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Forced Truancy and Its Impact on Youth Delinquency in Southeastern Nigeria

Forced truancy is a risk factor that influences juvenile behavior, requiring the joint efforts of school authorities, parents, and courts to address. It is a phenomenon where students desire attending school, but for reasons beyond their control, they are prohibited from attending classes. Some of these reasons are teachers' strike action, students' poverty, lack of educational infrastructures, and unsafe educational environment. Teachers' strike is a frequent occurrence in southeastern Nigeria caused by irregular payment of teachers' wages, benefits, and other remunerations. This case study of 3 secondary schools in southeastern Nigeria sought to understand the impact of forced truancy by examining the relationship between forced truancy and youth delinquency. Although previous studies have explored the causes of truancy, few studies have addressed the effect of forced truancy created by incessant teachers' strike. The theoretical framework that guided this study included Hirschi's social bond theory and Merton's social structure. Case studies were developed using data from the participants and review of documents. A maximum variation method was used for data collection through semi-structured that resulted in a review of archival records and open-ended interviews with students (S = 9), teachers (T = 8), and principals (SP = 4). Descriptive case analysis were used to identify common themes and patterns using constant comparative techniques. Implications for positive social change include identifying areas that need improvement and recommending to legislators and education policy makers for the best approach to addressing the problem, where it has the potential to eliminate teachers' strike, reduce youth truancy, and improve student's academic performance.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:waldenu.edu/oai:scholarworks.waldenu.edu:dissertations-2532
Date01 January 2015
CreatorsEnyiorji, Bouyant Eleazer
PublisherScholarWorks
Source SetsWalden University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceWalden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

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