Beyond the school refusal/truancy binary: engaging with the complexities of extended school non-attendance

ABSTRACT

Extended school non-attendance, commonly named truancy or school refusal, has over the last decade attracted attention among educational researchers. This article points to a need for theoretical perspectives that can account for the complexity and ambiguity of the phenomenon. The article presents a critical analysis of the research field of extended school non-attendance. It is argued that both the school refusal/truancy terminology as well as more environment sensitive approaches support a simplifying and individualising representation of extended school non-attendance. It is further argued that much research focuses on the prevalence of psychopathology in children with extended school non-attendance, and therefore eliminates the voices of these children. Based on the analysis, the article proposes a theoretical framework based on poststructuralism and new materialism as a way to grasp the complex phenomenon of extended school non-attendance.

KEYWORDS:

• School refusal
• truancy
• attendance
• poststructuralism
• new materialism
• subjectivity

Disclosure statement

There are no competing interests to be reported.

Notes

1. These examples include research on both school refusal and truancy.

2. See Højgaard & Søndergaard (2011) for an example of how to work with ‘forces’ as a theoretical concept in a complex empirical field.

3. Analyses of this specific topic can already be found in Bodén (2013; 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Danish PhD Council in Educational Research [-].

Notes on contributors

Frederikke Skaaning Knage

Frederikke Skaaning Knage is a PhD candidate at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. Frederikke specializes in school (dis)engagement.

Email: [email protected]