A qualitative exploration of pupil, parent and staff discourses of extended school non-attendance

Clissold, Katherine (2018). A qualitative exploration of pupil, parent and staff discourses of extended school non-attendance. University of Birmingham. Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

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Abstract

Extended school non-attendance (ESNA) is presented in the literature as a difficulty that can result in negative outcomes for the pupil, not only with regard to academic attainment but mental health difficulties, relationship problems and reduced future prospects. In the political context of increased legislation regarding the requirements for pupils be in receipt of suitable educational provision, a legal discourse of ESNA has become entrenched. This sits alongside a dominant clinical discourse which positions school non-attendance as a within child, medicalised construct.
Whilst early research aligned extended non-attendance with anxiety, subsequent findings have constructed such attendance difficulties as multi-factorial, interactive and individual. In the existing research, there is little which includes the pupil voice to examine their construction of the attendance difficulty.
This qualitative exploration therefore, aimed to examine the construction of the reasons for ESNA by the pupils, parents and school staff, through examining the discourses of participants. The findings of the analysis highlighted the heterogeneity of ESNA and are illustrative of the disparate constructions of the participant groups. The results are discussed in the context of the current literature and the implications of the findings are considered in terms of strategic prevention, identification and intervention of attendance difficulties,

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

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