Estimating the percentage of marginalised students in Danish public schools: challenges encountered in measuring marginalisation

ABSTRACT

In the literature, marginalisation is vaguely defined as a state, a process, or both. Qualitative research has indicated that many students experience temporary marginalisation at some point in school, suggesting that the phenomenon is best characterised as fleeting. This presents a challenge for researchers in terms of measuring marginalisation as a (more) fixed state, making it difficult to assess the scope of the problem. Data on students (grades 4–10; ages 10–16) from Programme for Learning Management (N = 122,756) were analysed across three measurement points (2015, 2017, and 2019). The Social Marginalisation Scale (SMS) was developed to specifically measure the social aspects of marginalisation on a scale [1–5]. It was subsequently divided into four equal intervals. It was estimated that 3–3.5% of the students experienced social marginalisation to a high or very high extent. The degree of social marginalisation was largely stable across measurement points, indicating that some students experience prolonged social marginalisation. Grade level and gender were both significant predictors, indicating that girls and younger students experience greater social marginalisation on average. A longitudinal study is recommended to identify student groups who experience prolonged social marginalisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Marginalisation
• exclusion
• inclusion
• students
• survey
• isolation

Acknowledgements

I want to thank my colleagues in CaBE (Capacity Building and Evaluation) for their general encouragement during the research process. In addition, I wish to personally thank my supervisor, Associate Professor Jacob Brix, as well as my co-supervisor, Accociate Professor Antonia Scholkmann, for their constructive feedback. Moreover, I wish to thank all researchers and organisations who made PLM possible, including all children who participated in the impressive PLM survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.).

Notes

1 Defined as an average score in the interval [1.00–2.99] on a scale [1–5].

2 Frederikssund, Hedensted, Horsens, Thisted, Vesthimmerland, Holbæk, Roskilde, Billund, Fredericia, Haderslev, Kolding, Nordfyn, and Svendborg.

3 A pedagogue at ‘Folkeskolen’ conducts preschool classes and cooperates with a qualified school-teacher to carry out specific teaching activities for grades 1–3 (cf. ufm.dk).

4 Most students, who attended 4th or 5th grade in 2015, participated in all three surveys.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Brygger Andersen

Martin Brygger Andersen is a PhD Student (MSc in Sociology) at the Department of Culture and Learning at Aalborg University. His research areas are quantitative research in education, research-informed school development, inclusion, marginalisation, and well-being. He is particularly interested in data-driven organisational development.