Early Leaving from Education and Training and Related Matters through the Lens of the Life Course Paradigm: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Here, we present a systematic review of the literature on Early Leaving from Education and Training (ELET), which uses the life course paradigm as an explanatory model or approach. This review has returned little in the way of scientific literature, although interest in the topic has been growing in recent years, which addresses the ELET process from different points of view. First, we highlight the means that this review provides to contextualize ELET in relation to new age-specific norms, reflecting on the process that has led to it. In addition, this review suggests that it is increasingly important to change the focus of research on ELET, exploring the process within a framework of complex trajectories, including the possibility of returning once ELET has occurred.

Keywords

• Early Leaving from Education and Training
• school failure
• dropout
• life course research
• youth
• school-to-work transitions