Imagining different futures: The effects of inequality on transitions to post-compulsory secondary education in the city of Barcelona

Transitions to post-compulsory secondary education are a crucial moment in the educational trajectory of young people. The decisions that lead them to pursue different educational alternatives are the product of an agency delimited by structural constraints (Furlong, 2009). Thus, their unequal social positions are fundamental to explain differences in their school experience, their future horizons, their expectations and their aspirations (Gillborn et al., 2012). Based on this framework, the paper analyses the impact of variables in the social structure and education system on the configuration of educational aspirations and expectations of young people who have just moved on to upper secondary education in the city of Barcelona. The analysis exploits responses to a questionnaire distributed during the 2018-2019 school year in eight high schools of Barcelona to a sample of students (N=1,318) in their first year of post-compulsory education, in both the vocational and academic track. The main results of the analysis confirm the inequality in profiles of students who access each post-compulsory track. In addition, the findings deepen our understanding of the interaction and impact of structural elements and the educational system on the definition of unequal future scenarios among students following the academic and vocational tracks, and among students from different social backgrounds.