Research on the causes of truancy from mainstream education suggest that a range of factors such as poverty, ethnicity, the quality of relationship between students and teachers, and the nature of the classroom environment impact on students’ attendance in schools. The majority of the studies on truancy have been carried out with students in alternative education in the U.S.A and Australia. In New Zealand, research has focused on the truancy of Maori students. This study investigates the causes of truancy for Pasifika students in alternative education in New Zealand. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected using questionnaires and three focus group interviews. The findings from this study suggest that a number of factors affected students’ motivation to study. The behaviour of teachers and the school environment were found to affect the Pasifika students’ approach to learning. Some students had negative views of their own ability and lacked perseverance. Other students believed that a lack of parental or family support impacted negatively on their attendance. Consistent with the findings in other studies on truancy, this study found that a range of influences such as a lack of support from community leaders, students’ perceptions of their performance, the nature of the classroom environment, family structure, lifestyle factors and cultural and church activities contributed to Pasifika students’ truanting behaviour. This study suggests that schools that employ teachers who understand and empathize with the cultural aspects of Pasifika students and who can empathize with their situation will be most effective in preventing truancy among these students. Similarly, schools have dedicated programmes that accommodate the academic requirements of Pasifika students foster a more positive learning environment. Finally, schools should look to put in place initiatives to enable Pasifika parents to become effective partners in their children’s education.

Research on the causes of truancy from mainstream education suggest that a range of factors such as poverty, ethnicity, the quality of relationship between students and teachers, and the nature of the classroom environment impact on students’ attendance in schools. The majority of the studies on truancy have been carried out with students in alternative education in the U.S.A and Australia. In New Zealand, research has focused on the truancy of Maori students. This study investigates the causes of truancy for Pasifika students in alternative education in New Zealand. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected using questionnaires and three focus group interviews. The findings from this study suggest that a number of factors affected students’ motivation to study. The behaviour of teachers and the school environment were found to affect the Pasifika students’ approach to learning. Some students had negative views of their own ability and lacked perseverance. Other students believed that a lack of parental or family support impacted negatively on their attendance. Consistent with the findings in other studies on truancy, this study found that a range of influences such as a lack of support from community leaders, students’ perceptions of their performance, the nature of the classroom environment, family structure, lifestyle factors and cultural and church activities contributed to Pasifika students’ truanting behaviour. This study suggests that schools that employ teachers who understand and empathize with the cultural aspects of Pasifika students and who can empathize with their situation will be most effective in preventing truancy among these students. Similarly, schools have dedicated programmes that accommodate the academic requirements of Pasifika students foster a more positive learning environment. Finally, schools should look to put in place initiatives to enable Pasifika parents to become effective partners in their children’s education.

The goal of the dissertation was giving a view of behavioural disturbances that secondary school teachers may encounter. The essay then closely concentrates on truancy problems that teachers encounter very often. The theoretical part shows the difference between problem and defective behaviour and consequently common effects in certain development phases of a child contrary to behaviour that must be classified as defective. I will also state the classification of defective behaviour used by specialists in various fields. Following chapters will focus on explanation of truancy terms, its causation and possible arrangements to prevent skipping mandatory education. The practical part is created by interviews with secondary school teachers who encountered truants in their common practice. The goal is the analysis of the level of teachers' view on the problems. At the same time, I will try to reveal the teachers' approach to solving truancy, treating truants and their families.

Detta examensarbete som omfattar 15hp och är en systematisk litteraturstudie. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att sammanställa modern, interantionell och nationell forskning kring fenomenet ”hemmasittare”, för att synliggöra faktorer som påverkar individers tendens att avvika från skolan, och försöka utröna verktyg att bemöta denna elevgrupp som är på olika stadier i sin frånvaro genom att besvara frågeställningarna ”Hur kan skolan arbeta förebyggande mot hög skolfrånvaro hos eleverna?” och ”Hur kan elever med hammasittarproblematik hjälpas tillbaka till skolan?”. Resultatet visar betydelsen av att försöka motverka skolfrånvaro, att känna igen tecknen hos en person som har tendenser att bli hemmasittare. Det visar även på betydelsen av skolmiljö och positiva relationser betydelse för elevens trivsel och mående, som även det är har betydelse för om eleven kommer fungera psykiskt i skolan trots ev. brister i anknytning, svårigheter i hemmet, ångestproblematik eller andra faktorer. Resultatet visar även på vikten av ett relationellt perspektiv i bemötandet av återvändare. Utan relation och struktur minskar chansen att individen kommer tillbaka till skolan. Övergripande kommer studien visa att det relationella perspektivet genomsyrar alla systematiska litteraturstudier, därmed bygger analysen på vikten av ett professionellt och flexibelt förhållningssätt. I slutet för jag en diskussion utifrån min kommande kompetens, specialpedagog, för att framhäva vikten av en handledare som blir som en bro mellan skolan som organisation, elevhälsan och till läralaget för att stärka upp banden emellan dessa och därmed möjliggöra en bredare kompetens kring till exempel individer, klasser eller frågeställningar som lärarlaget har kring sin fysiska och psykosociala klassrumsmiljö.

AbstractStudents that are absent are one of the major problems that the school system and teachers have to tackle today. This study sets out to investigate why some behind students from vocational programs at two upper secondary schools are absent from English. Furthermore the aim of the study is to investigate what would motivate students to attend more frequently. Five students that attend vocational programs and have or had high degree of absence from English classes were interviewed. The informants described the reasons behind their absence and what would motivate them to attend more often. In addition 60 students answered a questionnaire concerning their absence and attendance.According to the students the reasons behind truancy were unskilled teachers, noisy classrooms, non-supportive teachers and unstructured lessons. Students also said why they play truant is that they are academically behind and can not meet the objectives. Majority of students who were interviewed admitted that they would meet the objectives if they would study more.Key words: absence, attendance, truancy, vocational programs

Alla lärare kommer förr eller senare att konfronteras med situationer som uppstår till följd av att elever är frånvarande. Denna studie undersöker hur lärares dagliga arbete påverkas när elever inte är närvarande.Fyra lärare på en gymnasieskola blev intervjuade om sina erfarenheter och syn på frånvaro och skolk. De blev också ombedda att beskriva hur de hanterade detta i sina dagliga rutiner.Resultaten visar att de intervjuade lärarna tyckte att frånvaro och skolk var ett allvarligt problem. De tyckte också att detta påverkade deras arbetsbörda, fram för allt om de var klassföreståndare i en klass med hög frånvaro. Lärarnas strategier för att hålla skolk nere baserades bland annat på att skapa ett gott arbetsklimat i klassrummet och att upprätthålla rättvisa och likvärdighet i klassen. / All teachers will inevitably be confronted with issues related to students’ absence. This study sets out to investigate how language teachers’ daily work is affected when students are absent.Four language teachers at an upper secondary school were interviewed about their experiences of and their views on students’ non-attendance. They were also asked to describe how they handle absence as a part of their daily routines. All the informants thought that absence is a serious problem. Form teachers’ workload is especially affected if their class has many students with high absence. Their strategies for handling absence were based on their aim to keep their workload down and to obtain fairness and equivalence.

This study utilized a mixed methods design. The study was carried out in two phases. In the first phase of the study, a secondary data analysis of data were collected from a sample (n = 390) of middle and high school students who participated in a truancy pilot program launched during the 2012-2013 school year with follow-up services provided through June 2014. The sample was divided into two groups (treatment and control). The treatment group was diverted from court referral and participated in an intervention consisting of in-home counseling and case management services. The control group was referred to court and went through the traditional court process and received no treatment services. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured through the collection of pre and post intervention data consisting of the number of unexcused absences, disciplinary referrals, beginning and final grades in English, math, science, and social studies. As a final variable, retention and promotion rates were examined. The effectiveness of the truancy reduction intervention was measured by the amount of reduction in these variables following the implementation of the treatment. Data in the first phase of the study were collected by the Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) in partnership with the school district and other agencies. Further analysis was performed in Phase II of the study utilizing a single school case study design. Qualitative case study is an approach to research that allows the researcher to explore a phenomenon within its context using a variety of data sources. For this phase of the study, data were collected through a survey and a focus group using a sample of students from the treatment and control group of the truancy pilot program. The focus group was designed to gain insight from the voices of the students regarding their perceptions of the factors that influence truancy and the effectiveness of truancy intervention. The statistical procedures used to examine the quantitative data included Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Chi Square. Analysis of data collected in Phase I of the study revealed that there was no difference in the effect of treatment for students who were diverted from court to treatment services and those who went through the traditional court process and received no treatment. This finding was supported by results of the analysis of data from the survey and focus group. Results indicated that students did not perceive either invention as being more effective than the other in reducing their truancy. Further, results of the survey and focus group indicated that school factors, not family factors, had the greatest impact on the students’ nonattendance. School factors such as safety, teacher and student relationships, and teacher expectations were identified as primary themes. The findings suggest that the truancy pilot intervention’s focus on family factors as a means of reducing chronic truancy may have been focused in the wrong direction. .

The aim of the study was to gain an understanding from an insider perspective why dropouts are absent from school. Four qualitative interviews were conducted with former dropouts and two qualitative interviews with school representatives. The interviews were analyzed using theory triangulation based on interactionism, structurally and social constructionism perspective. The results showed that school absenteeism was applied to individual properties. The affecting individual properties differed among the informants. Emotional alienation and personal shortcomings was depicted in the former dropouts. Different medical diagnosis was the main reason for the different individual properties, according to school representatives. Insider perspective highlighted that the former dropouts school absences could be understood as an exclusionary process with feelings of inferiority to anomie. School representatives envisioned that the exclusion process continued because of parental education (in) ability and imagined the home as a comfort zone with "curling parents". Former dropouts waited to be intercepted in the school as a danger zone and understood increased resources necessary for the promotion of school attendance. School representatives realized that aid resources were necessary when absence from school was usual. / Syftet med studien var att få förståelse utifrån ett inifrånperspektiv om varför hemmasittare är frånvarande från skolan. Fyra kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med f.d. hemmasittare och två kvalitativa intervjuer med skolrepresentanter. Intervjuerna analyserades med teoritriangulering utifrån interaktionistiskt, strukturellt och socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att skolfrånvaro kopplades till individegenskaper. Vad dessa individegenskaper berodde på skiljde sig hos informanterna. Känslor som utanförskap och personliga tillkortakommanden skildrades hos f.d. hemmasittarna. Skolrepresentanterna föreställde att individegenskaperna huvudsakligen berodde på medicinska diagnoser.Inifrånperspektivet belyste att f.d. hemmasittarnas skolfrånvaro kunde förstås som en uteslutningsprocess med känslor från underlägsenhet till anomi. Skolrepresentanterna föreställde sig att uteslutningsprocessen fortgick p.g.a. föräldrars uppfostrings (o)förmåga och föreställde sig hemmet som trygghetszon med ”curling föräldrar”. Före detta hemmasittarna väntade på att bli uppfångade i riskzonen, d.v.s. skolan och förstod utökade resurser som nödvändiga för främjandet av skolnärvaro. Skolrepresentanterna ansåg att stödresurser var nödvändiga när frånvaron blivit ett faktum.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a school-wide attendance and truancy intervention and universal procedures (ATI-UP) on student attendance. Student attendance was measured through average daily attendance and the percentage of students who would be considered chronically absent, i.e., missing 10% or more of school. The sample included 27 elementary schools in Oregon implementing school-wide positive behavior intervention and supports (SWPBIS) with varying levels of fidelity. Results indicate that schools can have a moderate effect on increasing average daily attendance (ADA) and a small effect on decreasing chronic absenteeism, although these results were not statistically significant. SWPBIS implementation did not act as a statistically significant moderator on the ATI-UP effects, although the treatment effect on ADA decreased with higher SWPBIS implementation.

Previous research shows that truancy in upper secondary school positively correlates to the student’s future level of involvement in society. As such, in order to support an individual’s positive development, it is essential to work with early interventions to increase school attendance. One such preventive initiative is to employ full-time mentors who specifically hold the responsibility to monitor and follow-up student’s absence. This study focuses on full-time mentors working in upper-secondary school, and aims to examine a student’s perspective on the work of the full-time mentors. Collection of material has been done through the execution of eight semi-structured interviews with eight students in an upper secondary school in Stockholm, Sweden. The student’s statements have been interpreted and analyzed from the theoretical standpoint of social constructivism. As such, in this study, the work of the mentor as well as the student’s perception of the mentor’s role, is perceived as part of a social process and consequently dependent on its context. This means that components such as the distribution of power between student and mentor have been relevant to consider, in relation to interventions meant to increase student attendance. The study highlights the importance of using communicative tools, and mutual conversations, as well as building and maintaining well-functioning relationships between students and mentors. The result shows that the way that full-time mentors communicate with students, could be made more explicit, so that routines and expectations leading from that communication is clear to the student. In addition, the study’s result also indicate that full-time mentors could better adapt their way of communicating, in order to avoid an unbalanced power distribution between the full-time mentor and the student. The conclusion of the study is that communicative tools, such as relationship-creating and mutual conversations, when thoughtfully applied, can increase participation in school and as such, reduce absence.