The impact of students' educational values on truancy

• Main Author: Bean, David Heber
• Published: University of Buckingham 2010
• Subjects: 371.295
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.544130

The traditional view is that truants are juvenile delinquents. Getting an education is regarded a an unquestionable good in society. and students who absent themselves from school are often labeled as irresponsible, lazy, deviant, or rebellious-why would students absent themselves from something that is good unless there was something wrong with them? Our society has evolved to the point where many parents have relinquished the greater responsibility of educating their children to the local school systems. As such, the notion of "getting an education" is now equated to "attending school," and therefore, school has been elevated to the position of an "unquestionable good." All blame, then, as to why students truant is diverted away from the school establishment and onto the truant, while students' character, home life, emotional stability, etc are many times blamed for the problem. While these reasons may account for some truancy, they cannot explain all truancy. This dissertation approaches truancy with the assumption that many students value their education. As such, students' desire to truant for deviant purposes will be less than what is believed by proponents of traditional viewpoints. Truancy is alive and well, but not entirely because of reasons that might be expected. This study found that there is much greater incidence of Class Truancy- where students cut a particular class instead of cutting the entire day- than School Truancy. It appears that students are being selective as to which classes they cut and which classes they attend for various reasons. This study found that out of the 2,727 students surveyed there were 1,763 truants, or 64.6% of the total participants. Of these 1,763 truants, 1,613 or 91.5% said they valued education. If positive educational values play an active part in truants' lives, the traditional view of truants' character and reasons why they truant would be challenged, and explanations for truancy must then be looked for within the school itself, particularly at curricular and pedagogical arrangements. In addition, several new factors related to truancy behavior were identified. These include the value students placed on continuing their studies and on higher education. These new variables, mostly overlooked in research on truancy, have a dynamic effect on students' choices regarding their attendance behavior--especially on class truancy.