School is a central context for development (Heyne et al., 2019), and regular school attendance is a foundational competency for children and adolescents. School absenteeism has been linked to both short-term and long-term negative consequences. (Kearney et. al, 2019, p. 1). Absence from school jeopardises children’s and adolescents’ education, social and emotional development, age-appropriate socialisation, and peer relationships. (Melvin et. al, 2019; Thambirajah, Grandison, and De-Heyes, 2008). School attendance and completion are important benchmarks of successful development; unfortunately, school absenteeism and dropout remain prevalent and devastating among young people. (Kearney, C. and Graczyk, P., 2020, p.316).

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to education from Early Years settings to post-16 years of education (Bowyer-Crane, 2021). Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicate that the COVID-19 crisis caused school closures in 188 countries and resulted in disruption to the learning process of more than 1.7 billion children and youth. (OECD, Education Working Papers, 2020). In terms of the Irish context, to safeguard human life and curb human casualties, the Irish government took swift action on the 13th of March 2020, to close all schools, amongst other things, and move to remote learning. Remote learning had not been part of the Irish education landscape. Schools were forced to close and remained closed until their reopening in September 2020.

Absenteeism from school is not a new phenomenon. The issue of absenteeism, however, is multifaceted and difficult to determine. Many factors may contribute to student absenteeism, necessitating interventions and approaches tailored to the specific needs of individual students.

This study is informed by critical realism as a primary framework, with a supporting framework of Ecological Systems Theory. This is a hierarchical pairing of frameworks, where critical realism will be used to analyse education professionals' accounts as situated knowledge, not as transparent truth. This study is concerned with how Irish post-primary educators interpret and respond professionally to student school avoidance. Given the multifaceted nature of school attendance difficulties, which are shaped by individual, relational, institutional, and policy-related factors, a theoretical framework was required that could account for the complexity of educators’ professional experiences and decision-making. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979, 2005) serves as a supporting framework for critical realism, as it enables an exploration of educators’ responses to school avoidance within the broader systems that influence educational practice in Ireland.

Adolescent years are formative, and during the restrictive measures of the pandemic, adolescents missed out on social events crucial for building relationships, identity formation, and socialisation. These effects are still fully unknown, but the pandemic has brought into sharp focus a school attendance crisis in many countries. (Connolly, S., Constable, H., and Mullaly, S., 2023, p.1). Current research suggests that chronic absenteeism, and school avoidance, which “is frequently described as having trouble going to school, staying home with parents’ knowledge of nonattendance” (Yan, 2023, p.627) or school phobia refers to “a situation where there is a fearful inability to attend school” (Sinha, 2021, p.485), and partial attendance has increased among adolescents and has resulted in learning loss and widening attainments gaps among students.

On May 19^th, 2025, the Irish Minister for Education and Youth announced the escalating issue of school absenteeism in Ireland. The alarming statistics from the 2022/2023 academic year, where over 110,000 primary and 65,000 post-primary students missed 20 or more school days, indicate a rising issue with school attendance.  A comprehensive suite of targeted and universal actions aimed at improving attendance in Irish Primary and Post-Primary schools was announced.

It was important to understand education professionals' interpretations of school avoidance and how they contextualise it in relation to their professional working lives. A methodology that allowed participants to explore their understandings of school avoidance, that allowed them to discover meanings, and captured rich, complex information in what they chose to share was crucial. The research design employed for this project was a sequential mixed methods design. A mixed-methods design was used to provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data to provide background knowledge and scope out the lay of the land. A survey of post-primary educators was first used to gather data. Surveys allowed data to be gathered from a wide geographic reach through anonymous responses. This allowed a broad insight into educators’ perspectives on school avoidance. A link to an expression of interest to participate in an interview was included in the survey. Surveys were emailed to schools’ email addresses contained on the Department of Education and Youth website, asking that it be shared internally with all educators in the schools. The link in the email directed the participants to a Microsoft Form questionnaire. The form provided information and consent that had to be completed before continuing the survey. The survey also contained an embedded link to an expression of interest in participating in an interview. The social media platform LinkedIn was also used to share the link to the survey to attract more responses. This was sent out in a post on my LinkedIn account, requesting educators in post-primary schools to take part. It was estimated that 150-200 responses would be gathered from the survey, and 10-15 interviews with education professionals would be conducted. Integrating quantitative and qualitative findings in this mixed-methods approach informs practice, illuminating education professionals’ insights, interpretations, and contextual constraints that shape their responses to student school avoidance.

I hope this study will contribute to the existing literature and help address a gap in the research. This study will offer a lens concerning Irish post-primary education professionals’ voices, and what they said will inform how they understand and interpret school avoidance. This study aims to contribute to the field by hearing first-hand perspectives on educators' experiences with school avoidance and the challenges they face in their professional lives that hinder their abilities and stand in the way of providing adequate support for these students. Hearing these perspectives may offer a valuable insight into better professional training and support resources, increasing knowledge and awareness, better networked approaches among education partners, improved collaboration, and a reduction in barriers to help education professionals better support students with school avoidance. This topic concerns education professionals and their experiences with school avoidance relating to students. Teaching and educational policy have seen rapid transformations and new constructivist theories, and theories in learning, life-long learning, as well as the impact of neo-liberal policies that shift responsibilities from governments and the state to individuals. (Biesta, 2015). Researching how school avoidance impacts the workload, capacity, reputation, and emotional toil of educators is worth understanding.

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