Session Information
05 SES 01 A, Addressing School Absence and Drop-out
Paper Session
Contribution
During the course of their educational path, children are subjected to a series of critical transitions between one academic level to the next. These include the transition from kindergarten to lower primary school, from upper primary school to lower secondary school and from vocational studies through apprenticeship and into the labour force (Bragdø & Austad, 2022).
Students’ transitional experiences play an important role in dictating their later social, emotional and intellectual development (Hanewald, 2013; Waters et al., 2012). Students with specialized needs are particularly vulnerable to critical transitions and have a higher risk of transitions leading to a negative social, academic or behavioural development (Cantali, 2015; Symonds, 2015). Thus, it is imperative that teachers are conscious of critical transitions and the effect they may pose on some students.
Norway along with the other Scandinavian countries, are repeatedly used as a good example on the path towards an inclusive school and equal participation for all people (e.g. Frønes et al., 2020). The Nordic welfare state model provides free education for all, free parental leave and comprehensive sickness benefits. Still the economic inequality in Norway is rising (e.g. Akerbæk & Molnes, 2021). Repstad (2021) refers to different kinds of inequality. He claims that while the Norwegian society experiences little inequality of opportunity and inequality of treatment, it is still lacking in inequality of outcome – A level playing field does not necessarily lead to an egalitarian society. In the case of public education, it is not enough to accommodate for equal opportunity and treatment as long as the cultural capital of the students is not being taken into consideration.
Both the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (Meld. St. 6 (2019-2020)) and legal regulations for the Norwegian teacher education highlight the importance of strengthening the bonds between the different academic levels in the educational trajectory. Despite this, there are no clear guidance document on how to strengthen these transitions and there are barely any Norwegian studies considering the transition between primary and secondary school (Strand, 2022, s. 18).
Through a case study, carried out in the context of an EU-funded research project, PIONEERED – aimed at pioneering practices tackling educational inequalities in Europe, – we examine an alternative educational program which aids upper primary and lower secondary students, struggling to stay in school. Once a week, students are brought away from school to conduct non-formal outdoor activities, focusing on mastery and personal development, significantly reducing their chance of dropping out. The instructors teach the students practical vocational tasks, with the eventual goal being regular employment and a satisfactory quality of life.
One of the most striking and successful enterprises of this practice is their ability to prepare at-risk students for potentially difficult educational transitions, namely upper primary to lower secondary school, and lower secondary to upper secondary school. This leads to the following research question: Which tools and techniques used for smoothening transitional risks can be identified in a Norwegian alternative educational program?
Further research objectives include:
- arguing for the value of researching transitional tools and techniques for vulnerable students.
- identifying tools and techniques utilised by an alternative educational program.
- reflecting on how these techniques can be applied to the ordinary school system in the Norwegian educational context and may serve as incentive for other European contexts as well.
We assume a sociocultural perspective on education, which asserts that learning is a social process mediated through communication with a more knowledgeable other (Vygotsky, 1978). We also assume a Bourdieuan sociological perspective, contending that educational qualifications are domestically inherited and thereby reproduced in the form of cultural capital (Bourdieu & Richardson, 1986).
Method
The study follows a qualitative methodological approach, based on a hermeneutical interpretation of the data material (e.g. Brown, 1994). The data material is comprised of two expert interviews, two stakeholder discussions, a set of field observations and one focus group interview. In addition, PIONEERED has during the course of the project conducted several workshops, communicating results and sharing ideas with members of other partner countries undergoing parallel case studies in their own national contexts. An important aspect of the PIONEERED project has been participatory research and the inclusion of invested stakeholders in the research process (Hollenbach & Tillmann, 2011) – educational workers and non-academics from the alternative educational program being studied have actively participated in these workshops and have thus contributed with their invaluable experiences and perspectives on how to reduce educational inequalities and smoothen transitional risks for vulnerable students. These experiences have been carefully documented and also serve as part of the data material. We maintain an ongoing dialogue with the stakeholders, quality assuring the reliability of our research process. This particular pioneering practice is interesting because it typically follows students from upper primary through lower secondary school, and in that regard is able to guide the students through-out their transitional experience in a way which ordinary teachers and other communal child services cannot. They are especially concerned with children of various behavioural difficulties, school reluctancy, anxiety, mental health issues, neurodevelopmental disorders and students being involved in illicit activities. In addition, the practice has an outspoken focus on preparing vulnerable students for difficult life course transitions and more than 20 years of experience working with children with various difficulties.
Expected Outcomes
Early effort invested in keeping young people in school and preparing vulnerable students especially prone to dropping out, for critical transitions, may be of help in reducing the number of students with zero points from compulsory primary education as well as reducing the drop-out rate in upper secondary school. The practice being studied has shown promising outcomes in decreasing school absence and increasing students’ academic results, confidence and general well-being through a number of years. Still, their methods have not been formally documented. This study will try to preserve this important piece of information while also contributing to the gap in research on critical life course transitions for Norwegian upper primary school students. The long-term ambition of this alternative educational program is to formalise their philosophy and expand their practice onto other municipalities. Research and precise documentation are thus needed to achieve recognition from educational researchers and garner interest from policy makers.
References
Akerbæk, E., & Molnes, G. (2021, September 8). Hvor stor er den økonomiske ulikheten i Norge? [How big is the economic inequality in Norway?]. Faktisk.no. https://www.faktisk.no/artikler/z5m6y/hvor-stor-er-den-okonomiske-ulikheten-i-norge Bourdieu, P., & Richardson, J. G. (1986). Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. The forms of capital, 241, 258. Bragdø, A., & Austad, M. H. (2022). I skole, på vei til jobb: gode overganger mellom skole og arbeidsliv [In school, entering the labour force: smooth transitions between school and working life]. Fagbokforlaget. Brown, T. (1994). Towards a Hermeneutical Understanding of Mathematics and Mathematical Learning. In P. Ernest (Ed.), Constructing Mathematical Knowledge: Epistemology and Mathematics Education (pp. 152-161). The Falmer Press. Cantali, D. (2019). Moving to secondary school for children with ASN: a systematic review of international literature. British Journal of Special Education, 46(1), 29-52. Frønes, T. S., Pettersen, A., Radišić, J., & Buchholtz, N. (2020). Equity, Equality and Diversity in the Nordic Model of Education—Contributions from Large-Scale Studies. In T. S. Frønes, A. Pettersen, J. Radišić, & N. Buchholtz (Eds.), Equity, Equality and Diversity in the Nordic Model of Education (pp. 1-10). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61648-9_1 Hanewald, R. (2013). Transition between primary and secondary school: Why it is important and how it can be supported. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 38(1), 62-74. Hollenbach, N., & Tillmann, K.-J. (2011). Teacher research and school development. German approaches and international perspectives. Die Schule forschend verändern. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn. Meld St. 6 (2019-2020). Tett på - tidlig innsats og inkluderende fellesskap i barnehage, skole og SFO [Following closely – early effort and inclusive community in ECEC, school and after-school programs]. Retrieved from https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/meld.-st.-6-20192020/id2677025/ Repstad, P. (2021). Norway: an egalitarian society? In E. Maagerø & B. Simonsen (Eds.), Norway: Society and culture (3 ed., pp. 138–157). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. Strand, G. M. (2022). Overgangen til ungdomstrinnet: elevenes opplevelser og hvordan vi kan støtte dem [The transition to secondary school: Students’ experiences and how we can support them]. Universitetsforlaget. Symonds, J. (2015). Understanding school transition: What happens to children and how to help them. Routledge. Waters, S. K., Lester, L., Wenden, E., & Cross, D. (2012). A theoretically grounded exploration of the social and emotional outcomes of transition to secondary school. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 22(2), 190-205.
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