Over the past decades, research on student engagement has expanded substantially, establishing engagement as a key construct for understanding academic achievement, school completion, and student well-being. Despite this extensive body of work, the field remains characterized by significant conceptual fragmentation. In particular, engagement, disengagement, disaffection, and related constructs are used inconsistently across theoretical traditions, and disengagement is frequently treated as the simple opposite or absence of engagement. This conceptual ambiguity complicates cross-study comparisons and limits the development of coherent theoretical explanations of school dropout.

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical theoretical review of how student engagement and disengagement have been conceptualized in the literature and to clarify their role in explanations of school dropout. The guiding research question is: How have engagement and disengagement been theoretically conceptualized in research on schooling, and how can their relationship be better understood in relation to dropout processes? This question is addressed through three interrelated analytical foci: (1) how major theoretical traditions define and frame engagement and disengagement; (2) where conceptual overlaps, tensions, and gaps emerge across these traditions; and (3) what unresolved theoretical issues remain in accounting for diverse trajectories leading to school dropout.

The paper examines key theoretical frameworks that have shaped research on engagement and dropout, including multidimensional models of engagement, motivational and self-system theories, person–environment fit perspectives, and dual-process approaches. Rather than reviewing these theories in isolation, the analysis focuses on their underlying assumptions about student participation, withdrawal, agency, and development over time. Within this framework, engagement is conceptualized as a multidimensional pattern of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive participation in school-related activities, while disengagement is treated as a distinct process characterized by withdrawal, negative emotional experiences, and maladaptive forms of participation. Crucially, engagement and disengagement are not assumed to be mutually interconnected; rather, they may co-occur, evolve differently over time, and interact dynamically with individual characteristics and contextual conditions. For this reason, particular attention is paid to the ways in which disengagement is conceptualized-whether as low engagement, as a qualitatively distinct process, or as a negative school-related condition-and to the implications of these choices for understanding dropout.

Building on this critical synthesis, the paper argues that much of the existing literature implicitly insufficiently capture the heterogeneity of students’ educational trajectories. The review highlights the potential of dual-process perspectives, especially when combined with multidimensional and developmental approaches, to address some of these limitations by conceptualizing engagement and disengagement as related but not mutually exclusive processes.

This study adopts a purely theoretical and integrative methodology. Rather than collecting or analyzing empirical data, the paper is based on a critical and integrative examination of the theoretical literature on student engagement, disengagement, and school dropout. The analysis proceeds in three main steps. First, key conceptualizations of student engagement and disengagement are identified across major theoretical traditions, with particular attention to multidimensional models of engagement, motivational and self-system theories, person-environment fit perspectives, and dual-process approaches. These frameworks are examined in terms of their core assumptions, conceptual boundaries, and explanatory focus. Second, the selected theories are compared and synthesized to identify converging insights, conceptual overlaps, and unresolved tensions, particularly regarding the distinction between engagement and disengagement and their respective roles in students’ educational trajectories. This comparative analysis allows the paper to clarify inconsistencies in terminology and to highlight gaps in existing theoretical accounts of school dropout. Third, building on this critical synthesis, the paper articulates an integrative conceptual perspective that treats engagement and disengagement as distinct yet interrelated developmental processes. The coherence of this perspective is evaluated in terms of logical consistency, alignment with existing theoretical propositions, and its capacity to illuminate heterogeneous trajectories leading to school dropout. The sources used consist primarily of peer-reviewed theoretical and review literature in the fields of educational psychology and sociology of education.

This paper contributes to the literature by critically examining how student engagement and disengagement have been conceptualized across major theoretical traditions and by identifying persistent ambiguities that limit their explanatory value in relation to school dropout. The analysis highlights that, despite broad consensus on the multidimensional nature of engagement, disengagement is still frequently conceptualized in inconsistent ways, often as the simple absence or opposite of engagement. Building on this critical synthesis, the paper advances a clarified conceptual perspective that treats engagement and disengagement as distinct yet interrelated developmental processes that may co-occur and evolve differently over time. This perspective allows for a more nuanced understanding of school dropout as the outcome of heterogeneous pathways, rather than as the endpoint of a uniform process of declining engagement. While the paper does not propose an empirically tested model, it offers a theoretically grounded framework that can inform future longitudinal and comparative research. Beyond its theoretical contribution, the proposed framework has implications for educational practice. By clarifying the distinction between engagement and disengagement and acknowledging their possible co-occurrence over time, the framework may support educators and school practitioners in interpreting students’ classroom behaviors in a more differentiated manner. A more nuanced understanding of disengagement processes can help design interventions that are better aligned with students’ specific patterns of participation, withdrawal, and emotional or cognitive involvement in school activities. Finally, the contribution of this work is particularly relevant in a European and international context. Early school leaving remains a shared challenge across educational systems, yet research traditions and institutional contexts vary widely. By offering conceptual clarification, this paper may facilitate cross-national dialogue and enhance the comparability of research on student engagement, disengagement, and school dropout across diverse educational settings.

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