Vol. 16 No. 31 (2026): (Upcoming) Beyond measurement: discourses, politics and process of construction of Learning Outcomes in education
Monographic Section

Learning Outcomes and Young People’s Aspirations in Contexts of Inequality: Fragmented Trajectories and the Construction of Futures

  • Berenice Scandone,
  • Federico Rossi
Berenice Scandone
Politecnico di Milano
Federico Rossi
Università di Urbino Carlo Bo

Published 2026-10-02

Keywords

  • Learning Oucomes,
  • Aspirations,
  • Life-course Research

How to Cite

Scandone, B., & Rossi, F. (2026). Learning Outcomes and Young People’s Aspirations in Contexts of Inequality: Fragmented Trajectories and the Construction of Futures. Cambio. Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, 16(31). Retrieved from https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/cambio/article/view/20103

Copyright (c) 2026 Berenice Scandone, Federico Rossi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article reconceptualises the relation between Learning Outcomes (LOs) and young people’s aspirations, treating both as socially mediated, temporally extended and structurally conditioned. Challenging policy views of LOs as neutral indicators of educational performance and aspirations as individual levers for attainment, we develop a framework in which aspirations function as dynamic navigational tools formed through accumulations of lived, haunting and absent experiences across education, employment and institutional contexts. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 27 young adults experiencing multiple disadvantages and vulnerabilities in Italy, we show that fragmentation in educational and employment pathways is recurrent rather than exceptional. Such fragmentation, intensified by unequal access to resources, educational tracking and the need for immediate economic stability, constrains young people’s capacity to imagine and pursue linear futures. Our findings highlight the iterative interplay between social inequality, experiences, aspirations and LOs: structural conditions shape trajectories and archives of experience; these inform how aspirations are articulated and revised; together they mediate how LOs are lived, interpreted and (re)produced. We argue for situating LOs within broader life-course processes, and call for education policies that widen experiential repertoires, mitigate labelling and fragmentation, and expand access to meaningful education and employment.

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