Nature of truancy from the perspectives of secondary students in New Zealand

ABSTRACT

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 as wagging. Findings in this study show that, according to young people who wag, there are four dimensions when they define the nature of wagging: wagging as a response to perceived disrespect in class; wagging to be with friends; wagging as a time to be alone and wagging as habit. On the basis of student perspectives, we argue the importance of early interventions to prevent the development of habitual wagging. A focus on inclusive teaching and social practices to ensure support and promotion of student well-being is required.

KEYWORDS:

• Nature of truancy
• youth
• grounded theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Delia Baskerville

Dr Delia Baskerville teaches at both undergraduate and post-graduate level in initial teacher education in the School of Education at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. Delia is an advocate of the arts, particularly drama in education. She trained a primary teacher, as an actress at the Free Theatre in Christchurch, worked for ten years as a secondary drama teacher and became a Ministry of Education advisor concurrently implementing the drama discipline of the Arts Curriculum in secondary schools in the Wellington region and lecturing in initial teacher education in 2003. Delia is currently involved in an-arts based research project. The Mattering Project, a piece of ethno-theatre was performed by Year 12 and 13 student actors in a secondary school in September 2019, was a dramatic presentation of the experiences of young people who truant. This work, representing a spectrum of marginalised student voices from Delia’s PhD, made the experiences of young people who truant more accessible to community members.

Judith Loveridge

Dr Judith Loveridge is a senior lecturer in the School of Education. She is particularly interested in the intersection between social and cultural processes and individuals’ learning and development. Her major on-going area of research has been concerned with the ways in which children and adults learn and develop through their experiences of implicit cultural practices as well as through the experiences they have as a result of explicitly stated educational goals and pedagogical philosophies and practices. This theme has been addressed through research examining young children’s learning in home, community and educational settings, children’s enculturation, home, centre and school relations, and adult’s learning in informal contexts. A related research interest is the question of how to appropriately and authentically involve children and young people in research. Ensuring that the diversity of groups and individuals’ experiences is given expression has been an important theme in her research.