Abstract

BARTOLINI, Ana María  and  GERLO, Graciela. Reflections on High School and Doctoral Student Attrition Experiences in Argentina. Closing Modes, and Individual and Institutional Constraints. univ.humanist. [online]. 2017, n.83, pp.85-108. ISSN 0120-4807.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.uh83.reae.

The article reflects critically on school attrition, comparing high school and doctoral dropout rates in Argentina. The theoretical perspective integrates the categories of voluntary attrition and academic exclusion of Tinto (1989) with the concepts of habitus and symbolic violence of Bourdieu (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1981). The reflections arise from the interpretative analysis of attrition experiences in high schools and doctoral programs. This was done by rereading, and making a new coding and categorization of empirical material from two graduate theses in order to compare student attrition situation that have more similarities than differences. Results describe self-sabotaging habitus of dropouts, attrition closing modes, and institutional constraints. This work allows to conclude that student attrition is the result of a process that denies, conceals and minimizes; academic exclusion predominated, while voluntary attrition was exceptionally found. Dropouts used individual strategies, even persisting for several years despite institutional obstacles, personal postponements, and harmful effects on mental health.

Keywords : student attrition experiences; high school; doctoral program; institutional responsibility.

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