Academic Journal
Working class youths’ engagement with and responses to gendered transition structures: resilience and reworking strategies
| Title: | Working class youths’ engagement with and responses to gendered transition structures: resilience and reworking strategies |
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| Authors: | Rönnlund, Maria, Professor, 1962-, Author |
| Contributors: | Rönnlund, Maria, Professor, 1962-, Author |
| Source: | Nordic Journal of Transitions, Careers and Guidance. 7(1):41-54 |
| Subject Terms: | yrkesutbildning, övergångar, klass och genus, ojämlikhet på arbetsmarknaden, kvalitativ longitudinell forskning, ‘disaggregated agency’, pedagogiskt arbete, educational work |
| Description: | The classed and gendered structures shaping the transitions of vocationally oriented youth – from lower to upper secondary education and subsequently into the labour market – are well documented. Less attention has been paid to how young people engage with these structures during their transitional journeys. This study draws on repeated interviews with Swedish youths who enrolled in and later on graduated from the vocational upper secondary programmes Vehicle and Transport and Health and Social Care. The dataset comprises 33 interviews with four girls and two boys. The first interview round was conducted when they were in their first year of upper secondary and the last five years after graduation. The interview data were synthesised using the case-profile method and analysed through the lens of disaggregated agency – a three-tier framework for interpreting social responses to perceived injustices and structural constraints. The findings reveal how they navigated classed and gendered structures during their educational transitions and entry into the labour market, and how they responded to challenges related to schooling and the school-to-work transition. They further reveal that resilience was a prevalent response among participants, expressed in similar ways by both girls and boys. Reworking was also a common strategy, though it was shaped by sector-specific conditions and exhibited clear gendered patterns. Notably, they did not voice criticism or express views that could be construed as forms of resistance. The study underscores the enduring impact of class and gender on young people’s post-educational trajectories and highlights structural inequalities within the labour market. |
| File Description: | electronic |
| Access URL: | https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-256423 https://doi.org/10.16993/njtcg.122 |
| Database: | SwePub |
| ISSN: | 20038046 |
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| DOI: | 10.16993/njtcg.122 |