Addressing the issue of school truancy as a prerequisite to school improvement?

1. Addressing the issue of school truancy as a prerequisite to school improvement? Philippa James School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK.

2. Research questions Main aim: To explore the social worlds of school truants. • Who are the ‘truants’? • Why do young people choose to truant? • How do young people truant? • What do young people do when truant from school? • What are the implications of their truancy?

3. An international ‘concern’ • Truancy is perceived as a major concern politically and socially in numerous countries across the world. (e.g. France - Hayden & Blaya 2005, Germany – Stamm 2007, US – Brown et al 1990) • This can be regarded as a result of the current significance attached to education but also because truancy is regarded as an indicator of ‘risk’ behaviour. • There has been significant media attention but relatively little academic attention.

4. Methods • 60 Year 9 pupils (13-14 year olds) initially drawn from 3 Comprehensive Secondary schools. • Focus groups - Including thought showers, visual aids and the prospective ‘post-card’ method • Interviews - In-depth face to face, ethnographic chats, telephone conversations. • MSN – Internet messaging • Photo elicitation projects • Observation

5. Who are the ‘truants’? • Boys and Girls • From a range of socio-economic backgrounds • From a range of different academic ability and attainment levels – including ‘officially’ recognised ‘high achievers’ • Widespread truancy evident in each of the schools but in an occasional form

6. Why do pupils choose to truant from school? PUSH FACTORS PULL FACTORS • Teachers e.g. ‘Singling out’ & humiliation, poor classroom management, supply teachers etc. • Lessons e.g. ‘Pointless lessons’ (hierarchy of knowledge & instrumental worth), decontexualised learning and teaching, ‘hard lessons’. • The structuring and control of ‘their’ time • Tests and examinations • Bullying • Poor quality of the school building • To help-out at home e.g. When a family member is ill or with the childcare of a younger sibling. • To take part in work outside the school e.g. Labouring on a building site • To ‘have fun’ e.g. Going to the cinema, a football match etc. • To smoke

7. Voting with their feet • Pervasiveness of Neo-liberal discourse. • Pupils positioned as ‘consumers’, part of their truancy reflects this mentality with pupils opting out when aspects of their schooling were regarded as ineffective. • Much of the truancy was not about outright resistance to school rather the majority of the truants enjoyed school and believed in education.

8. Hierarchy of Knowledge & Subject Status • Low status subjects repeatedly described as ‘pointless’ and ‘a waste of time’ E.g. Religious Education (R.E) • Perceived instrumental value rated highly, often at the expense of intrinsic value Kerry: like R.E you don’t need it really do you? Carla: ah no Kerry: unless you’re going to be a church assistant or whatever they’re called or like a vicar Carla: and I don’t think anyone in this school is going to be that! (laughs) So we can’t be bothered with that like Whitney: No one likes R.E do they, apart from like Christians….I hate R.E (Girls Focus group - Cooperfield High)

9. English, Maths and Science consistently regarded of • the highest status in terms of instrumental worth “You don’t have to go to school to be able to do what I want to do…I mean, I need P.E and a little bit of Science, I don’t even need English ‘cause I can speak it and that, it’s just like a bit of writing but I don’t need that when I'm in the water…but like, I wouldn’t mitch it too much because it doesn’t look good on your record. You need English, Maths and Science for your record. You’ve got to get at least a level 5 in biology and I got a level 5 plus so I’m good at that, and I’m alright at Math’s like, and I’m alright in English. I don’t try as hard in other subjects as I do in those. I don’t like doing Art, it’s pointless, textiles, DT, I don’t need them and they’re kind of pointless subjects anyway, I don’t see the point.” (Adam – Hillsden High) “Sometimes I just don’t see the point. I don’t mitch off like English or Maths or Science or any of those, I have to be in then, but like rubbish lessons I just can’t be bothered with.” (Kym - Hillsden High)

10. ‘Consumer’ demands • Many pupils thought they should be paid to go to school “We should get paid to go to school like the college do…not as much cos we’re kids and we’re not responsible enough but still something, they could pay it to our parents, like put it in a savings account until were 16” (Alfie – Cooperfield High) “If they paid us, more people would go…. seriously ‘cause we are working aren’t we” (Lauren – Pen-y-peel High) • Flexibility regarding their hours of schooling “I’d rather come in early and go home early, like come in at 6 am and go home at 12 pm or something.” (Adam , Hillsden High) “What they should do is, you’d have to do 6 hours a day to go to school right? but you can do it whenever you want to, you didn’t have to do 9 am till 3 pm like, you could do it like in the night.” (Aaron, Cooperfield High)

11. Cultural Arbitrariness & Extraneous knowledge “You get taught like pointless things, like I mean Shakespeare!” (Duncan, Pen-Peel High) “Some things are just pointless anyway, like who needs to know about Shakespeare, its like their stuck in 50 years ago or something.” (Adam, Hillsden High) “I loves art, like graffiti I love it, I like, like bright colours and that but we don’t do that at school….graffiti is art though, we did an art project in the youth club, spraying these boards.” (Zack, Hillsden High) • The arbitrariness of the curriculum was seen to deny, not • only the subaltern knowledge and culture of the lower • socio-economic groups, but also youth culture which • transcends class.

12. Decontextualised knowledge • Many of the young people expressed a dislike of decontextualised knowledge. “I don’t mind Biology but Physics is like a whole new world like squares with numbers and things and like weird stuff like t x s = d, it’s like... no it doesn’t, it’s confusing.” (Zoe – Hillsden High) “It’s like algebra and equations and things like that, we’re not going to really need them are we? I mean we might if we ever come across them but when will we? As long as we know how to count and add up then that’s enough” (Delwyn – Pen-y-peel High) “You do need Maths for simple adding, subtracting, timetables... off the top of your head stuff, but not the other stuff you do in it.” (Mark – Cooperfield High)

13. Teaching and learning styles • The pupils expressed a strong dislike for ‘didactic’ teaching styles. • Whilst most were strong advocates of ‘experiential’ learning. • There were also calls for more interactive and ‘participatory’ styles of learning within their present lessons: “If we did activities and stuff that would be better, like we could do games, like in Maths we could do little maths games.” (Delwyn, Pen-y-peel High)

14. The school curriculum and teachers have not yet given reality to the ‘student centred learning’ which is so commonly trumpeted as the basis of contemporary pedagogic processes in Britain. • When truancy occurred due to pupils dissatisfactions with their schools, the young people recounted feeling particularly autonomous, powerful and in control. • In their minds they were strategically reclaiming ‘their’ time.

15. The ‘Institution’ • However, although there is much we can learn from listening to pupils views regarding current forms of schooling, pupil knowledge is essentially ‘bounded’. • When we consider the rest of the push factors which are found in their every day accounts it becomes increasingly evident that it is the ‘institution’ and its power and control over the pupils lives that the pupils are responding to. • Truancy represents a struggle between ‘self’ and institution.

16. What we can take from contemporary accounts from truants in the UK, is that pupils today now expect more from their education than ever before. If we listen to the needs and desires of such pupils we may well be able to gain valuable insights into how our schools can be improved. These accounts can also help us to problematise certain dominant educational discourses such as the increasingly evident instrumentalism.

17. Thank You - Any questions? Email: JamesP2@cardiff.ac.uk