‘School – no thanks – it ain't my thing’: accounts for truancy. Students' perspectives on their truancy and school lives

Abstract

This study is an interview-based investigation of 15 students with unexcused absences in the last school year in Swedish compulsory school. The aim is to explore students' descriptive perspectives on truancy, school life and their own futures. The interviews are analysed as presentations of accounts within symbolic interaction. The students account a variety of excuses or justifications, including internal justifications, such as ‘I didn't understand’, and external justifications, such as ‘My dad is sick’. Examples of motivations for truancy include boredom (justifying internal excuses) and bullying (justifying external excuses). Most of the excuses seem to connect to the school atmosphere. All students except one indicate that they dislike school and all students except three have relationship problems with peers and teachers. These three students display a change or ‘turning point’ from truant behaviour to continual school attendance and from exclusion to inclusion.

Keywords::

• student interview-based research
• relationship problems
• excuses and justification for truancy
• turning points
• school atmosphere

Introduction

Truancy, unexcused absences, prolonged absenteeism or unauthorised absences from compulsory schooling are terms for the same widespread social problem: poor school attendance. On the one hand, truancy can be considered a healthy reaction to an unfriendly school environment or a manifestation of dissatisfaction with the school system (Karlberg & Sundell, 2004; McIntyre-Bhatty, 2008). On the other hand, truancy can be viewed as the result of high-risk life-circumstances with dire consequences such as social isolation, school failure, drug addiction, and even criminality (Baker, Sigmon, & Nugent, 2001; Karlberg & Sundell, 2004).

Each country has its own definition of truancy depending on its culture. Sutphen, Ford, and Flaherty (2010) found that truancy is a legal term for unexcused absences from school over a designated period of time. The most common definition of truancy seems to be absence from school without approval from parents and school. Truancy implies an active decision of the student to skip lessons. One such decision can be a first sign in a series of antisocial behaviours that can lead to negative personal outcomes (Baker et al., 2001; Teasley, 2004). A long-term school disengagement make the youth prone to problem behaviour which may have an explanation in school organization (Alexander, Entwise, and Kabbai, 2001).

Goffman (1972) states that, based on the societal norm, behaviours outside the norm are referred to as deviant behaviours. To be away from school or absent without permission may be regarded as an untoward behaviour about which students are forced to speak defensively, which Scott and Lyman (1968) call an ‘account’.

According to Scott and Lyman (1968), accounts are defined, within symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1959), as statements made by persons to free themselves of culpability and to defend or restore their position as respectable human beings (cf. Orbuch, 1997). Talk is the fundamental material of human relations, and accounts are used to throw bridges between the promised and the performed, to repair the broken and restore the estranged (Scott & Lyman, 1968). Accounts reflect the notion that we are constructed through social interaction (Järvinen, 2003). In general, two types of accounts exist: excuses and justifications. One or both of these accounts may be employed when a person is accused of doing something ‘bad, wrong, inept, unwelcome, or in some other of the numerous possible ways’ (for example, Austin, (1956–1957). Excuses are used when people admit that an action is bad, wrong or inappropriate but claim that they did not really mean to do it. Individuals try to deny, avoid or mitigate responsibility. Justifications are made when people accept responsibility for an act but suggest that the act is ‘fitting’ given the circumstances. In this case, any pejorative features of the act are denied (Scott & Lyman, 1968).

The social environments of young people may trigger a change from deviant to normal behaviour; this change is known as a ‘turning point’ (Hellberg, 2007). Accounts for truancy may include narratives of turning points. Hellberg (2007) identified a turning point when a student received a medical diagnosis and then understood why she/he had social problems. Narratives of turning points often have three stages according to Hellberg (2007). First, there is a negative period in which the individual displays deviant behaviour. This period results in a turning point that is followed by a positive, normal time, which restores meaning to the person's life. To return could be considered a social rule or ‘norm’ and was thus reinforced (cf. Bilmes, 1986). When an individual indicates that a particular situation caused him or her to view truancy with a new perspective, the student can subsequently draw moral conclusions about truancy (cf. Goffman, 1978).

Currently, students' own perspectives of truancy remain mostly unexplored according to Reid (2008), a British researcher on truancy for several decades, and a Dutch research study by De Witte and Cabus (2012). Most of the earlier studies were about truancy and how different programmes influenced the students (see Sutphen et al., 2010). Therefore, this study is based on in-depth student interviews with the purpose of exploring students' perspectives on their truancy, their time in school and their thoughts about the future. The following research questions are formed to the transcribed interviews based on the theoretical tools:

• What do students tell about their own truancy and what do they reflect upon school lives?

• How do students describe their social relationships with peers and teachers at school?

• Do students reflect on their truancy?

• How do students describe their own responsibilities for truancy?

• Do some students describe any turning points? If so, how are these turning points described?

• What do students think about their future?

Truancy: a social problem

There has been little improvement in attendance during the last 30 years (McIntyre-Bhatty, 2008), and Reid (2008) found that the causes of non-attendance are constantly changing in accordance with developments in society. In a meta-analysis/systematic review of all appropriate evaluative studies of truancy interventions from 1990 to 2007, Sutphen et al. (2010) found in a traditionally low-performing urban comprehensive school that the attendance improved and lowered the number of habitual truancies after school reorganisation. In another research study, Lehr, Sinclair, and Christenson (2004) – also with focus on the organisational level and not the individual – found that school structure and school climate together with the relationship between students and teachers are important in keeping students engaged in school.

An example of a lack of close relationship in the classroom is a Swiss study (Sältzer, Trautwein, Lüdtke, & Stamm, 2012) with 3491 students where the fast instructional pace was associated with more truancy. Perhaps there is a lack of research on the children's relationship to their teachers and peers within the school, especially when bullying may be a major issue among the students of the same age (Hjern, Alfven, & Östberg, 2008). Based on attendance patterns, academic performance, and general behaviour, truancy has been identified retrospectively as early as the third grade (Lehr et al., 2004) and Reid (2008) found that approximately 36% of all truancy begins in primary school (8–11-year-olds) with occasional unexcused absences (Veenstra, Lindenberg, Tinga, & Ormel, 2010). Reasons for individual absences could be, according to Sutphen et al. (2010), school phobias, learning disabilities, behavioural problems, and poor school belonging. Early unexcused absences can continue to permanent truancy (Alexander et al., 2001; Darmody, Smyth, & McCoy, 2008).

Sheppard (2005) found that 53% of the 209 students included in her study were truants because they disliked their school lessons. To dislike school lessons could be a result of both bullying but also a lack of social relationship within the classroom. This could be in line with Attwood and Croll (2006), who found one viewpoint concerns an anti-authority response to the teachers' attempts to impose order or control and a second viewpoint concerns the response to the teachers' ineffectiveness regarding student learning and behaviour. Approximately three-quarters of all absenteeism involves interconnected issues, such as boredom and stressful relationships with teachers (Attwood & Croll, 2006; Stamm, 2006). A lack of good relationships to peers and teachers in the classroom could be followed by absence, and as a result of this Reid (2008) found a lower level of academic self-esteem and self-image. Bad relationship may affect the school atmosphere, which may lead to non-attendance according to Attwood and Croll (2006).

No matter what backgrounds the students have, the school may try to give them knowledge on their own level but within a school atmosphere where the students are encouraged and where the adults have expectations of the students (Rutter, 1983).

The current study

This study was conducted in Sweden, where the Education Act (Ministry of Education and Research, 2010) states that all students have equal access to education, regardless of gender, place of residence, or social and economic factors (Skolverket, 2008). In Sweden, compulsory school and upper secondary school offer free tuition and a free daily meal. The differences among schools are minor compared with those of other countries, in terms of both the socio-economic structures and average test scores of schools. In Sweden, school attendance is compulsory for all children aged seven to 16 (Ministry of Education and Research, 2010); there are special guidelines to ensure attendance at each individual school. Official statistics state that 10% of all students in Swedish secondary schools are truant at least once per month (Skolverket, 2010). Young people are not formally punished for school truancy in Sweden. The new Education Act (Ministry of Education and Research, 2010) states that, if a student is absent from school without reason, the school must inform the student's parents or legal guardians on the first day that the child is absent.

This study presents students' perspectives based on their reflections of situations that have directly affected them and includes all students outside the classroom with 30% unexcused absence or more the last school year in compulsory school. In a school document study within this project relationship failure (Strand & Granlund, in press) was obviously linked to non-attendance. All participants in this study are a part of the document study.

This study is influenced by Hjörne's (2004) and Järvinen's (2003) studies. Hjörne (2004) analysed how the Student Health and Welfare group individualised and focused on the student's problematic school situation as the student's own problem, which could result in an excluding attitude. Järvinen (2003) performed an account analysis of immigrants as strangers in Copenhagen and how they felt as ‘others’. Both studies have focus on the individual's situation as being outside the system.

Methods

Participants and data collection

Eighteen young people were identified from an earlier study (Strand & Granlund, in press). Two reported interviews failed and one young person cancelled the interview meeting. The 15 participants were a strategic sample with different truancy experiences as staying at home full-time, class cuttings or staying in the school but outside the classroom. All of the students had 30% or more unexcused absences from school lessons during the ninth grade, which was 10% over the upper bound of the acceptable absence rate in the Swedish upper secondary schools until 2011.

The participants came from two secondary schools with high truancy in a municipality of approximately 30,000 residents in southern Sweden. The author and the municipal school superintendent informed the school leaders about the research project. These principals provided names of former and current truants, which could be checked by the author from the computerised absence register. The current truants were asked by their teachers whether they were interested in participating in this study. Former truants were contacted by their new teacher in the upper secondary school or by telephone. Some of the former truants were at home without studies or a job; the author asked them for their participation via telephone. A letter with information concerning the project was given to those students interested in this study. Interested students scheduled sessions with the author through their teacher or directly with the author by telephone.

All participants received written information about the study and a reply form. The students were informed that they could end their participation at any time. The interviews were conducted by the author, who is familiar with the school area and is a qualified special educational needs coordinator. The names of the students have been changed to protect confidentiality. All participants (except for one) were interested in discussing their school and life-situations and meeting someone who was interested in listening to their personal histories.

Figure 1 provides an overview of the participants' school situations. Six students were truants at the time of the study, and nine were previous truants who had already quit secondary school at the time of the interview. Three of the former truants who failed on the National Test in fifth grade according to a previous study (Strand & Granlund, in press) came back to school and passed the National Test in ninth grade (at age 16), and were accepted into the Swedish Gymnasium's (ages 16–19) upper secondary school; all of these outcomes occurred despite excessive absences during the final years of compulsory school (the ninth grade).

Figure 1 Distribution of participants among the three groups.

The author interviewed all participants individually in a face-to face encounter: eight of them in a conference room close to the county library, five students at their schools (in a separate room away from other students), and two students at a comfortable location of the students' choosing. The interview guide in this study was tested in two pilot interviews and was found to be appropriate for this study because it helped the author maintain the focus of each student's narrative on his or her truancy. No changes were made after the two pilot interviews and therefore both of them were included in the study. The questions that were asked concerned: the students' school experiences during their school careers, including their first school years and what happened during that time; their relationships with their peers, teachers and the school's welfare team; their school situations; their completion of schoolwork; and the first time they were truant. Only one student, who was short of time, did not answer the question about his thoughts about the future. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Ethical considerations

In accordance with ETS No. 164 (Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being; European Treaty Series, 1997), the students were given appropriate information regarding the study as described above. Because all of the youths involved in this project were over 15 years old, there was no need to ask for consent from their parents or guardians (Swedish Research Council, 2011). The Ethical Review Act (Ministry of Education and Research, 2008) and Long and Johnson (2007) assert that efforts should be made to facilitate disadvantaged groups, making their participation in research easier. Accordingly, to assist those students who were in vulnerable positions, all students were offered the opportunity to speak with a social worker. This study is a part of a project that has been approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board at Linköping University (Dnr: 2010/105-31).

Data analysis

This paper is a qualitative study examining students' perspectives on their truancy and school lives built on communication analysis within symbolic interaction, sometimes called symbolic interactionism. The analysis began after a number of repeated readings of the interview transcripts to become familiar with the text. The analysis is divided into three parts. The first part is based on Hjörne's (2004) and Järvinen's (2003) understanding of being treated as outsiders in some way. It is a descriptive image of the students' perceptions of their school context. The second part is an account analysis of the interviewees' conversations. Accounts are evident in the students' speech when they try to negotiate guilt or responsibility. In this way the students have noted on what or whom they place the responsibility for their absence from school. According to Järvinen (2003) the students' talk are analysed as reflections of what happened, but also as reflections of their strategies in handling these incidents and their attempts to present themselves in the interviews as certain kind of persons who have had unexpected absence from school and persons who are respectable after all. When possible the students' talk is divided into excuses and justifications, and even separated if the excuse is coming from the student's inside/internal or from the outside/external that leads to the excuse and the justifications are divided in the same way.

The third part uses the ‘turning point’ concept in the text analysis of the three students who changed their presence at school from non-attendance to full-time attendance.

Results

The students' perspectives in the following paragraphs follow the numbering of the research questions, which are in parentheses. All of the participating students are numbered from one to 15 (S1, S2, etc.), and their names are fictitious. All of the following quotations are translated from Swedish. The excerpts are also numbered for ease of navigation.

(1) The path to truancy and reflections on school life

All but three of the students stated that they began to skip school in the sixth grade. The other three students became truant in the third or fourth grade, but said that they were ‘sick’, not truant. In the seventh grade, several students reported a preference for sitting in the school hallway rather than for remaining in class. Many of the students reported that they began smoking, and that they bought received their cigarettes from older teenagers who came to the playground and sold cigarettes. One girl said that skipping physical education classes was the beginning of her truancy.

Fourteen students blamed their truancy on forces beyond their control, referring to school conflict, social exclusion, and the school atmosphere as explanations; all but one student disliked school. Two students gave the following reasons for their truancy:

It was noisy in the classroom. (S7, 16 years old)

I couldn't concentrate with the sound of chairs constantly moving around. (S1, 19 years old)

Some students said that they continued to sit in the school hallway even after the social worker (employed at one of the schools) told them to return to class. The students said that they felt like strangers and ‘outcasts’; they felt ‘different’ within the classroom. Several students said that peer pressure, youth culture, or tiredness from late nights spent computer gaming were major reasons for their truancy in the eighth and ninth grades. For some students, truancy began in the early grades due to the school atmosphere, and the students cited failure to understand the school lesson and becoming dissociated from school.

(2) Social relationships at school

Most students cited a lack of social relationships with their teachers and peers, particularly classmates, when skipping school for long periods of time. However, the relationships among truant peers and other peers outside school were sometimes quite good. Several female students said that they never socialised with their classmates, but that they did socialise with other truants and older peers. One truant girl said she had no class friends; when a truant friend moved, she became lonely. Another student said she preferred her truant friends over her schoolwork. Both of these female teenagers had problems ‘finding themselves’, a feeling that culminated in the eighth grade when they did not know how to address their circumstances. Several students indicated that their truancy led to conflicts within their families.

Twelve of the students interviewed said that they had poor relationships with their teachers, which agree with the results from Attwood and Croll (2006) that indicated students' dissociation from school occurs when they feel unwanted, resulting in the students leaving school. In the present study, only two students reported that they had a good relationship with a teacher.

Doris and Peter both reported bullying as the reason for their truancy. Peter said that a schoolmate had bullied him year after year, starting in the first grade because he ‘didn't like playing football’.

Mattias explained that the noise from classmates pushing chairs back and forth made it difficult to understand the teacher's instruction and to focus on schoolwork. A situation such as Mattias' violates a student's fundamental right to an education, as the instruction is not on a level that all students can understand and in which all students can participate (Svenska Unescorådet, 2006; United Nations, 1994).

(3) Different reflections: ‘If I only could start from the beginning again’

All of the students had a lot to say concerning their thoughts about their experiences during their time at school. Below are two students' reflections about how things would be different if they could start over in seventh grade:

If I could start grade seven again, I would like to have better teachers who could teach better and who could explain so everyone could understand. Even if I don't understand and I don't say anything, sometimes there are more guys than just me who don't understand. (S2, Excerpt 6B, 16 years old)

If I could start from the beginning again, I would have liked to have already been in a little group1 from grade seven. Perhaps they would have given me help earlier then. (S3, Excerpt 7B, 16 years old)

Both of these examples express a need for help. In the first example there is a need for better understanding of the teacher's instructions and additional help with the lessons. Because the students did not receive help, they felt behind the group, thinking that it was too difficult to catch up unless they could obtain the help they needed.

Students in the ‘in-school truants’ group spent most of their school days in the hallways or elsewhere outside the classroom but inside the school area. Some of these students stated they ‘did nothing’. However, Fia said that she and her ‘in-school truant’ friend often listened to one another's problems and tried to help one another. She reflected that she was ‘actually doing something equally important’ (S4, Excerpt 8B, 16 years old).

Ivar reflected that he wanted a different outcome, saying ‘If I had the chance to choose, I would of course have loved the school, but it's not like that’ (S5, Excerpt 10B, 16 years old). During the interview, Ivar also said that he did not like his feelings and reactions and that, if things were different, he would have been there every day. Ivar indicated that he liked challenges, but he was presumably not challenged enough at school, and he said that he preferred tests to ‘lessons’. School documents and interviews with the school staff in earlier studies (Strand & Granlund, in press; Strand & Cedersund, manuscript submitted) confirmed that Ivar was a talented student. This lack of academic challenge is a common scenario among gifted students, and often results in school disassociation, as it did for Ivar.

Three students – Mattias, Ivar and Sofia – stated that they were at fault for leaving the classroom. Mattias, one of the former ninth-grade students who lived at home with no job or study plan at the time of the interview, said: ‘I cannot only blame the school’. The insight he expressed during the interview shows that he accepts responsibility for his truancy.

Anna also demonstrated that she had gained insight about her truancy:

18. Interviewer: Did something happen at the same time in your home situation?

19. Student: I don't think I felt OK at that time. My parents got divorced, you know, and it happened in eighth grade.

20. Interviewer: Hmm.

21. Student: I was away from school at least five months or more altogether and (…) I could be in bed and just lie there, not bother about eating or anything. I just couldn't cope (…) In fact it's difficult for me to understand that it [the parents' divorce] could have had something to do with it [truancy] (…) Actually, I've been wondering a lot. (S9, Excerpt 16:18–21, 20 years old)

In Excerpt 16, Anna draws her own conclusion from what she said earlier in the conversation. These interviews gave each student the opportunity to think about their school careers and to connect events to their situations. For Anna, her parents' divorce could be connected with the times she spent all day in bed without eating. The interview may have helped her see the connection between simultaneous events. Such insights may lead to a turning point, which is the focus of the section for question (5).

(4) Excuses or justifications for truancy: ‘It was more fun … than sitting in the classroom’

This section discusses the students' methods of delegating responsibility for their truancy. The most frequent excuse the students gave was an outside factor, such as peer pressure, noisy classrooms, bullying, sunny weather, or a need for contact with fellow truants. Five students specifically mentioned peer pressure as a reason for their truancy.

Axelina, a talkative ninth grader, used many of these excuses, including ‘style’, ‘lazy teachers’, ‘it was boring,’ and ‘bloody great weather’. Several students said that their teachers were the cause of their truancy. Kalle said that it was noisy during the lessons because of her teacher's lack of discipline in the classroom. Several of the girls said they never went to physical education class, either because they hated it or because nasty things happened.

Three sixteen-year-old female students said ‘it is cool’ to be a truant. One girl said: ‘It was much more fun to be with each other than to sit in the classroom’ (S6, Excerpt 11:1, 16 years old).

Other students said that they needed to have someone who understood them. One of the students said he had no real friends whom he trusted and with whom he could hang out at school. When he was not in school, he explained, he was at home, calling his friends from where he had previously lived, or making baked goods because it was much more fun than school.

One group of five students had all been away from school for more than 1.5 years in a row. One girl had skipped nearly all of ninth grade. In seventh grade, she spent many class periods in the school hallway with other truant students. The girl's history illustrates the in-school truancy concept described earlier in this study.

Five students said that when they skipped school from ninth grade and onward, they spent excessive time on a computer. One boy said he sometimes sat in front of a computer with one of his friends for 20 h per day. He justified this behaviour by explaining that he was diagnosed with hyperactivity and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. He stated the following:

I have not been treated badly in school but to me it's a nuisance having to sit down and keep quiet and it doesn't work for me. I thought it wasn't any fun being at school. It was more fun at home. (S1, Excerpt 1:5, 20 years old)

From this excerpt, it is clear that it was difficult for him to sit still in class, which resulted in his dislike of school.

‘Then, it just happened (…)’ Sara's story of truancy is different from the other stories. Sara spent nearly two years staying at home with her retired, sick father. She did, however, go back to school for several hours per week at the time of the interview, which took place at her school. Sara expressed that her mother, who worked irregular hours, had a ‘problematic childhood’. Sara was the only child in the family, and her parents preferred to have Sarah stay at home so she could care for her father. Sara said the following:

Then, it just sort of happened that I stayed at home (…) I was at home and took care of him [the father] a lot. (S10, Excerpt 20:14, 15.5 years old)

Sara also said that it was more fun at home: ‘I played with her [her mother] a lot’. In the following citation, she gave her opinions about school:

Yes, but it is just somehow almost the same every day. It's somehow timetabled like that. The schedule was undoubtedly why I didn't go to school … (S10, Excerpt 19:13)

Sara said her mother told her it would be ‘hard on her’ if she went back to school on a Friday after being sick the four previous days. The result was that her mother became complicit in Sara's truancy. This response was not an excuse; rather, it was an explanation, a justification for her actions in a situation in which both parents were involved.

Another interview was with Doris (16 years), who was living away from her family. She said her family life involved an ongoing series of arguments that negatively affected her daily life. She slept at various friends' houses to avoid the constant arguments. She also reported that she missed her father, who had moved to another city. Doris' school counsellor and an involved social worker suggested that she move to be with her father and repeat ninth grade. Doris declined: ‘So I stayed away from home days at a time. I did not come home’ (S2, Excerpt 6:1). Doris stated that she became a stranger to her classmates and family and blamed her truancy on her family life, saying that she could not cope anymore. Consequently, Doris' relationships with her school and family broke down.

Figure 2 presents a compilation of the students' excuses and justifications for their truancy. The distributions of the different accounts are without numbers because the sample size is small. The two upper squares display the excuses, and the two lower squares display the justifications. The left side shows internal reasons, and the right side shows external reasons. For both the internal and external excuses the reason could be in the school atmosphere/climate. Only ‘Sunny, warm weather’ was an explanation outside school, but the reason for not attending the classes could also be something in the school atmosphere. In the internal justification there was at least two expressions connected to the teaching situation. Within the external justification there were at least one expression connected to the lesson and one connected to the school organisation.

Figure 2 Compilation of the responsibilities for truancy.

(5) Turning points: ‘I think it was very much … she was very pushy’

Anna, Dan and Kalle had documented learning difficulties (documented in Strand & Granlund, in press), but all three passed the National Test in ninth grade and earned marks sufficient for acceptance into the national programmes to which they applied. All three agreed to participate in the study after telephone inquiries and came to the author's office. These students talked about their experiences with permanent truancy and difficult life-situations, and how they were able to end their truancy and return to normal school lives. Anna, who was in her last year of Swedish Gymnasium's upper secondary school (ages 16–19) in another city, said that her mother could not do anything to stop her truancy but that she did try to help Anna get up in the mornings. In the following excerpt, Anna recounts her thoughts about changing her life-situation after her time far away from home:

1. Student	=	But, since you asked me if I never got tired – I did! That's why I told Mum that things aren't working out – and Mum too started nagging and so … Then, I made friends with a girl in a class below me … while at the same time I was going out with a boy in the class above.
2. Interviewer	=	Was it your Mum or you yourself who realized that the only solution was to remain in grade nine?
3. Student	=	It was me. Mum only supported me and asked: Is this what you want? Do you really want to stay in grade nine this year, and so on.
4. Interviewer	=	Was it really you? Wasn't it your Mum who suggested it?
5. Student	=	No, I realized myself that if I don't finish secondary school and get my certificate I won't get into the upper secondary school. If I don't pass the upper secondary school, I won't get a job, and if I don't get a job I will have to stay at home.
6. Interviewer	=	Not many students have been offered the chance to repeat a year. Here it says that you have been offered to do it.
7. Student	=	That's bullshit because it was Mum who called and booked an appointment with the school social worker. Then, we involved the Principal and the school social worker and also some other authority – I don't remember who it was – and also my former class teacher. We had to go to lots of meetings, 3 or 5, and just talk.
8. Interviewer	=	But this is interesting!
9. Student	=	… but Mum talked for me. It was a little difficult for me to stand up for myself and say what I wanted. I was very quiet and had some sort of social phobia. I didn't like to talk among people and so forth… But it wasn't that bad for me, though, but I couldn't talk for myself, Couldn't get things out. But I suppose it is thanks to my course, ‘Hotel and Tourism,’ where you have to be very open, that I can talk now. (S9, Excerpt 16B:1–9, 20 years old)

In Excerpt 16B:5, Anna made accounts for what her truancy could develop into if she continued her truancy. She showed an understanding about the consequences of not completing Swedish secondary school (seventh grade through ninth grade). From Anna's point of view as a non-attender in school she got a vision of the future and had a logical perception of the consequences of her absences. She showed a maturity in her way to make conclusions. Anna's mother's support for Anna was shown in Excerpt 16B:7 and 9.

Two students, Kalle and Dan, also received support to help them break their patterns of truancy. Kalle talked about his mother, who was committed to helping him and continually encouraged him: ‘I think it was very much my mother. She was very pushy’. Dan, however, said he received no help from his mother and that he was bored during his school lessons because he did not understand them. He did, however, have a committed mathematics teacher who never stopped encouraging him despite his permanent absences when he was at home or in the school hallway with his peers. Dan's mathematics teacher told him how important the tests were for his future, and, Dan said, this reminder resulted in Dan's completion of the requirements for admission to a national programme in the Swedish Gymnasium.

All three students – Anna, Kalle and Dan – had opportunities for reflection, either with an adult or individually, which resulted in new insights. They experienced breakthroughs in their thought patterns and emotional traps with the help of support from caring adults. For all three students, these were ‘turning points’ (cf. Hellberg, 2007) that led to changes in their lives at school.

(6) Thoughts About the Future

Most of the 15 students had few expectations for the future. Many of the students were indifferent and lacked dreams or plans. The students' thoughts about the future are divided into three groups. The first group did not think or care about the future:

I don't think; I take each day as it comes; I don't care about the future; it's boring. (for example, S3, Excerpt 7B)

The next group was either anxious or wanted to have control over the future. In this group, the students took a clearer stand. The following citation reveals an unexpected and surprising finding. The reflection is deep; the student realised that she was doing something wrong and said she did not want help, but indirectly she expressed that she wanted help to overcome her truancy. She made excuses, claiming that she could not control her truancy alone:

I'm definitely very anxious about what's going to happen in the future and stuff like that… especially the truancy – it might be just like an addiction; I want to take control of my life. (S6, Excerpt 14B)

The quotations from the two first groups (S3 and S6) indicate that most of the students seem unengaged and worried about the future. These attitudes could be influenced by the students' circumstances connected with the truancy.

The quotations from the last group (S9 and S16) include the students who have positive thoughts about the future. One student, in spite of having nobody at home who cared for him, still thought quite positively about his future:

I'm full of expectations for the future. (S9, Excerpt 17B)

I'm positive about the future and think my life will be filled with goals and meaning. (S16, Excerpt 26B)

Discussion

The interviews with students provided surprising results; the students shared their reflections and insights about their truancy. The students' responsibilities for their truancy, expressed as either excuses or justifications, revealed many different perspectives on truancy. The following is a general discussion of the findings regarding the six proposed questions.

Reflections upon truancy and school life

Often, the students first described internal reasons for their truancy, such as loneliness, isolation, physical pain or fear, even though external reasons, such as the school atmosphere, may have actually been described as the root cause. When the school atmosphere and the student's explanations are positive, the students feel more respected, connected, and willing to participate (cf. Perry, 1908; Rutter, 1983).

Even if students did not directly state that school failure was a direct reason for their initial truancy, it may nonetheless be a cause. When a student does not understand the teacher's instructions, it is easy for the student to fail, which consequently contributes to the student's dislike for school. Therefore, early interventions are needed (Darmody et al., 2008; Reid, 2008) to support students before they feel like outcasts or excluded.

Initially even occasionally skipping school can culminate in the student rejecting or being rejected by school. As truancy increases, the failure to participate in school and class activities or to develop a sense of identification with the school, as all of the students here have demonstrated, may have serious consequences. Therefore, it is important to detect the various factors involved and act upon truancy immediately (cf. Reid, 2008).

Based on the students' stories, it seems that all of the students in this study would have liked to belong to and participate in their classes and schools. Unfortunately the students did not know how to break away from their truancy, except for three students.

The students' reflections on their truancy in this study seemed to echo Hjörne's (2004) description of the excluded student and Järvinen's (2003) descriptions of ‘other’.

Social relationships with peers and teachers at school

Most of the students reported a lack of relationships with classmates, peers and teachers because of their absences, which made the students feel abandoned and outsiders At least four students stated that they could not understand their teacher and therefore did not know how to complete their work. There seems to be a common thread between the dislike of school and lack of relationships with teachers. (Attwod & Croll, 2006; Lehr et al., 2004; Sheppard, 2005; Stamm, 2006)

Responsibility for the truancy

Placing the responsibility for truancy on others, or on external circumstances, is the most frequent excuse for truancy. The blame, as explained earlier, can be placed on peer pressure, lack of friends, conflicts, boredom, not understanding the teacher's instructions, and noise. It is often the case that internal responsibility for truancy can be viewed as a justification. Difficult family situations in which the student's response is to skip school ‘for the family’ is a justification for truancy. Almost all of the findings could be attributed to the school environment, also called school atmosphere, and this is in agreement with Rutter (1983).

Turning points

Three students described turning points. One student had an encouraging and supportive teacher who had high expectations and two others had engaged mothers. Given the comments made by these students, it became apparent that all three even were encouraged by their teachers when they came back. Upon returning to school, they said that they felt safe, cared for, appropriately supported, and lovingly ‘pushed’ to learn, and that their academic achievements had increased as a result of the individually engaged and supportive, both socially and academically, environment.

The students described a new period of full attendance in line with Hellberg (2007) and Bilmes (1986). Perhaps a school ‘turning point’ like those documented in this study can change a student's antisocial and sometimes criminal or lonely life.

These three students' narratives about their new relationships to their teachers compared with those of the other students indicated great differences because the three students were supported first from a single person and then back in school from most of the teachers. The other students did not experience any support from their close surroundings nor from adults in school, except Ivar. Ivar said it was his own fault having been absent from the lessons and that he, at the end of the compulsory school time, had really felt that he had been supported by several teachers.

Talk about the future

External problems increased the student's negative thoughts about the future. However, students with more internal reasons for truancy seemed to feel more positively about their future. One possible explanation could be that the students who expressed internal problems here had non-psychological problems; they also seemed to have more self-confidence.

Additionally, all three students who returned back to school had positive views of their futures. However, it is difficult to know whether they were already optimistic before their ‘turning points’ because the interviews occurred afterwards.

Study limitations and future research

This study focused solely on Swedish adolescents between the ages of 15.5 and 20 years. Because truancy is regarded and expressed differently worldwide, a cautious approach should be taken when generalising the findings to earlier ages and to other countries inside and outside Europe. Eighteen students were asked to participate. The recording failed for two interviews and a young person cancelled the interview meeting. The sample was also small, including only 15 participants from one municipality.

Firstly, a strength of this study is the high participation rate (17 out of 18) where the variation in the sample is wide. The direct quotations from the students increase the probability that the results may be a true reflection of how the participating students think about truancy.

Secondly, a strength was the focus on students' different views about truancy. The study focused on the students' excuses and justifications, which were not documented in earlier research in this topic. The students spoke about who or what they blamed for their truancy. The comments of the students who were current truants addressed the present realities of these students; for the other nine, a distance perspective was taken. Thirdly, all participants were offered to read their own transcribed interviews and ask the interviewer about the intervention.

The results emphasised the importance for practitioners to elicit situations for listening to students with truancy experiences. Follow-up research of regular dialogues with students at risk for truancy is recommended, finding new ways for giving social and educational support.

In the light of scarcity of empirical data in this topical area, the results of the students' perspectives reported in this paper offer the strongest evidence for further research with the students' school staff to illuminate the students' school atmosphere from the school staff perspective.

Conclusions

This study contributes new perspectives on truancy in the form of excuses or justifications, which could be internal or external. The results made it visible that the school problems are not between the students' ears but more in the social atmosphere at school and in the relationship within the classroom.

Another contribution is the turning point for three students who had relationship problems and deviant behaviour because of feelings of being excluded from school. Through engaged, supportive adults alongside them, they returned to school and their relationships to the teachers were restored. All but one of the students had failed to identify with their school but the three students eventually felt included. Several of the students looked back on their truancy and were able to understand and explain the connections between various events (cf. Goffman, 1978).

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank professor Elisabet Cedersund and professor Mats Granlund for their encouragement during the work with this article. Special thanks to Elisabet for the discussions of different analyzing methods. Thanks also to the Local Public Welfare Counsel for economic support.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne-Sofie M. Strand

Anne-Sofie M. Strand: MSc in Education, Special educational needs coordinator, Doctoral student, Lecturer.

Notes

^1. A little group is an educational group within the ordinary school building, which is separated from the student's regular class, with six to 10 students. The students in the little group are listed in the regular classes.