Chapter 2: Cultural Diversity and Regulatory Dynamics of Participation Between Schools and Families

In Portugal 40,000 teenagers drop out of school before completing the 9th grade, thus becoming “potential candidates to enter the circle of unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion” (Strecht, 2008, p. 41). When our research took place, dropping out of school before completing the 9th grade corresponded to leaving school before accomplishing what was expected as compulsory education. Back then (Assembleia da República, 1986), compulsory education ended when students reached the age of 15, but a recent law (AR, 2009) extended it to the age of 18 or when they finish the 12th grade if this happens before they are 18. When we developed this research, those children who entered the educational system in the year they were (or became) six years old, as expected, and who did not fail any of the nine years of compulsory education, would have finished the 9th grade at the age of 15. But those experiencing underachievement and/or learning difficulties sometimes left the school system before finishing the 9th grade.