In the past decades in the European Union, as well as in Portugal, overcoming school failure and dropout has been a political priority in the promotion of employment, economy, social cohesion, cultural development, and citizenship. Portugal, in recent years, has been systematically reducing these numbers. Although this evolution there are social and educational inequalities that can be translated into high rates of school failure and dropout among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. To address these issues, specific intervention programs and projects have been created. At a European level, several initiatives have been developed (Eurydice, 2021) highlighting in Portugal the implementation of interventions based on objectives such as the promotion of school success and social inclusion (Antunes, 2019; Magalhães et al., 2015). 

Developed in the context of a doctoral project in Educational Sciences granted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/143386/2019) and framed in the EDUPLACES project (PTDC/MHC-CED/3775/2014) the presented investigation focuses on the study of two inclusive socio-educational practices developed in the context of two national programs aimed at social inclusion and academic success, the Educational Territories of Priority Intervention Program, developed in the School and the Choices Program, allocated in the Community. Inclusive socio-educational practices are conceptualized as practices implemented under national government programs, in formal and non-formal educational contexts, to promote academic success and social inclusion (Antunes, 2019). Within these practices, we intend to study transformation processes in successful academic pathways in students at risk of school failure and/or dropout. The concept of atypical academic pathways is addressed, with multiple designations (Roldão, 2015), in national and international reference literature in the field of sociology of education (Antunes & Sá, 2019; Lacerda, 2006; Lahire, 2004) to mitigate, in line with Morrow and Torres (1997) the logics "of theories of social and cultural reproduction". These studies are based on questions posed to the macro-structural approaches, namely from the problematic of cultural and social reproduction and of socialization (Bourdieu & Passeron, 2009). Some authors point out approaches at a micro-level placing families and their strategies toward education as the focus in the analysis of educational inequalities (Zeroulou, 1988; Lahire, 2004; Roldão, 2015). In Portugal, only more recently, these trajectories were analyzed as an object of study (Costa & Lopes, 2008; Costa, Lopes & Caetano, 2014; Roldão, 2015).

One of the research questions that this study aims to answer is: "What is the students' perceived impact of participating in inclusive educational practices towards successful academic pathways”?. From a qualitative approach, it was developed a multi-case study (Seale, 2004; Yin, 2010) conducted in a municipality located in the northeast region of Portugal.

The theoretical framework of this study aims to be consistent with the lines of research based on an approach to sociology on an individual scale, considering atypical academic pathways as unique cases studied at a micro-sociological level considering their involvement in a broader and historically situated phenomenon, the school failure and educational inequalities resulting from the massification of school (Antunes & Sá, 2019).

The main objective of this proposal is to bring into academic debate the effects of the dimensions of inclusive socio-educational practices - arising from intervention policies and measures aimed at overcoming school failure, dropout, and social exclusion - that may generate the construction of atypical academic pathways.

This study has a qualitative approach to cover the plurality of rationalities and meanings based on the knowledge and contexts under analysis (Seale, 2004). This methodological approach enables a collection of more detailed and in-depth information on the phenomena to be researched (Crabtree & Miller, 1992) with the purpose of expanding the knowledge of the educational pathways of young people involved in the practices under study. To answer our research question "What is the students' perceived impact of participating in inclusive educational practices towards successful academic pathways?" the methodology selected to develop this investigation was a multi-case study (Yin, 2010) carried out in a municipality located in the northeast region of Portugal. The research was aimed at young students selected according to three inclusion criteria: (i) have participated in the practice for at least one year; (ii) have reversed the initial expectations of the school pathway of failure and/or dropout and; (iii) were attending the 2nd or 3rd cycle of compulsory education. To allow the interviewer and the interviewee to increase reflexivity (Costa et al, 2008) two semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten students, aged between 11 and 18 years old, six girls and four boys who participated in the inclusive socio-educational practice of Study Support (allocated in the Community) and Ability Grouping (developed in School). The option for the semi-structured interview technique is related to its particularity in "discursively capturing, with symbolic depth and narrative density the respective points of view on certain practices, experiences, and/or interactions" (Ferreira, 2014:168). Subsequently, a content analysis (Bardin, 1995) of the interviews were performed according to the main focus of the study by identifying three categories with greater impact: personal, social, and academic dimension (information about the students' narrative of the socio-educational practice and their school pathway in a personal, social and academic dimension) which correspond to the categories elucidated to constitute the contributions of research on atypical academic pathways. Through the perspectives of young students, the aim of this study is to understand the multidimensional factors that occur in the transformation processes, in the personal dimension, and that contribute to the construction of successful academic pathways.

The presented study aims to contribute to increasing knowledge about successful atypical academic pathways of young people, who attend inclusive socio-educational practices inserted in educational policy measures that aim to promote school success and social inclusion, in order to provide a broader understanding of social and educational inequalities. Thus, the expected results are intended to promote the understanding of young students' attitudes and decisions regarding education, school, (in)success, and drop out. Based on these meanings, we will develop an approach that allows the development of portraits of atypical academic pathways of young students and profiles that characterize these academic pathways (Antunes & Sá, 2019; Costa, Lopes & Caetano, 2014; Roldão, 2015). This proposal will present young students' perspectives and voices to comprehend social reality as a human construction considering the subjective meanings of practices, interactions, devices, and interpretations in distinct configurations and combinations, but denoting social regularities in formally and informally organized contexts (Antunes & Sá, 2019). With the data analyzed so far throughout this research, by means of content analysis, it was possible to identify factors that promote transformation processes in the construction of atypical academic pathways focused on a personal dimension such as their mobilization to learn, self-esteem, self-confidence, responsibility, work organization, attendance, well-being, autonomy, and goal settings. Dispositions, such as the willingness to learn, the acquisition of study methods, commitment, and interest were identified as vectors that contribute to the academic success of the young students interviewed that suggest an articulation with the student’s craft (Perrenoud, 1995), the rules of performance (Bernstein, 1996), as well as the relation with knowledge (Charlot, 2009).

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