In contemporary societies, structured by increased differentiation, plurality of life worlds and the weakening of prescribed social roles, individuation – the process of construction of a biographical singularity (Beck, 1992) - is an experience as fundamental as it is problematic. According to authors such as Martuccelli (2006, 2010) and Breviglieri (2007) individuation is carried out in a succession of trials in which the choices made and decisions taken have implications, in a greatly amplified space of freedom.

Although in each and every society individuals have to deal with a considerable number of trials, in contemporary societies the trials themselves become part of the perception of an individual’s own life (Martuccelli, 2006). This is partly due to the increasingly institutionalized character that an individual’s life course has acquired – biographical patterns are shaped by institutions (educational, occupational and social protection systems) (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2001; Heinz and Kruger, 2001; Heinz and Marshall, 2003; Sapin, Spini and Widmer, 2007), which confront individuals with public tests (abilities, performances, qualities) in order to obtain social recognition, as Honneth (1995) has successfully argued.

At the same time, individuation implies the exercise of autonomy. As the values of individualism intensify in contemporary societies, autonomy, defined as self-governance, becomes not only a normative goal but also a process that individuals are invited/compelled to experience (Bauman, 2001, 2007; Pappámikail, 2013). In the ethical landscape of modernity, the greater freedom of circulation and action within and between plural social spheres explains the importance of practising, in order to prove, competence in self-determination. But this process may entail certain ambiguities.

The obligation to attend school, for increasingly longer periods of time, has transformed schooling into a crucial part of any young person's biography. In that sense, adolescent individuation (Breviglieri, 2007) takes place largely within the education system, and is defined through several schooling options. This is particularly true when young people reach upper secondary education, as this transition implies, in the Portuguese context at least, the definition of a personal project translated into a vocational choice (pupils have to choose a more focused educational path from a diverse range of options). This means that the still-developing autonomous identity (of the adolescent) is challenged by the “obligation” to choose a future destiny – by means of a compulsory vocational choice.

In the course of a research already completed on school and vocational choices in secondary education, a paradox has emerged clearly from adolescent’s testimonies obtained during empirical research. The denial of influence on individual decisions, that is, the belief that the current vocational choice was totally free, completely autonomous, without any imposition exerted by parents and little influenced by “significant others” (family, teachers, friends, media…) was a common value to the protagonists of all identified schooling itineraries. However, biographical narratives of the respondents also showed a game of chiaroscuro in which the facades (different social stages where the adolescent «shines» by assuming the main role) seem to hide relevant backstage maneuvers (where they act in different ways, and there are many other stakeholders) that underpin - but also constrain - the choices, besides serving as a buffer for anxieties in times of indecision, doubt or failure.

This paper intends to explore the processes of vocational choice, comparing the autonomy to choose claimed by adolescents with the sources of influence that eventually interfere in those processes. Our aim is thus to identify:

a) who are students dialog counterparts in the process of (re) defining their vocations

b) what kind of information do adolescents rely on to support their choices

c) what degree of importance do they award to these sources of information

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