ABSTRACT
This chapter looks into the schooling experiences of two early school leavers from a large, multi-ethnic city in Flanders (Belgium) who speak from different locations in terms of their migration background and socioeconomic status. We foreground the voices of these youngsters, thereby giving legitimacy to the experiences and unique points of view of those who still remain largely absent in policy and research debates. Our findings indicate that, while common themes arise in the youngsters’ narratives, a closer reading suggests that the way they interpret and make sense of them vary considerably. Particularly, differences are found in the way and the extent to which the youngsters criticize the education system as either a ‘neutral’ system that poses particular challenges as a result of specific systemic features, or as a ‘corrupt’ system of unequal educational opportunities and unfair treatment by the teachers. This is found to be related to the legitimacy the youngsters attribute to the school and its teachers, and influences their perceptions on their schooling experience as either an individual story of a lack of motivation or a story embedded in an unfair education system in which the meritocratic ideal presents itself as a myth.
