Truancy is a long-standing and serious educational issue. The debates surrounding truancy are complex as the concept of truancy means different things to different researchers. Data from a grounded theory, qualitative doctoral study is used to investigate how a sample of thirteen young people explained the nature of truancy, which they referred to…

In New Zealand/Aotearoa, high levels of secondary school absenteeism are a nationwide problem. Absenteeism is associated with a range of adverse outcomes for individuals and has detrimental effects on society. Since the global COVID-19 pandemic, with the government closing schools during lockdowns, absenteeism has reached epidemic proportions as…

Truancy, a complex, unresolved educational issue in countries with compulsory attendance policies, has the potential to cause further educational inequity in times of a global COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of this study, there was a paucity of research regarding youth perspectives of truancy compared to adult perspectives. To address this gap in…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

In New Zealand, limited research has been conducted in alternative-education learning environments and yet some of our most vulnerable students are referred to them by their secondary schools. Since 2000, alternative education has been available for students identified as being behaviourally challenging or are habitual truants. This paper reports…

Truancy is a longstanding, unresolved educational issue in countries where there are compulsory attendance policies. It represents a long-term cost to society in expenditure on health, well-being and incarceration. Previous research has focused on key demographic variables related to truancy, causal factors, interventions and a variety of…

Australia and New Zealand have participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment since 2000. Reading literacy was the main focus of the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2000, and at that time both countries' students generally performed well above the…

The impact of socio-economic background on mathematics performance in England can be seen from the most to least disadvantaged. As socio-economic background of pupils increases, so does average mathematics performance; the gap between the most and least disadvantaged is equivalent to over three years' of schooling. However, many factors other than…

Truants living in a depressed urban area were compared with other absentees from school living in the same area. Results, discussed in reference to research differentiating truants and school refusers, showed few differences in the social and financial circumstances of the two groups, but reflected considerable differences in the children's…

"School refuser" is an always-already negative child identity. The term is used to categorize children or adolescents who appear to dislike and fear school (or aspects of school) and persistently refuse to attend or attend very unwillingly. Given that school attendance is generally considered a necessary social good, regular and anxious…

This special issue of the serial SET for 1996 contains seven newly commissioned articles and four reprints all related to the education of children at risk. This issue includes: (1) "Students at Risk: An Overview" (Margaret Batten, Graeme Withers, and Jean Russell); (2) "Inquiry into Children in Education at Risk through Truancy and…

Background: This study sought to examine the associations between indices of socio-economic deprivation in childhood and later involvement in crime. Method: Data were gathered as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. In this project a cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977 have been studied from birth to age 21…