Se concluye que el desenganche educativo que las ha llevado a cursar una FPB es la principal razón que las aparta de una posición de feminidad enfatizada, es decir, de conformidad con el patriarcado, y que precisamente la FPB se erige como mecanismo de minimización de esta separación.

Cómo citar

Obiol-Francés, Sandra; Villar-Aguilés, Alícia (2025). «Educational Disengagement Trajectories in Young Women from a Basic Vocational Training Perspective». Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 189: 93-108. (doi: 10.5477/cis/reis.189.93-108)

Sandra Obiol-Francés: Universitat de València | sandra.obiol@uv.es

Alícia Villar-Aguilés: Universitat de València | alicia.villar@uv.es

Introduction

In 2022, 11.2 % of all girls aged 18 to 24 had abandoned their studies early in Spain (Eurostat, 20231). This figure is higher than the European average (UE-27) which is approximately 8 %. These indicators, however, are greatly exceeded by the figures attained by males: 16.5 % in Spain, which is the highest figure in comparison to other European countries which have an average of 11.1 %. This difference may justify the attention paid to the causes of school drop out in children by the media and politicians (Reay, 2001; Jackson, 2006b; Jackson and Tinkler, 2007). The academic field has relied on fundamental works attempting to explain the conflictive relationship that some children have with school (Willis, 1977). But this widespread concern over the relationship between boys and early school leaving tends to relegate girls to the background, removing them from the priorities of the political agenda. In addition, it is commonly believed that the educational success of women is associated with better performance and an interest in obtaining good results (Encinas-Martín and Cherian, 2023) or through the discourses on the feminization of the university (Arranz, 2001; García Lastra, 2010; Pastor et al., 2012). In fact, women make up the majority of university students (56.3 %)2. On the other hand, females are more likely than males to graduate from Baccalaureate studies (55.5 % as compared to 44.5 %) as well as from secondary school (51.1 % and 48.9 % respectively; with these figures all having been reported for the 2020-2021 academic year)3. The positive relationship between women and academic results is even clearer when considering the age-appropriateness rate, that is, the percentage of students who are attending the course year that theoretically corresponds to them based on age: the age-appropriateness rate for 15-year-olds is 79.1 % for girls and 72 % for boys4. Clearly, girls who do not do well in school are a minority. And they tend to be overshadowed by the overall educational success of girls and the more conflictive relationship with school displayed by boys. This work, however, considers these exceptions to the general rule and focuses on girls who are in a process of educational disengagement. This disengagement was identified by enrolment in Basic Vocational Training, a training option implemented by the Spanish government in 2014-2015 in an attempt to decrease the country’s early school leaving rates.

The results shown in this work come from a study5 performed on gender segregation of professional families in Basic Vocational Training integrated in Organic Law 8/2013, for the Improvement of Educational Quality (LOMCE). It substituted the previous Initial Vocational Qualification Programs (PCPI) implemented by Organic Law 2/2006, of 3 May, on Education (LOE6). Student access to Basic Vocational Training takes place by discretion of the educational center and involves an itinerary in compulsory education that is aimed at acquiring professional skills in order to avoid premature abandonment of studies. Many have criticized the implementation of Basic Vocational Training, especially the creation of a student selection or classification mechanism for those still in compulsory education. This mechanism does not consider the student’s position in the social structure, and it is connected to the socio-historical development of the image of vocational training as a minor itinerary (Vidal and Merino, 2020; Merino and Martínez, 2012; Merino, 2012; Merino, 2020; Rujas Martínez-Novillo, 2017; Rujas Martínez-Novillo, 2020). According to a gender perspective, our prior studies have identified a clear segregation based on sex-gender which in this case is visible in the differentiated orientation of boys and girls, first towards the Basic Vocational Training and, second, certain professional families7 (Obiol-Francés et al., 2020; Obiol-Francés, Vergés-Bosch and Almeda-Samaranch, 2022), proposing the concept of “gendered itineraries” to describe this segregation (Villar-Aguilés and Obiol-Francés, 2021).

During the course of our study, the question constantly arose as to whether the option for clearly feminized paths, mediated by the educational and family context, serves to compensate for the transgression arising from their not being where expected, that is, in the educational cycles commonly identified with higher academic performance (mainly, Baccalaureate studies). Therefore, beyond the segregation of itineraries based on gender, it is possible to systematically present the most interesting points from the field work conducted on the relationship of Basic Vocational Training students with the school, based on the contributions from other women authors -especially Anglo-Saxon ones- regarding the phenomenon of educational disengagement from a gender perspective (McRobbie, 1991; Tinkler, 2006; Jackson, 2006a, 2006b; Curran, 2017). In this way, we attempt to expand upon the debate related to these educational disengagement processes, assuming that definitive responses to our questions are not available, but rather, starting points from which it is possible to have a greater understanding about the educational disengagement processes and their relationship with gender. Furthermore, the possibility offered by the intersectional perspective, despite the lack of consensus or standard definition (Hill Collins, 2017), allows us to consider educational disengagement as a phenomenon resulting from the intersection of distinct positions, of privilege and oppresion. Intersectionality leads to relationships of interdependence and interaction, resulting in more nuances in the analysis of the structure and the different dimensions and dynamics arising in the educational system that determine school failure and early school leaving (Vázquez, 2020).

This article first presents an overview of the sociological works that have investigated anti-school subcultures linked to the educational disengagement of young students, especially in secondary education. It considers the contributions of women authors who analyzed the so-called ladette subculture related to young women. It also refers to the intersectional perspective that broadens our understanding of the analyzed phenomena. Then, the methodology upon which we based the collection of our empirical material is detailed. Afterwards, the results of our analysis are presented. Finally, some conclusions are offered, highlighting the persistence of a patriarchal educational system that impels girls, in a more or less visible way, to maintain normative behaviors associated with traditional gender roles.

Lads, ladettes and the anti-school subcultures

Sociology has a rich tradition of studying anti-school behavior and youth subcultures, especially in British literature (Willis, 1977; Woods, 1983; Jackson, 2006b) that has examined boys and girls with an asymmetric interest, conceptualizing the lad and ladette cultures, respectively. Despite historical and contextual differences, this approach connects with our research. Studies on anti-school subcultures began to appear in the 1960s, gaining prominent relevance as of the 70s. Examining anti-school subcultures, Hargreaves (1967) observed a labelling relationship displayed by teachers, which prevented working class students from achieving a high status in terms of the school’s values. This led to the use of other types of values and behaviors by these students in an attempt to alleviate this frustrated status and attain an alternative, anti-school status, according to their peer group.

Another well-known and often cited work is the ethnographic study of Paul Willis (1977): Learning to labour, which demonstrates how working-class boys (the so-called lads8) rejected the school’s value system to opt for unskilled jobs in their more immediate environments. This decision to abandon school rules, and present themselves as being anti-school, leads to behaviors including teacher rejection, the failure to value learning processes and to view low grades as being negative. Some years later, Peter Woods (1983) in The Divided School conducted a study in secondary education schools in which variations were observed in the anti-school subcultures, presenting a typology of different groups of anti-school students and the divisions arising within schools between the different participants involved. These divisions relate to the society to which the school belongs.

During the 90s, Mike O’Donnell and Sue Sharpe conducted a study on four schools in London to examine how boys think and behave as “masculine”. This work was published under the title of Uncertain Masculinities and offers some interesting results in terms of gender and the intersection between ethnicity and social class. The authors used an interpretive framework that was based on the works of Raewyn Connell on masculinity as personal/social constructs. The objective was to determine how a group of teenage boys view themselves with regard to the gender order, using the expression developed by Connell. Previously, Sue Sharpe had already carried out a study -Just Like a Girl (1976)- with young working-class females in secondary schools in London. This study was conducted in the 70s and was later repeated in the 90s. The aspirations of the girls in the first study were not closely linked to continued higher education and they were heavily focused on traditional female gender roles (marriage, motherhood, the domestic sphere). In the subsequent study, however, a generational shift was observed whereby the girls were more likely to aspire to higher education and they associated greater value with pursuing a professional career.

Most of the sociological studies on anti-school subculture (lad subculture) have focused on boys, especially working-class males, with the manifestation of masculinity acting as a flag for these behaviors that go against the norm and the school system. It is a controversial figure given that the object of study is both venerated and feared according to some critics. Sara Delamont (2001) referred to the anti-school youth as hooligans and anomalous beasts for the sociology of education: “ethnographers who have described such young people have had an ambivalent relationship with them” (Delamont, 2001: 66), somewhere between praise and rejection. It is a highly masculinized study tradition that has been the subject of criticism by some women authors who have focused their studies on young girls, the so-called ladettes9. Delamont (2001: 63) herself also notes this criticism since “despite the work of feminists”, the essential factor considered by sociologists in this tradition of study has been social class. Therefore, it is worth it to refer to and recognize the women sociologists who have brought to light the experiences of young girls and their “hooligan” dimension. In addition to the previously mentioned work of Sharpe (1976), there have been other noteworthy studies by Angela McRobbie, Penny Tinkler and Carolyn Jackson, among others.

In a collection of essays on working-class female adolescence, Angela McRobbie (1991) noted the importance of carrying out academic studies on girls who have been traditionally silenced in this field of study. She affirmed that:

[…] very little has been written about the role of girls in young cultural groups. They are absent from classic subcultural ethnographic studies, pop histories, personal accounts and surveys (McRobbie, 1991: 1).

Along these lines, the works by Penny Tinkler (2006) describe the characteristics of “modern girls” which have similarities with the ladettes, since both display practices and consumption behavior associated with gender disorder, such as smoking and drinking alcohol.

The work that has had the greatest impact on the importance of gender analysis of the educational disengagement process was conducted by Carolyn Jackson (2006b). The author highlights that traditionally, there has been much concern about boys’ studies and the poor performance, and the academic (as well as media and political) treatment received by girls who display a non-typical relationship with the educational system was based on their stereotyping according to the male model. These so called “hooligan” girls are “overshadowed by popular and academic discourses on ‘problematic’ young masculinities” (Jackson and Tinkler, 2007: 252). According to Jackson (2006b) these girls are described as being rude, crass, dressing in tight clothes or sweats and highly sexualized, just the opposite of the idea of the hegemonic good girl corresponding to the idealized middle-class values and behaviors. Over recent years, these arguments have fed a certain disdain by British public opinion regarding the working class (Jones, 2012; Todd, 2018). Jackson and Tinkler (2007) claim that what appears to pose the greatest threat to the ladette is her capacity for gender disorder, since it is related to an alteration of the hegemonic discourse on gender differences and on the classic role of caregivers. Here, the authors refer to the fact that this role of caregivers is broken, both with regard to caring for others and for themselves, since their behavior is associated with a dangerous and disorderly lifestyle in terms of social order. However, although the transgressive nature of these girls cannot be ignored, resulting in their demonization, this does not imply a break with gender hegemony. Boys remain at the center of the debate and continue to hold a position of power in terms of the relationships between young people (Reay, 2001; Jackson, 2006b).

The ladettes10 phenomenon remains present in British youth culture11 as well as in academia. More recent works have considered the relationship existing between the ladette figure and the culture of alcohol intoxication within the debates on post-feminism and contemporary femininity (Bailey, Griffin and Shankar, 2015). And even more recently, academic and political concern has focused once again on the lad culture, but this time, within the universities (Jackson and Sundaram, 2020). New laddism refers to their presence and normalization on university campuses, in contrast to the lad culture that was associated solely with working-class boys. The analysis of the lad culture is complex, given its conceptual particularity contextualized in the United Kingdom. However, as Jackson and Sundaram affirmed (2020: 135): “although lad culture is a UK-specific term, the associated behaviors and attitudes are not specific to the UK”12, referring to the expressions of sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment and violence.

In Spain, at least for the moment, the media and political spotlight has not been placed on girls with poor academic performance and characterized as ladettes, at least not with the same intensity as in the United Kingdom. The distinct construction of the Spanish education system has prevented this situation from occurring, but at the same time, it has led to the institutional neglect of girls who do not display acceptable academic performance. In Spain, there is no stereotype fully comparable to ladettes, in terms of having the same presence within the academic world and public opinion. The closest term used to describe working-class girls from the suburbs of the large Spanish cities would be the so-called chonis, comparable to the British ladettes in terms of behavior and aesthetics13. Another term that is used to further simplify and stigmatize the working class is the so-called chavettes (Owen, 2012). Vázquez and Lois (2020) found that considerable rejection exists of the image portrayed by chonis, comparable to the chavettes: dressed in sweats, wearing lots of make-up, badly spoken and associated with an anti-school behavior or one that does not encourage school success, with high incidents of early school leaving. It is a stereotypical identification by which social class, gender and origin come together, displaying a rejection and even contempt for the characteristics attributed to chonis and which is spread by the social networks, amplifying their effects (Moreno and Bernárdez, 2017). These associations result in a rejection of the working class, since prejudices are reduced when additional information is offered regarding their social status or good academic performance. Likewise, Willem, Araüna and Tortajada (2019) described the creation of the image of the choni through the use of the social networks and their sexuality. Gender and social class interact to stigmatize and belittle individuals, most often, young working-class women. According to Rosés and Polo (2022), although the choni aesthetic has been assumed and claimed as a sign of female empowerment in contemporary Western society by much of the entertainment and fashion industry, this does not result in the disappearance of the class, gender and race inequality that it represents.

Research on youth cultures, especially that which is related to working-class women, some of whom belong to cultural minorities, may be enriched by the application of an intersectional perspective examining the complexity of inequality. Intersectionality was developed as a conceptual and analytical proposal in the late 1980s, based on the work of the African American feminist and law professor, Kimberlé Crenshaw. Based on an examination of how courts frame and interpret the allegations of black female plaintiffs, this author developed a black feminism criticism, given the “problematic consequence of the tendency to treat race and gender as mutually exclusive categories of experience and analysis” (Crenshaw, 1989: 139). This perspective permits the identification of positions of privilege and domination, as well as oppression and inequality, emphasizing the importance of contextualization, emphasizing that intersectionality is a situated perspective (Viveros, 2016), which always refers to a specific context.

The works of Crenshaw have inspired subsequent studies in different academic fields, such as sociology. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins affirms that intersectionality is a perspective with great democratizing and social justice potential that attempts to encourage new social relations based on equality, equity and inclusion (Hill Collins, 2017: 35). This author focuses on the experiences of black American women in non-privileged positions.

When analyzing educational trajectories and inequalities, the intersectional perspective may be revealing in that it identifies the different positions of oppression and privilege that are produced and reproduced in the educational system. These positions arise from the educational decisions made by the school administration teams and they may emphasize certain itineraries that reproduce gender, social class and cultural inequalities.

In short, research on early school leaving processes from a gender perspective is limited, especially from an intersectional gender perspective. However, it is necessary to take a more accurate look at the reality of this phenomenon, using gender as an organizer of educational institutions (Connell, 2001). This work has clearly relied on these contributions to examine the perceptions of girls undergoing processes of educational disengagement with respect to the social construct of academic success attributed to them. This merges with Connell’s so-called “emphasized femininity”, defined by its role in legitimizing unequal gender relations through conformity, nurturing and empathy, according to Kincaid, Sennot and Kelly (2022) citing the works of Connell (1987) and Schippers (2007). In this article, we refer to the concept of “emphasized femininity” since its meaning is linked to conformity with patriarchy (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2021). We believe that it is in line with the analysis of academic conformity that is assumed and required of women in their educational paths.

Methodology

This research followed a qualitative methodological strategy in order to better understand the weight of gender in the reasons why young people engage in Basic Vocational Training and select a specific professional area. Both during the fieldwork and the subsequent analysis of the collected material, we found relevant information on the perceptions and self-perceptions expressed by teachers and students regarding girls having poor academic performance. We have focused on these aspects of the data to help clarify the weight of this student profile as it relates to socially constructed gender expectations.

The research examined the Valencian case, one of the regions with the greatest weight among students enrolled in basic vocational training in Spain: 15.4 % of the total over the 2021-2022 course year, only exceeded by the community of Madrid with 15.99 % and 18.08 % in Andalusia14. The sample comprised seven schools selected based on a combination of three dimensions: having very masculinized and very feminized itineraries, habitat size and state or private schools. Access to these schools was facilitated by the Valencia government’s Department of Education, Research, Culture and Sport, through unions as well as personal contacts. A total of 35 interviews were conducted with the students: 21 boys and 14 girls in Basic Vocational Training programs. An additional 5 group interviews were carried out with teachers and two focus groups were held with students from the 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education to find out what image they had of the boys and girls enrolled in Basic Vocational Training.

The in-depth interviews with the Basic Vocational Training students were carried out between the months of December 2018 and February 2019. Students were contacted through their teachers and the written consent of their parents or guardians was provided. The interviews were conducted in the schools, in a non-habitual classroom, during the school day. Their guidelines consisted of five main blocks: level of satisfaction with the Basic Vocational Training, the pathway towards Basic Vocational Training, reasons or selecting a specific professional area, diverse aspects of their everyday life (family and friendships, use of time, etc.) and future projection. As for the group interviews with teachers, which were conducted in the presence of members of the management team, orienteers and equality and coexistence coordinators, they were carried out between October and December 2018. The guidelines contained four main sections: assessment of the functioning of Basic Vocational Training, description of the process by which the school decides which boys and girls will have access to the Basic Vocational Training program, description of the student profile, and finally, actions supporting greater gender equality carried out at a school level and at a Basic Vocational Training cycle level. All of the interviews were recorded, transcribed15 and analyzed using the MAXQDA software based on identification of the codes of meaning grouped into three major axes: the pathway towards taking part in Basic Vocational Training; the Basic Vocational Training experience (as students or teachers) and (fundamental for this article) the expressions of gender inequality based on different dimensions (studies, paid work, relationship with teachers and students, etc.).

Educational disengagement pathways

Girls appear to be doing well

In all the interviews with teachers and students, a clear line of discourse is evident: girls do well in their studies. The stereotypical image of young girls regarding studies is omnipresent. It clearly reveals the creation of an ideal type of woman based on patriarchal and middle-class values, as other women authors have already pointed out (Jackson, 2006a, 2006b; Jackson and Tinkler, 2007; Reay, 2001). This image is also created in contrast to that of boys. The girls are considered more studious, better behaved are more responsible. They are less likely to create conflicts and are more submissive to the rules of the system, in contrast to boys. It is an image that connects to the learning of subordination, as discussed by Marina Subirats (2016). This is “emphasized femininity” of greater academic conformity (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2021) in a patriarchal society.

In the interviews conducted, there is a clear consensus that boys have a more conflictive relationship with the school, teachers and other students. They also are found to receive worse grades, not to participate or pay attention in class, to fail to do their homework or study, bother other classmates and be aggressive. These perceptions influence what is known as the lad culture, based on school “hooligans” (Willis, 1977; Woods, 1983; Delamont, 2001) with their behavior associated with hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2001) in the classrooms.

Girls aren’t as bold; you know what I mean? Boys are more daring, they’re more forward-thinking. Girls: “No, no, I have to go to school.” And boys: “I’ll just go ahead and tell my mom later.” Boys are more carefree. Yes, that’s true (Interview 31, girl).

I don’t know if it is because they mature earlier but they are clearer about it. Later, the boys figure out that they have messed up and can’t do anything about it. Like me, I am stuck here, and you realize that you should be in Baccalaureate studies. And your friends are in Baccalaureate studies because they have their heads on straighter (Interview 2, boy).

Boys are less thoughtful, because they get a four or five and don’t really care. But my female friends, for example, get a four or five and they cry over it, because they are more sensitive, they care more (Interview 31, girl).

Faced with this situation, in which boys occupy a worse position with respect to academic results, the boys mainly justify it using two very symptomatic ways: they do not want to study, and it is the fault of others, especially the teachers, who treat them worse and take better care of the girls. This is an interesting perception because it appears to follow from the discourse that good results by girls are not due to them, but rather, is due to others (teachers).

However, some girls do not follow the standard educational path (of greater conformity) associated with their gender role, with the emphasized femininity linked to the academically responsible girl, as well as the socially disciplined one, as we will analyze below.

Although not all of them are doing well

Despite the image created based on the clearly favorable data, some girls fail, drop out of school and do not behave as dictated by social norms. And the interviewed girls are a clear example, even if it is difficult to find them. Their invisibility has been confirmed in all the interviews conducted with the teachers and, especially, those conducted with the boys enrolled in the Basic Vocational Training courses with them (Jackson, 2006a, 2006b). On the contrary, boys occupy a central place in the discourse created around our object of study. Girls speak more about boys than the reverse. They provide more information about their relationship with the school, obviously, but also about the relationship that boys have with the same. When interviewing the boys, it is very difficult to get to know their opinion about the girls, how they behave and how they perceive them.

The girls interviewed represented to that small number of women who don’t have a normalised relationship with the school from the teachers’s point of view. The teachers consider them as less competent and are led to follow a secondary, more professional and more stigmatized path, that of the Basic Vocational Training program. This stigma is clearly expressed by the interviewed students. However, in many cases, as Rujas Martínez-Novillo (2020) revealed, they have taken this path since it is the optimal one for them (they claim that it makes it easier for them to obtain academic certification). But they still consider it to be a degradation, and at times, this is described in a stark manner:

Because yes, because when you are in compulsory secondary education it is normal, theoretically speaking, and then they see you around with a hoe and say: “what an idiot... he doesn’t have a damn clue about anything” (Interview 2, boy).

It is interesting to consider the interpretation of Jackson (2002) in terms of gender, suggesting that it is a strategy of self-protection for boys who do not do well in school. According to this interpretation, it is not related to them or their abilities, but to others or their capacity for rebellion, for going against the rules. And in our case, there is clearly marked resentment amongst the boys interviewed who suggest that the problem is not them but the teachers, who have treated them poorly, being unable to capture their attention.

Furthermore, the family’s economic and social capital plays a fundamental role in their access to Basic Vocational Training. This has been widely exposed by other women authors (Reay, 2001; Tarabini, 2015; Tarabini and Curran, 2015). In the case at hand, most of the parents only have a basic education level and work as low-skilled laborers. In their discourse, the students highlight their parents’ lack of understanding about what it means to take a Basic Vocational Training course and the teachers’ influence on this option. In this sense, intersectionality helps us understand that these positions are situated from a place of non-privilege in terms of family cultural capital.

In the case of the girls interviewed, this degradation is not verbalized as such, but it does hurt them to lose the relationship with their peers, to no longer share schedules or spaces, isolating them from the rest of the group that follows an ordinary educational path. Most of these girls assume that they have failed to meet the school’s expectations and that it is logical that they are where they are, even seeing it as a second chance to be taken advantage of. They are aware and state that, without even minimum studies, they will have a very difficult time in the labor market. In fact, this same explanation is offered by the girls participating in the compulsory secondary education focus group when asked why girls get better marks: because they have it very hard in life.

Two distinct profiles may be distinguished from the interviewed girls. First, there are the girls who comply with the stereotypical image of being female, with an emphasized femininity, but who, for some reason, do not do well in school and therefore, their inclusion in the Basic Vocational Training program is justified. This factor tends to focus on the family and problems arising in the same (very traditional role associated with women, limited presence of parents in the home and lower ability to control the daughters). The case also arises that the teaching staff and educational system, in general, are unable to respond to their educational needs and they disengage due to boredom. But the rest of the regulatory model works because they are “good” girls, not causing trouble in class, having a good image, and obeying their parents. They simply need to justify why they have not arrived where expected.

If we girls are in the back, it is not because we are trying to be macho. It is because we don’t like it, so we don’t do it and that’s that. I mean, it isn’t because we say: “Hey look, I’m going to tease him”. No. Boys do so more for that reason, like: “Now I talk back to the teacher, then I insult him, and I think I’m the cool kid in the class” (Interview 7, girl).

I didn’t care much, since I ignored the subject, but you see, the teachers... I got along well with some, and didn’t get along with others, and so on. There were things that I didn’t like, and I stayed quiet in the corner, without bothering anyone (Interview 14, girl).

And now, the way things are, I don’t know, I see that the children nowadays have no desire to study, work, or anything. […] I don’t know. They are very poorly behaved, not respecting their parents. I have never disrespected my mother, for example. I don’t know. And their parents let them get away with it. I don’t tell parents that they have to force them to study, but until they finish compulsory secondary education, a high school degree at least, get it, right? I don’t know, that’s what I think anyway (Interview 28, girl).

Secondly, we find those girls, the minority, who do not comply with the normative model. They transgress the rules of behavior established by the hegemonic school culture and they are aware of that the majority of girls do not behave as they do. In their narratives, for example, they state that they go along with boys especially when they skip class, bother teachers or damage school property. These girls are the most comparable to the idea of the ladettes described by Jackson (2002, 2006a). They engage in behavior that is very far from the norm, are very noisy, receive poor academic results, wear heavy make-up and have a noticeably hypersexualized aesthetic. They are an example of the female anti-school culture.

Sometimes we were in class, and they said: “Let’s go to the bathroom”, and we went to the patio to sunbathe. The two of us, lying down on the patio. Or if not, we went to paint the gym courts, we had to be in class and we left with another group from class to paint the gym courts. We did bad things, bad stuff, and the teachers got angry. We went to the restrooms and stayed there all day long. Awful, awful... (Interview 29, girl).

Often times, those in the Basic Vocational Training program were there because they had disruptive behavior in the classroom, which bothered the teachers and the other classmates. Therefore, if the girls are there, it is because they were very bothersome. But according to the interviewed teachers, these girls behaved differently from the boys, worse. Conflicts originating with girls are more serious because they are more twisted, difficult to understand and resolve, according to the teacher’s interpretation. And frequently, they were due to the influence of their male partners, not by their own initiative. In this sense, a model of femininity emerges that pulls between the hegemonic (girls depend on boys) and the counter-hegemonic (girls behave worse than boys).

And then, when it comes to setting it up, obviously the boys are a little more aggressive, less disciplined, have more behavior issues, more problematic. The girls are also, but to a lesser extent (Management and orientation team- School 3).

No. Problems with girls are different. […] The level of maturity of girls also differs from the level of maturity of boys. The boy is thinking, their testosterone is an open closet, but when they say: “Hey, stop”, they stop and respond. Girls are more complicated; they have other types of problems, and I am always amazed during the period when many of them come to be so dependent on their boyfriend. If you aren’t careful, the boyfriend may be considerably older, much older than them. And they come to pick them up and later, well… (Management and orientation team-School 2).

But they only make up a very small number of the individuals interviewed in our study. The majority fulfils the feminine mid­dle-class stereotype and emphasized feminin­ity, except for their academic results, which makes them stand out from the feminine normative. It should be noted that they are studying Basic Vocational Training studies, that is, they have somewhat renounced their former behavior and are intending to correct their situation. They are very much aware of, and regret having made mistakes in the past. Furthermore, they understand that they will not be able to do anything without studies. In the teacher narratives, there is a clear relative “success” discourse, highlighting how well girls do when they follow this path and how those who fail to pass the course are a minority and, to the contrary, they report very good results. The weight of subordination learning (Subirats, 2016) falls on their aware and they describe it as follows:

Yeah, it’s not that without a degree... the thing is, if you don’t study something that you really like or something to at least get a good job, then without a degree or anything, you tell me what you’re going to achieve in life (Interview 28, girl).

But this Basic Vocational Training, this last opportunity, is strongly segregated based on sex. The girls who are enrolled tend to be concentrated in a very few select professional areas (Villar-Aguilés and Obiol-Francés, 2021). If we calculate the percentage of women per professional area, we find that the concentration of women in Valencia is situated in hairdressing and aesthetics with 80.93 % (79.96 % as a state average) and domestic and building cleaning activities with 88.8 % (lower in the case of Spain with 57.67 %)16. These are itineraries that are commonly associated with the traditional role of women: the physical image and housework. This may be understood as a disciplinary function to avoid (or mask) early school leaving, which channels some boys and even fewer girls towards a certain niche of the labor market (Bernard and Molpeceres, 2006). Girls are disciplined in their traditional gender role which, for a time, they decided to abandon, in full or in part. In short, Basic Vocational Training represents an opportunity for these girls, although it is far from the more normative concept of educational opportunity attributed to girls, to fulfil their future expectations, hegemonic ones in terms of femininity: having a job with a low but sufficient wage, a home, a family: “Well...work, a decent job and…a family, I guess...” (Interview 9, girl). Mostly, being able to leave the village to avoid the weight of social control.

Conclusions

Throughout the article, we have wished to highlight the existence of narratives related to educational processes linked to gender orders (Connell, 2001) as key elements to better understand the dynamics taking place in Basic Vocational Training. First, it echoes a tradition of study of youth subcultures related to a phenomenon that is very present in the sociology of education: educational disengagement. This phenomenon has been conceptualized in numerous ways and has been associated with a type of anti-school behavior. Considering the UK study tradition developed at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies of the University of Birmingham, we reviewed some works considered essential in sociology to understand the anti-school figure closely associated with hegemonic masculine models and lad culture. This interest in the anti-school behavior of working-class boys led to the emergence of a major criticism of anti-schoolboys by feminist authors who have presented some interesting works on anti-school girls, the so-called ladettes (Jackson, 2002; Jackson, 2006a; Jackson 2006b; Jackson and Tikler, 2007).

Based on the knowledge provided by this tradition of study and considering the gender provisions and orders (Connell, 2001) we consider the study of Basic Vocational Training within the framework of an investigation in Valencian schools. It is concluded that this educational option functions as a mechanism of social selection that is strongly influenced by gender, creating and reproducing gendered itineraries as previously studied (Villar-Aguilés and Obiol-Francés, 2021; Obiol-Francés, Vergés-Bosch and Almeda-Samaranch, 2022). But the narrative of girls considered to display low academic performance suggests another dimension in the analysis. Considered from the intersectional gender perspective, Basic Vocational Training allows us to understand the meaning that they give to the place that they occupy within the educational institution and their relationship with their peers who accompany them.

The main conclusion drawn from this approach is that the educational system is an instrument of the patriarchy used to channel girls into the limits established for them. Girls displaying low academic performance and making up the sample of this qualitative study demonstrate behavior that deviates from the gender archetype created for them. That is, they deviate from the archetype suggesting that they be docile, studious, discreet, and obedient (and all of this, with a good academic record). The decision by the school management team and the orientation of their transfer to an educational path such as Basic Vocational Training leads to a fracture with the emphasized femininity model associated with good academic performance. And they are transferred to other classrooms and schedules, with other teachers and other curricular content, suggesting the denial of visibility to those individuals who do not adhere to the rules.

Furthermore, in the case of girls, they are mostly included in studies related to the more traditional image of gender, with emphasized femininity and in itineraries especially related to personal image. This is very similar to what is found in studies of social deviation and delinquency from a non-androcentric perspective. For years now, they have offered evidence of how women who do not dare comply with gender norms are treated by applying a clear discourse of domesticity to the same (Almeda, 2003). However, we have not found sufficient evidence to equate these interviewed girls with the ladette profile (the so-called chonis in the Spanish context) discussed in our theoretical framework. To the contrary, most of the interviews conducted were with girls who fulfilled, at least within the school context, all of the requirements of emphasized femininity, except for academic performance. This is a deviation that the Basic Vocational Training attempts to resolve, or at least minimize.

In conclusion, this initial approach to the phenomenon of educational disengagement in young women from non-privileged social class positions offers relevant information on the educational system’s response to those deviating from the path established by the hegemonic gender order. The responses are first marked by invisibility, and later, by re-traditionalization. Attention should be paid to their educational trajectories and discourse for two main reasons. First, this is necessary due to the importance of understanding that the measures applied to avoid disengagement and early school leaving may act differently in girls as compared to boys. The failure to consider this difference implies rejecting these girls, relegating them to an option that may be worse than precarious work and living conditions. And second, it is important since failing to understand and consider inequality in the education system may in fact strengthen this effect. Therefore, studies should be promoted to uncover what underlies the educational system in terms of gender and other social inequalities. This may serve to provide necessary information to ultimately transform this system.

Bibliography

Almeda, Elisabet (2003). Mujeres encarceladas. Barcelona: Ariel.

Arranz Lozano, Fátima (2001). Hombres y mujeres en el profesorado: un análisis de género. In: M. A. García de León Álvarez and M. L. García de Cortázar Nebreda (coords.). Las académicas (profesorado universitario y género). Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigración, Instituto de la Mujer.

Bailey, Lin; Griffin, Christine and Shankar, Avi (2015). “‘Not a good look’: Impossible Dilemmas for Young Women Negotiating the Culture of Intoxication in the United Kingdom”. Substance Use & Misuse, 747-758. doi: 10.3109/10826084.2015.978643

Bernad, Joan Carles and Molpeceres, Maria A. (2006). “Discursos emergentes sobre la educación en los márgenes del sistema educativo”. Revista de educación, 341: 149-170.

Connell, Raewyn (1987). Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Connell, Raewyn (2001). “Educando a los muchachos: Educando a los muchachos: nuevas investigaciones sobre masculinidad y estrategias de género para las escuelas”. Nómadas, 14: 156-173. (Traducción Adriana Escobar). Available at: http://nomadas.ucentral.edu.co/index.php/inicio/35-construcciones-de-genero-y-cultura-escolar-nomadas-14?start=12, access March 12, 2021.

Connell, Raewyn and Messerschmidt, James (2021). “Masculinidad hegemónica. Repensando el concepto”. Revista del Laboratorio Iberoamericano para el Estudio Sociohistórico de las Sexualidades, 6: 32-62. doi:10.46661/relies.6364

Crenshaw, Kimberlé (1989). “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1: 139-167. Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8, access March 11, 2021.

Curran, Marta (2017). ¿Qué lleva a los jóvenes a dejar los estudios?: explorando los procesos de (des)vinculación escolar desde una perspectiva de clase y género. Barcelona: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. [Doctoral Thesis].

Delamont, Sara (2001). “Las ‘ovejas negras’: ‘los gamberros’ y la sociología de la educación”. Revista de Educación, 324: 61-77. Available at: https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/revista-de-educacion/numeros-revista-educacion/numeros-anteriores/2001/re324/re324-06.html, access March 11, 2021.

Encinas-Martín, Marta and Michelle Cherian (2023), Gender, Education and Skills: The Persistence of Gender Gaps in Education and Skills. Paris: OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/34680dd5-en

EUROSTAT (November 7, 2023). Early Leavers from Education and Training by Sex and Labour Status. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/page/EDAT_LFSE_14

García Lastra, Marta (2010). “La voz de las mujeres en la Universidad”. Revista de la Asociación de Sociología de la Educación (RASE), 3: 357-368. Available at: https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/RASE/article/view/8717/8260, access March 9, 2021.

Hargreaves, David H. (1967). Social Relations in a Secondary School. London: Routledge.

Hill Collins, Patricia (2017). “The Difference that Power Makes: Intersectionality and Participatory Democracy”. Revista de Investigaciones Feministas, 8(1): 19-39. doi: 10.5209/INFE.54888

Jackson, Carolyn (2002). “Laddishness as a Self-worth Protection Strategy”. Gender and Education, 14(1): 37-50. doi: 10.1080/09540250120098870

Jackson, Carolyn (2006a). “‘Wild’ Girls? An Exploration of ‘Ladette’ Cultures in Secondary Schools”. Gender and Education, 18(4): 339-360. doi: 10.1080/09540250600804966

Jackson, Carolyn (2006b). Lads and Ladettes in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Jackson, Carolyn and Tinkler, Penny (2007). “‘Ladettes’ and ‘Modern Girls’: ‘Troublesome’ Young Femininities”. The Sociological Review, 55(2): 251-272. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00704.x

Jackson, Carolyn and Sundaram, Vanita (2020). Lad Culture in Higher Education. New York: Routledge.

Jones, Owen (2012). Chavs: la demonización de la clase obrera. Madrid: Capitán Swing.

Kincaid, Reilly; Sennott, Christie and Kelly, Brian C. (2022). “Doing and Redoing Emphasized Femininity: How Women Use Emotion Work to Manage Competing Expectations in College Hookup Culture”. Sex Roles, 86: 305–319. doi:10.1007/s11199-022-01275-4

McRobbie, Angela (1991). Feminism and Youth Culture. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Merino, Rafael (2012). “La formación profesional en los itinerarios formativos y laborales de los jóvenes: las leyes proponen y los jóvenes disponen”. Revista de Sociología de la Educación- RASE, 5(3): 503-512. Available at: https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/RASE/article/view/8341/7934, access March 14, 2021.

Merino, Rafael (2020). “Formación profesional y género: desigualdades que persisten, algunos cambios y debates pendientes”. Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 13(3): 305-307. doi: 10.7203/RASE.13.3.17444

Merino, Rafael and Martínez, José (2012). “Formación profesional y desigualdad de oportunidades educativas por clase social y género”. Revista Témpora, 14: 13-37.

Moreno, Ignacio and Bernárdez, Asunción (2017). “«How to Be a Choni: Tutorial Videos, Class and Gender in Spain’s Economic Recession»”. Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 9(2): 265–284. doi: 10.1386/cjcs.9.2.265_1

O’Donnell, Mike and Sharpe, Sue (2000). Uncertain Masculinities. Uncertain Masculinities. Youth, Ethnicity and Class in Contemporary Britain. London: Routledge.

Obiol-Francés, Sandra; Almeda Samaranch, Elisabet; Di Nella, Dino; Pumar Beltrán, Nuria; Ruiz Franco, Aida; Vergés-Bosch, Núria and Villar-Aguilés, Alícia (2020). «¿Una orientación marcada por el género? El caso de la Formación Profesional Básica valenciana». Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 13(3): 371-391. doi: 10.7203/RASE.13.3.16666.

Obiol-Francés, Sandra; Vergés Bosch, Núria and Almeda Samaranch, Elisabet (2022). «Gender and Educational Decisions in Basic Vocational Training: Discussions and Experiences in Spain». Journal of Vocational Education & Training. doi: 10.1080/13636820.2022.2042725

Pastor Gosalbez, Inma; Brunet Icart, Ignasi; Belzunegui Eraso, Ángel and Pontón Merino, Paloma (2012). “Spin-offs universitarias en Cataluña. Una perspectiva de género”. Inguruak: Soziologia eta zientzia politikoaren euskal aldizkaria. Revista vasca de sociología y ciencia política, 53-54: 80-96.

Reay, Diane (2001). “‘XSpice Girls’, ‘Nice Girls’, ‘Girlies’, and ‘Tomboys’: Gender Discourses, Girls’ Cultures and Femininities in the Primary Classroom”. Gender and Education, 13(2): 153-166. doi: 10.1080/09540250120051178

Rosés Castellsaguer, Sílvia and Polo Pujadas, Magda (2022). “¿El empoderamiento de la nueva choni? Estética y sociología de la moda”. Recerca. Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi: 1-29. doi: 10.6035/recerca.6230

Rujas Martínez-Novillo, Javier (2017). “Dispositivos institucionales y gestión del fracaso escolar: Las paradojas de la atención a la diversidad en la ESO”. Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales, 35(2): 327-345. doi: 10.5209/CRLA.56776

Rujas Martínez-Novillo, Javier (2020). “Cómo se calma al primo en la ESO: La externalización a PCPI y la subjetivación de la selección escolar”. Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 13(4): 546. doi: 10.7203/RASE.13.4.18069

Schippers, Mimi (2007). “Recovering the Feminine Other: Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender Hegemony”. Theory and Society, 36: 85–102. doi: 10.1007/s11186-007-9022-4

Sharpe, Sue (1976). "Just Like a Girl": How Girls Learn to be Women. Penguin.

Subirats, Marina (2016). “De los dispositivos selectivos en la educación: el caso del sexismo”. Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 9(1): 22-36. Available at: https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/RASE/article/view/8401, access February 27, 2021.

Tarabini, Aina (2015). “La meritocracia en la mente del profesorado: Un análisis de los discursos docentes en relación al éxito, fracaso y abandono escolar”. Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 8(3): 349-360.

Tarabini, Aina and Curran, Marta (2015). “El efecto de la clase social en las decisiones educativas: un análisis de las oportunidades, creencias y deseos educativos de los jóvenes”. Revista de Investigación en Educación, 13(1): 7-26. Available at: https://reined.webs.uvigo.es/index.php/reined/article/view/239

Tinkler, Penny (2006). Smoke Signals: Women smoking and visual culture in Britain. Oxford: Berg.

Todd, Selina (2018). El pueblo: auge y declive de la clase obrera (1910-2010). Madrid: Akal.

Vázquez, Rosa (2020). “La Interseccionalidad como Herramienta de Análisis del Fracaso Escolar y del Abandono Educativo: Claves para la Equidad”. Revista Internacional de Educación para la Justicia Social, 9(2): 267-283. doi: 10.15366/riejs2020.9.2.013

Vázquez, Alexandra and Lois, David (2020). “Prejudice against Members of a Ridiculed Working-class Group”. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(4): 992-1017. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12373

Vidal, Laia and Merino, Rafael (2020). “Desigualdades de género y formación profesional: Elecciones, abandono y expectativas”. Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 13(3): 392-414. doi: 10.7203/RASE.13.3.16645

Villar-Aguilés, Alícia and Obiol-Francés, Sandra (2021). «Itinerarios generizados en Formación Profesional Básica. Resultados de un estudio en centros educativos valencianos». Recerca. Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi, 26(1): pp. 155-178. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/Recerca.2021.26.1.8

Viveros Vigoya, Mara (2016). “La interseccionalidad una aproximación situada a la dominación”. Debate feminista, 52: 1-17. doi: 10.1016/j.df.2016.09.005

Willem, Cilia; Araüna Núria and Tortajada, Iolanda (2019). “Chonis and Pijas: Slut-shaming and Double Standards in Online Performances among Spanish Teens”. Sexualities, 22(4): 532-548. doi: 10.1177/1363460717748620

Willis, Paul (1977). Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. London: Routledge.

Woods, Peter (1983). The Divided School. London: Routledge.

---