Vocational narratives
How students make sense of their educational choices
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19216477 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aina Tarabini (0000-0002-6096-2450, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, corresponding author), Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo (0000-0002-0378-5152, Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Javier Rujas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Sara Gil (0000-0001-5407-1902, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00380385261434874 |
| OpenAlex | W7159859245 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
This article explores how young people use vocational narratives to make sense of their Post16 educational choices. Based on 97 qualitative interviews with students from Barcelona and Madrid, the analysis examines the vocabularies of motive – such as personal fit, passion, interest, ability and future projection – that students use to legitimise their choices, revealing the symbolic hierarchies shaping these accounts. The study also analyses the timeframes employed in these narratives, illustrating how past experiences, present realities and future aspirations interweave to inform educational trajectories. By conceptualising vocation as a socially and historically produced repertoire rather than an inner inclination, the article explains how young people mobilise inherited cultural meanings within unequal fields of possibility. In doing so, it offers a relational approach that foregrounds the narrative practices through which aspiration, legitimacy and vocation are constructed, highlighting the dynamic interplay between habitus, social fields and the temporal structures organising students’ trajectories
Field (mathematics) · Legitimacy · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Qualitative research · Repertoire · Sensemaking · Vocational education · Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
The Confessing Society
Saving the Modern Soul
The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education
For Public Sociology
The Logic of Practice
Teachers’ guidance, family participation and track choice
The Perils and Penalties of Meritocracy
Careership
Symbols of Class Status
Culture in Action
Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive
| Highly cited | No |
|---|