We submit a research whose aim is to invigorate a field of knowledge that to date has little developed in the educational discipline: the non-compulsory secondary education. Likewise, and specially, we focus our attention on students, who belong to vulnerable groups due to individual, familiar, institutional, and epistemological reasons (educational policies, market pressure, etc.). We settle on different periods of their academic career (access, permanence, and graduation), and on their problems, such as academic failure, interruption or dropping out, among others.
This proposal is not merely a descriptive and analytical study of schooling, interruption or dropping out data, because this perspective is much exploited. We want to generate a methodology that permits us to make a diagnosis of vulnerability in non-compulsory education. Likewise, we suggest that a model that structures the causes, consequences, relationships, and moments related to vulnerability is necessary. It is a priority interest to design an action planning (organizational manual) that serves as a useful tool for educational institutions (public and stated assisted) that teach non-compulsory secondary education, and to develop strategies of organizational and orientation nature, making possible an organizational development. Our commitment to this project is the application of the designed model, including the diagnosis, the intervention plan, and the application of strategies in order to verify and analyze its usefulness. Finally, this application will allow us a number of evidences that will be useful to reformulate the entire model and each of its parts. In this sense, the general purposes are: a) to diagnose the situation of persons, groups, and institutions that take care of vulnerable groups; (b) to develop a theoretical and practical model in order to improve the access and permanence of vulnerable groups in non-compulsory secondary education; and (c) to apply, and validate this model in order to improve the access and permanence of vulnerable groups in non-compulsory secondary education.
For the field research, we consider a sample from the territory that increases the likelihood of selecting the participation of different scenarios that ensure the representation of vulnerability and educational institutions. For that reason, the research team, who has an extensive experience in several topics similar to that project, belongs to different contexts from the territory, and from six different universities. Likewise, we count on the guarantee of international experts who will participate in different phases of the research.
Due to the research proposal, the transfer plan is one of the key elements because we our aim is each of the lines of action result in a useful tool that, subsequently, can be used to promote vulnerable groups, student equity, organizational improvement, and social justice.