From current to possible selves: Self-descriptions of resilient post-compulsory secondary education Spanish students at risk of social exclusion

•Participants showed personal, positive, and evaluative present and possible selves.•Self-continuity was studied using thematic continuity in present and future selves.•Participants presented mostly academic possible selves, linked to present selves.•Academic experience is associated with the development of autonomous selves.•Students’ selves were positive regardless of the studied sociodemographic variables. Being in a situation of social exclusion limits the potential of individuals and hinders their possibility to have a dignified life. In order to avoid social exclusion and marginalization, adequate access to formal education is vital. However, continuing education in marginalized neighborhoods poses a great challenge both to individuals and to their sense of self. In the present work, we took an approach to educational resilience based on the analysis of learner identity of students that present a trajectory of resilience in severely impoverished neighborhoods. The sample consisted of 132 students from such at-risk neighborhoods, who, despite this risk, completed mandatory secondary education successfully and continue their education beyond that level. They were administered a modified version of the Twenty Statements Test (TST) to measure current and possible selves related to their learner identity. The organization of the self, the emotional valence, the plane of action, the thematic reference, and thematic self-continuity were analyzed, as well as possible selves’ relationship with grade level, gender, and parental formal education. Results showed that, despite risk, their possible selves had high standards and were positive, reflexive, and connected to their current selves, which regulate and guide the students’ actions towards their goals. Academic experience and high parental formal education were related to the development of more personal and reflexive possible selves, reflecting the appropriation of school-related discourses about the self and the future. Interestingly, none of the variables was related to the emotional valence of self-descriptions. Students with a trajectory of resilience developed a highly positive sense of future self regardless of academic experience, gender, or parental formal education. Implications for resilience theory, identity research, and social intervention in at-risk contexts are discussed.