The dropout is currently a key issue in educational systems in Europe, and Latin America, for its sustained and increasing incidence. This is because there are significant abandonment rates in highly developed education systems but vulnerable sectors of society. In 2010 the European Commission sounded the alarm about: 14,45 young people leave compulsory education (ie six million). This problem specifically affects countries like Spain and Portugal - tied for 31.2% and Malta with 36.8% (Eurostat 2010). Iceland has a rate higher than 20%, Italy about 20%, Norway 17.5%, Romania 17% and the UK at 15.5%; all above the European average. Countries such as Finland, France and the Netherlands are located slightly below the average, so that abandonment is a persistent problem (DeWitte Rogge 2012, Dewitte 2013). But it is also a matter of concern in Latin America (Espindola and Leon 2002; Espinoza et there 2012b, Román 2013a, 2013b; Alcázar 2013, Fenández 2013; Atistimuño 2013; Sepulveda Opazo 2013) and the USA (Rumberger 2005, Rumberger Scott 2000 , Rumberger and Lin 2008).

Most published scientific research have been developed through quantitative methodologies and/or econometric approaches. These studies cover a complex map of variables ranging from the characteristics of the education system, family characteristics, school and the teacher's role, the classroom and the student. However, such quantitative evidence does not indicate anything about the subjects themselves who suffer failure or who are excluded from the system. The project presented here tries, from a qualitative methodology, analyze and understand, what meanings underlie being at risk of leaving early in high school (secondary education). At the same time we will compare the results in Chile and Spain. 

The concept of dropout, as use statistics and documents of the European Commission (European Union 2010), has a clearly defined separately. School leavers are those young people between 18 and 24 have not completed secondary education or just pre-employment or employment courses that do not take or permit to discharge acquire the corresponding secondary certificate. Another concept quite employed in Anglo-Saxon literature is that of early school leavers: teenagers who drop out of school early (CHSRG 2005, Clandinin et alli 2010.). Here there is not a terminal situation, as with the dropout of the European Union but is a sustained and steady process, almost from primary or elementary school (Rumberger & Ah Lin 2008; Fernández Enguita, Mena Gómez Martínez and Riviere 2010). A Canadian report (CHSRG 2005) stated that the Early school leaving corresponds to a long process of "disengagement and alienation". Fernández Enguita, Mena Gómez Martínez and Riviere (2010), have raised the importance of the concept of disengagement they define as slow and gradual accumulation of departure from the scale of values, patterns of action and symbols of identification with the school. The disengagement leads to failure (end of compulsory non-degree) or abandonment (failure to post-compulsory qualifications and not continue studying between 18 and 24 years). Finally, the term of dropping out, also used extensively in the English literature, is close to that of abandonment, and is usually understood as a result of the gradual process of disengagement (Smyth & Hattam 2004). It is defined as students aged 16 to 24 who did not finish high school (Davison, Guerrero, Howart & Thomas 1999). What can we conclude from this review? First, the dropout problem is not a terminal phenomenon but a complex process that probably begins in the primary education (Fernández Enguita, Mena and Riviere Gómez Martínez 2010); second, that continues the 'disengagement' and, thirdly, clearly accentuates the entry of students in compulsory secondary, becoming an almost exclusive problem of this stretch of schooling.

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