Educational Trajectories at the Crossroad between Life Course and Education. An Interactive Theoretical Approach

Abstract

This paper presents the theoretical concepts of educational trajectoriesi that refers to how individuals proceed through different educational stages, how they combine them with other life spheres, how they cope with transitions and how they take decisions regarding their educational career. In the European knowledge societies, it becomes evident the interactions between education and life courses, deriving both from the changes in the human life styles and needs and in the re-conceptualisation of education into (lifelong) learning. European social and educational researches repeatedly warn about the risk that under present conditions learning becomes more than never a powerful factor of social reproduction than of equal opportunities. This paper aims at contributing at the current debate on education and disadvantage, indicating the interactive approach as the most suitable to understand and therefore counteract this misleading effect of education.

Keywords

• educational trajectories
• education
• life course
• biography
• transitions
• decision-making