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<p>Students need to be in attendance at school in order to learn. One concern for schools is when students refuse to attend school on a regular basis. School refusal behavior encompasses all subsets of problematic absenteeism, such as truancy, school phobia, and anxiety. Students dealing with school refusal is a behavior that is multi-faceted. Often times, these students are experiencing psychological matters that are presenting as the symptom of school refusal. The purpose of this study was to survey general education and special education secondary teachers on their perceptions of student absences and to ascertain how they motivate students to attend their classes. The study was centered on two research questions: (1) ‘What are the perceptions of secondary teachers on student absences?’and (2) ‘Are students who exhibit school refusal behavior more likely to be identified as students with special education needs?’ The sample size for this study was 78 certified teachers at an urban high school in the Midwest. The high school had 1,834 students enrolled for the 2020/2021 school year in 9th through 12th grade, with 238 students designated as having special education services. An online survey was created using Google Forms. The survey was designed to not collect respondents’ email addresses to ensure anonymity and was limited to one response per unique email address. The survey did not ask any identifying information such as number of years teaching, subjects taught, etc. Twenty-six completed surveys were returned, for a return rate of 33%.</p>

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Social Work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

Social Work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

M.Ed. / Truancy, which according to Thompson and Rudolph (1992:513), is a deliberate absence from school without a valid reason, is a problem that probably dates back to the initial institution of large scale formal schooling. Although it may seem obvious that the reason for truancy is related to the fact that the truant prefers to be elsewhere, or that he finds the school an unpleasant place to be, the underlying reasons for truancy are more difficult to pinpoint. Research conducted in 1991 and 1992 in the United Kingdom (O'Keefe, 1994:48), and which included 150 schools, revealed that a significant number of pupils of compulsory school—going age become involved in truancy. Statistics reported by the research team themselves, based on a survey which involved questionnaires, suggested that if the results of their survey could be extrapolated to all schools, then a 95 per cent confidence interval for the mean truancy level in schools, is between 29.7 per cent and 32.4 per cent. About two thirds (68%), of all schools should have truancy levels between 22.7 per cent and 39.3 per cent, and 96 per cent of all schools should have levels between 14.4 per cent and 47.4 per cent. If these statistics could be used as a guide to estimate an average of truants per school, the enormity of the prevalence of truancy becomes evident. According to McWhirter and McWhirter (1993:58), truants tend to have what is termed a "dropouts perspective". They claim that dropouts inter alia tend to leave school for the following reasons: * a dislike for school, with the opinion that school is boring and not relevant to their needs * low academic achievement and poor grades * poverty, a desire to work full-time, and a need for money, and * a lack of belonging and a sense that nobody cares about them Some of these attributes might thus also obtain for many truants. Paterson (Wardaugh, 1990: 744), proposes two broad categories of truants, namely the "endangered" truant (also termed the delinquent or morally endangered truant), and the "fearful" truant (also termed the school phobic or abused truant). The "endangered" truant is prone to falling into trouble when absent from school, while the "fearful" truant wishes to go to school, but is afraid to do so. Truancy is also listed by Kapp (1990:119) as one of the behaviours manifested by juvenile delinquents along with various other delinquencies such as theft, running away from home, use and distribution of drugs, burglary, vandalism, assault and robbery, thus suggesting that truancy is associated with these misdemeanours. Healy (Tyerman, 1968:10), notes that truancy is the root of all these misbehaviours, and he described truancy as "the kindergarten of crime". In 1944 Burt (1944:455) already referred to truancy as "the first step on the downward stair to crime". According to Hersov and Berg (1980:67), truancy is a reliable predictor of difficulties in later life. They also report that school truancy significantly predicts four subsequent child events: being held back in elementary school, dropping out of high school,leaving the parental home before the age of 18, and marriage before the age of 18. Thus, it would appear that the prognosis for truants in terms of completing their schooling, securing stable employment and fulfilling responsible citizenship, without being a burden to their future spouses, families, communities and the state, is rather uncertain. Against this background, there can be little argument that the phenomenon of truancy is serious enough to warrant a counseling programme that will be effective in treating truants in the light of their problems in such a way that they will obtain a balanced perspective of the value of regular school attendance. In South Africa, the incidence of truancy, in the old racially biased provincial education schooling system of the House of Assembly (HOA), could be measured quite accurately, simply by consulting the class register over a period of time. Through investigating the circumstances surrounding the absenteeism the teacher could quite easily determine whether such circumstances met the criteria for classification of such absentees as truants. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the schools which were under the jurisdiction of the former Department of Education and Training (DET), of which the researcher was an employee for a number of years. Not only were records of attendance not kept properly in many instances to be able to determine how often a pupil was absent, but even if attendance records had been kept properly, the possible reasons for staying away from school, such as political violence, intimidation, and caring for younger siblings, do also not meet the criteria for classifying such an absentee as a truant. What is however also true, is that large numbers of former DET pupils could have exploited the prevailing situation at the time and could have stayed away from school for reasons that may well have qualified them as truants. Many schools served by the former House of Delegates (HOD), and the former House of Representatives (HOR), were, maybe, just as seriously affected by the political climate as the DET schools. The level of absenteeism related to unrest situations in the former HOD and HOR schools makes it just as difficult to distinguish between the "truants" and the "bona fide" absentees during those turbulent times. For this reason it was decided to restrict the scope of the present study to truants in schools which traditionally fell under the provincial education system of the former House of Assembly.

This thesis examines futōkō (school non-attendance) in Japan from the perspective that futōkō is a social movement. It analyses citizens’ activism in support of futōkō students over the twenty year period from 1984. Drawing upon social movement approaches the thesis examines how futōkō citizens successfully grasped political opportunities, established a network of organizations, launched a new interpretive frame for futōkō, and challenged the dominant representation of futōkō in society –that 'futōkō is an illness’. To explore in detail the ideological aspect of the futōkō movement’s framing, a content analysis of 140 editorials in the movement newspaper – the Futōkō Shimbun (School Non-attendance Newspaper) was conducted. Commencing with a critique of schooling practices that create futōkō, over the survey period Futōkō Shimbun expands its analysis to develop a critical appraisal of Japanese society that has broad implications for many different aspects of the everyday life of its citizens. Adopting the typology of movement outcomes, this thesis assesses the outcomes of futōkō movement framing through two sets of factors: first, changes in government policies and attitudes and second, cultural and ideational changes as experienced by the movement organizations, futōkō activists and children, and as represented in shifts in media representation of futōkō. Government policies in the handling of futōkō students have become more flexible although not always positive, while government interactions with the movement are suggestive of recognition that futōkō citizens are valid spokespersons with a legitimate set of interests in relation to futōkō children. Futōkō movement activists have been successful in framing their movement in terms of: expanding and increasingly sophisticated networks of futōkō movement organizations; the professional development of activists; and a more positive media discourse. The thesis concludes that the futōkō movement has influenced government policies, the media and wider social commentary about the phenomenon of and responses to futōkō. The thesis contends that the social movement perspective enables us to understand the issue of futōkō beyond the educational context, in its wider social, cultural and political contexts. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1330998 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

Le refus scolaire anxieux est un phénomène complexe et multiforme qui peut avoir des conséquences graves au niveau familial, professionnel et sur le fonctionnement psychique de l’adolescent. La reconnaissance précoce est importante car le pronostic dépend en partie de la rapidité de l’intervention. Cependant, le refus scolaire anxieux est un objet encore mal défini, ce qui entrave sa prise en charge et la reconnaissance du phénomène par l’ensemble des partenaires. A ce jour, il n’existe pas d’outil commun aux différents professionnels pour aider au repérage précoce. L’objectif général de cette recherche était de créer et de valider un auto-questionnaire de repérage du refus scolaire anxieux au collège. Trois études ont été menées successivement en utilisant une approche intégrative et une méthodologie mixte (qualitative pour l’étude 1 et quantitative pour les études 2 et 3). L’étude 1 a été l’occasion, à l’aide d’entretiens (N = 42), de recenser et d’organiser les différentes manifestations du refus scolaire anxieux au collège de façon à pouvoir créer ensuite les items du questionnaire. L’analyse de contenu a mis en évidence un modèle de description du refus scolaire en quatre grands thèmes. L’étude 2 (N = 22) a permis d’élaborer la version pilote du questionnaire (SChool REfusal EvaluatioN ; SCREEN). Cette étude portait sur les étapes de création et de sélection des items et sur la création de la structure du questionnaire. L’étude 3 (N = 584) a porté sur la validation de la SCREEN auprès de collégiens et de patients et la mise en évidence de scores seuils pour le repérage du refus scolaire anxieux. Les analyses factorielles indiquent que la SCREEN est composée de 18 items repartis en 4 facteurs. Une analyse en courbe ROC et une standardisation des résultats ont déterminé des scores seuils. Les résultats indiquent de bonnes qualités psychométriques de la SCREEN (sensibilité de .88 et spécificité de .89 ; alpha de Cronbach de .84). Le modèle issu de l’étude 1, ainsi que le questionnaire, peuvent être utilisés dans les établissements scolaires comme dans les services de soins, à des fins de recherche ou dans le cadre d’une pratique clinique. La SCREEN peut contribuer à l’orientation plus rapide des adolescents, aider au développement des études empiriques sur le refus scolaire anxieux et favoriser le travail de partenariat entre les différents acteurs. / Anxiety-based school refusal is a complex, ill-defined phenomenon related to several dimensions social, family, school, psychological…). This anxious absenteeism is a clinical reality with consequences on the adolescent’s family and professional perspectives and on his/her psychological functioning. As the prognosis depends to a large extent on early clinical care, early diagnosis is crucial. While a specific assessment is required, there is still no common tool that school professionals and health care professionals may use.The goal of this research was the creation and the validation of a self-reported screening tool for assessing school refusal.Three studies were carried out successively using an integrative approach and qualitative method (Study 1) or a quantitative method (Studies 2 and 3). The first study, with interviews (N = 42), aimed at a conceptual and operational definition of this construct. The content analysis revealed a descriptive model of school refusal comprising four different themes. The second study (N = 22) concerned the creation of the pilot version of the questionnaire (SChool REfusal EvaluatioN; SCREEN): generation of items, selection of items and creation of the questionnaire. The last study (n = 584) involved the validation of the SCREEN with a community sample of teenagers and a clinical sample. Analyses revealed a 4-factor model structure with 18 items. ROC analyses and standardization revealed a cut-off for screening school refusal. Results suggested that the tool has good psychometric properties (sensitivity .88; specificity .89; Cronbach’s alpha .84).The SCREEN and the descriptive model of school refusal can be helpful both at school and in health care services, for research and clinical practice. The SCREEN is useful for early clinical care, empirical studies, and for developing partnerships between school educators and health care professionals.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work