Lifelong Learning Project - School Inclusion - Preventing Early School Leaving

The scholastic drop out: analysis of its elements and causes

Migliorini Laura, Piermari Antonella, Rania Nadia

Edizioni Erickson

Università di Genova - Dipartimento di Scienze Antropologiche, September 2008

Article

Italian

English

The present deals with the early school leaving phenomenon analysing the real motivations that’s stand beyond the decision of droppin out from school. The attention of the three authors focuses on the theorical structure of the concept of “scholastic drop out”, whose meaning has often been misunderstood by the existent studies on this topic. According to their perspective a student that abandons school before the end of the cycle of studies is victim of an educational and social system which is not able to look after him from the very beginning. In particularly, the transition from a school level to another is a crucial moment in a student’s life and it’s right in that circumstance that the help from the people surrounding him (teachers, parents and society) is really essential. The research developed by the authors on this theme uses both a quantitative and a qualitative approach and it concentrates on the risks and possible preventions thatr are relevant to prevent the early school leaving problem. Although the subjects part of the sample, students, parents, teachers and school heads, didn’t interpreted the phenomenon in a homogeneous way, they recognised that there are common risk factors: insufficient flair for studying, the interior frailty of the single person and difficulties in the family contest show implicitly a serious uneasiness of the subject. On the other side the suggestions made by the interviewed to tackle the drop out problem are various and implicitly recognize the importance for schools and families to support children. The final thesis demonstrates the invalidity of the issue according to which the pair drop out – wrong choice of the type of school is the main cause for school abandons.

The article addresses a very important and delicate issue that all the developed societies, and Italy in specific terms, are facing today. The quali-quantitative approach, used by the three authors to develop their research on the early school leaving problem, matches figures and psychological explanations, allowing the reader to reflect upon statistics that have a clear meaning to him. This study is structured in a complete way so that all the points of view of the people involved are to be taken into account. This lets the reader have an all-round vision of the problem. From the article’s conclusions interesting suggestions can be drown: the psychological factor is essential to explain the moment of the transition between a school level and another, the capacity of the scholastic staff to stimulate the students to come closer to school and last, but not least, the interior weakness of the single person all are to be considered as elements determining a drop out choice. The theorical reflection upon the “early school leaving” phenomenon is seen by the author in a different way in respect of how it was traditionally explained: the main point is the student’s psychology, who is not the promoter of the drop out; on the contrary he is the victim of this choice. The main responsibility is to be found in the inadequate support received by children from teachers and parents.

http://www.icsantommaso.net/sito%20CDDS/dispersione/la%20dispersione%20scolastica.pdf

Sara Ciabattini

Pixel Association

Project Assistant