From Educational Choice to the Production of Possibility: Gendered Trajectories in Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/ajahs.v5i2.7723Keywords:
Aspirations Expectations, Educational Inequality, Field Possibility, Gendered Educational Trajectories, Social ReproductionAbstract
Before students choose between educational paths, some paths must first become imaginable. Studies of educational inequality have often focused on how students make choices within unequal social structures. However, this view can overlook an earlier question: the conditions under which some educational paths become imaginable, while others never appear as real possibilities in the first place. This article explores this issue through the idea of the feminized field of possibility, understood as a socially shaped horizon that influences how female students see their future educational options. The study is based on mixed-methods research carried out in secondary schools in Fez in 2025. It combines questionnaire data from 120 female students with 18 semi-structured interviews. Across both types of data, many students reported that they had never seriously thought about selective tracks such as medicine or engineering, even before making any clear decision or comparison. These findings suggest that educational inequality is not only about access or academic performance. It is also about what students can imagine as possible for themselves. By focusing on this level, the study adds to discussions in sociology of education about aspiration, agency, and how educational paths are socially shaped.
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