‘What Kind of Education System are We Offering’: The Views of Education Professionals on School Refusal (original) (raw)
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Irish Educational Studies, 2018
This paper examines early school leaving from the perspective of parents of early school leavers in an inner-city local authority housing estate in the Republic of Ireland living with the challenges of significant marginalisation. While the vast majority of post-primary pupils now sit a Leaving Certificate examination, and improvements in school retention rates have also been found in 'disadvantaged' schools in recent years, a disproportionate number of those leaving school early come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Through in-depth, semistructured, interviews, this qualitative study examined the perspectives of nine parents of early school leavers about the factors contributing to young people from this area leaving school early. This article focuses on three aspects of the findings through which the parent participants framed their views on early school leaving; (1) feeling let down by school, and (2) being stigmatised being from a 'disadvantaged' area, and (3) dealing with life traumas. For the participants, these factors significantly constrained their child/ren in engaging with education. The findings are examined through an interrogation of the shaping impact of social class and 'place'. Recommendations include specific professional development for educators in challenging contexts about the impact of trauma and socio-demographical positionality on educational engagement and outcomes.
Understanding and managing school refusal in children and adolescents
Innovative Publication, 2016
School refusal is a common problem observed in children in India and elsewhere. It is a serious problem because it usually poses significant and adverse consequences. Unfortunately, it is not often seen as such. Short-term consequences include poor academic performance, family difficulties, and peer relationship problems.[1,2] The long-term consequences are obvious: reduced opportunities to attend higher education, employment problems, social difficulties, and increased risk for later psychiatric illness.[3] Definition School refusal can be defined as difficulty attending school associated with emotional distress. [4] Children may have a variety of problems associated in school refusal. These may include completely absence from school, partial attendance, behaviour difficulties such as morning tantrums or psychosomatic complaints prior to going to school, or pleading with their caregivers to allow them to remain home from school. [5]
School Refusal and Home Education
2012
When a child refuses to go to school, the whole family is placed in a highly distressing situation. The response of school and mental health professionals in the UK is to return the child to school as soon as reasonably possible; home education is almost never suggested as a viable alternative. Nevertheless, a number of parents decide that home education will be in the best interests of their children. This mixed-method study reports on 20 such families who completed questionnaires, followed up by 5 in-depth interviews. Parents generally reported that symptoms associated with school refusal, both physical and psychological, lessened or disappeared altogether. Moreover, although they had turned to home education as a last resort, the majority decided to continue after seeing their children thrive academically and socially. It is concluded that parents of school refusers should always be fully informed about home education.
How to Understand School Refusal
Frontiers in Education, 2021
Attending school is usually seen as a precondition for academic, social, and emotional learning. However, school absenteeism is a problem in many countries and covers different types of authorized or unauthorized absences and a myriad of reasons. An authorized absence is when there is a satisfactory explanation for the youth’s absence, while unauthorized absence is usually understood as school attendance problems (SAPs). The main aim of this article is first to investigate define, describe, and discuss school refusal (SR) and how SR differs from other concepts of SAPs, and the secondary aim is to understand SR using different theoretical perspectives. The article outlines this aim based upon a review of international research in this field and uses the systemic integrated cognitive approach and school alienation theories to explain how SR might emerge and develop. The review indicates that SAPs involve many types, concepts, definitions, and reasons. The most frequently used concepts...
Faces Behind the Figures: Interviews with Children Excluded from Primary School
Children & Society, 1996
This article presents a vimpoint on school exclusion from 22 primary-age children excluded from 20 different schools in two English local education authorities, (a county council and an inner London borough) during the 1993-94 academic year. Some of the methodological and ethical issues about researching children are outlined and considered. The approach and methods used in the research are explained. Interviews with children s h m d exclusion to be a significant but negative event fOr them, yet they were optimistic about a return to school. Children showed an awareness of what was considered to be appropriate or inappropriate behavwur in their school. They frequently referred to incidents of physical aggression as the reason for their exclusion. It is concluded that this awareness of appropriate behavwur as well as their optimism must be recognised and harnessed when young children are reintegrated into school following a period of exclusion.
2018
School refusal, school phobia, school anxiety and emotionally based school nonattendance are all interchangeable terms used to describe children who experience high levels of distress and anxiety that prevents them from going to school. Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA) in young people is a complex and multifactorial condition which can be a symptom of an underlying mental health disorder (McShane & Rey, 2001). This study explored the experiences of parents of young people aged 13-15 years old who present with EBSNA, who no longer attend mainstream school and who attend an alternative educational provision. Interviews were conducted with five parents and transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), leading to four superordinate themes: 'It turns your life upside down'; Power and the battle to be heard; Loss and fear and Retrospective clarity. These themes captured the far-reaching effects on parents which impacted on relationships within the family, their own mental health and poor relationships between home and school. Parents shared their concern for their child's future and described the need to understand the origins of their child's condition. Implications for Educational Psychologists (EPs) and other professional agencies suggest that it is important to increase our understanding and awareness of the parental experience and consider ways of improving the quality of parental and professional relationships.
Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 1992
While school attendance can be a rewarding and satisfying experience for children, there are times when it produces fear or apprehension. Separation from parents is anxiety producing for many young children attending school. School itself can be a foreboding and strange place, and in the mind of the young child, inhabited by imaginary creatures and unknown dimensions.' These fears diminish as the child develops in cognitive sophistication and undergoes desensitization to the feared aspects of school. Socio-evaluative fears such as talking to a group or class, taking tests and getting bad marks become more prominent in older children and adolescent^.'^^ For the vast majority of children, these school-related fears do not translate into high school absenteeism.' However for a small proportion of children the prospect Of separation from parents and/or facing anxiety inducing situations at school is so distressing that they refuse to attend school. This problem is labelled 'school refusal' or 'school phobia', although we prefer the former term because it allows for the heterogeneity of the problem. School refusal is a serious problem as the child's social and educational development may be jeopardized. In addition school refusers are at risk in adult life in terms of employment difficulties and severe psychiatric disorders such as ag~raphobia.~ In the clinical literature, school refusal is differentiated from truancy.' This latter group of children refuse to attend or abscond from school for reasons unrelated to anxiety about school attendance. These children are usually not at home throughout the school day and may in fact engage in stealing, antisocial and destructive behaviours. AETIOLOGY The aetiology of school refusal is complex with many factors contributing to the problem. Some children probably have a constitutional or inborn vulnerability which places them at risk for the development of emotional disturbance. In particular, much research has focused on temperament as a determinant
School exclusion disparities in the UK: a view from Northern Ireland
Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
Across the four UK jurisdictions, there are distinct disparities in exclusion rates of school students. Northern Ireland, alongside Scotland and Wales, has demonstrated over time, lower rates of permanent exclusions and temporary exclusions compared with England. This paper examines these disparities from the perspectives of representatives from various systemlevel educational bodies and third sector organisations representing children and families who experienced the exclusion process. The paper will also present policy and legal frameworks associated with exclusion in Northern Ireland. We interviewed 9 stakeholders, associated with practices of school exclusion in Northern Ireland, from a range of system-level education bodies and advocacy groups. Findings include positive strategies perceived to keep exclusion levels low, types of obstacles or resistance to anti-exclusion policy, participants' perspectives on unofficial exclusion practice, and perspectives on official exclusion data. What emerges from interviews is a series of tensions between implementing a child-centred approach and diminishing support services and resources. We conclude that those working within the Northern Ireland education system, are committed to an inclusive approach. However, the development and implementation of effective supporting frameworks take time and consultation, and there is evidence of tension between the perceptions of those working at a system-level and those working in schools.