PROPENSITIES AND EDUCATIONAL CHOICES: THE DYNAMICS OF (RE)PRODUCTION OF INEQUALITIES

Aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of social inequalities on future expectations of upper secondary school students in Lazio (N=2.860) through a specifically designed survey. The aim is to answer three broad questions: first, estimate the impact of social origin on school choice at the first level (in terms of macro tracks). Second, we observe the differential impact that educational tracks exert on an individual’s educational experience in terms of overall performance and repetition. Lastly, analyse the influence of these variables (track, educational background, and social origin) on individual life prospect, specifically in terms of distribution and post-school choices between university and labour market. The results clearly show a chaining effect among the variables involved: social origin has a direct impact on the educational track -both the macro track chosen and the school experience- spilling over indirectly and through a cumulative effect on students’ future life choices.