Cooling the Mark out in Lower Secondary Education: Externalization to PCPI and the Subjectivation of Academic Selection

Abstract

This paper deals with the process of externalization of pupils from compulsory lower secondary education to external programs (PCPI). It describes the negotiations, interactions and strategies deployed in the process, as well as the actors involved and the subjective effects it has on the students. The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a state secondary school in Madrid, and draws on document analysis, participant observation and interviews with students and the school personnel. The proposal of referral to basic vocational training programs external to compulsory education constitutes a status degradation for the students, which are defined as unable to complete compulsory education. Pupils cope with it in different ways depending on previous damage of their academic situation and identities: they experience externalization either as relief or a personal failure; they either accept it or resist. The cooling out activity conducted by teachers and school counsellors, colluding or competing with parents and peers, manages to make pupils accept their downgrading and rebuild their identities. Students interiorize educational selection: eventually, they perceive it as the most reasonable option and they end up representing it a posteriori as an individual choice. This process has also an impact on their choice of vocational course: they make their choice, among other reasons, trying to compensate for their symbolic downgrading and in order to prevent future failures.