School dropout and intersectionality: the Crossroads project

European project
October 2019 to January 2022

School dropout is a multifactorial and multidimensional phenomenon for which POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ-PLS has been working on for more than ten years. Today, PLS is joining forces with three others European partners (Spain, Poland, Croatia) to discuss the concern of early school leaving and the intersectionality of discrimination within the Crossroads project.

In our so-called knowledge societies, the diploma remains a factor facilitating the access to a valued and rewarding job. In addition, school represents a place of social inclusion and socialization. Thus, young people without a diploma are at a higher risk of being excluded, marginalized and are not having all the information they need to effectively integrate the labour market and the society in general. The criteria of excellence as defined by the society leave young people who don’t feel up to the task in the shadows. This combined with individual, institutional, social, cultural or even methodological factors leads to the fact that these students sometimes find themselves overwhelmed school system. Because of boredom, inadaptability or despondency, they can prematurely withdraw from school.

The Crossroads project is a European project co-financed by the Erasmus+ program which aims to think about innovative tools to raise the teaching community’s awareness of the link between intersectionality and school dropout phenomenon, and thus prevent situations of early school desertion.

The intersectionality approach tends to determine the impact of the plurality of forms of social exclusion (class, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation,…) by taking into account the diversity of identities. Since early school leaving is a multidimensional phenomenon that must be considered as a process with many factors and issues, it is relevant to consider the theory of intersectionality in order to better understand a situation of school dropout.

Project goals

  • Increase the visibility of the needs of groups at risk of school dropout from an intersectional perspective.
  • Raise the teaching community awareness of inequalities in education.
  • Improve knowledge and competences of the teaching community.
  • Reinforce a transnational network of organizations involved in preventing school dropout.

Target groups

  • Teaching community that must be trained and sensitized.
  • Young people at risk of early school leaving and social exclusion because they combine several risk factors.
  • Interested parties committed in action to prevent school dropout;

Main activities

  • Publication of a toolkit gathering innovative methodologies and action strategies but also inspiring good practices.
  • Setting up of focus groups with young people to give them a voice and strengthen their empowerment.
  • Setting up of focus groups with teachers to raise their awareness on the issue.
  • Organization of seminars to exchange good practices.
  • Organization of national and European events to widely disseminate progresses and results of the project.

The partnership

  • University of VicCentral University of Catalognia (UVicUCC) is coordinator of the project and expert in project promoting social inclusion, equality and struggle against discrimination (Spain).
  • Fundacja Laboratorium Zmiany is an expert foundation in psychology, entrepreneurship and project management that works mainly on gender quality (Poland). 
  • PaRiter is an NGO that promotes citizenship, human rights and anti discrimination (Croatia).
  • POUR LA SOLIDARITÉPLS (Belgium).