In the name of vocations: teachers’ discursive legitimations of upper secondary educational choices

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to provide a sociological understanding of vocation by exploring its association with the notion of choice. It explores how secondary school teachers understand the concept of vocation, and the factors they relate to the making of young people’s vocations and related educational transitions and choices. By a comparative analysis of teachers’ interviews in Barcelona and Madrid, the chapter shows that the notion of vocation is not equally mobilised by teachers in different upper secondary education tracks, and not all the choices are seen as equally ‘vocational’. ‘In the name of vocations’ teachers hierarchise and legitimise profoundly different students’ capacities, identities and choices. Overall, the chapter contributes to understanding the institutional making of educational transitions and to opening the black box of vocation as a critical mechanism for the (re)reproduction of social inequalities through the making of educational choices.