ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the educational choices and decisions of young people who have recently transitioned from alternative care to independent living in North-West Russia. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 22 young adults. The central concept in the analysis is ‘agency’. We ask: (1) what modes of agency do care leavers exercise in their choices of education and (2) what factors affect the modes? Special attention is paid to the temporal dimension of decision-making, professional identity, and individual sense of agency, while the second question is structured by the analysis of the macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors affecting agency. Two modes of agency proved to be dominant: firstly, pragmatic agency with weak construction of professional identity, often combined with the so-called not-to-plan strategy; secondly, life-course agency with strong professional identity construction, often combined with strong self-efficacy. None of the modes represents the ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of a young adult themselves, as there are several external factors that affect the modes. The Russian system can be considered generous in providing the opportunity for free education with full material benefits, but, at the same time, it fails to provide much-needed individual support that would allow young adults to consider their available options.
