Looking beyond primary barriers: Support workers’ perspectives on school dropout among students with a migration background

ABSTRACT

Worldwide, students with a migration background are over-represented in statistics of early school leavers. Too often, educational inequalities are attributed to culture as the primary barrier to successful educational outcomes. This group tends to be regarded as potential dropout students, culminating in stigmatization and stereotyping biases. This qualitative study evaluates the perspectives of support workers using 15 in-depth interviews that reveal influencing factors. These results highlight that for many of these students, “education indeed can become secondary” in light of the many struggles and structural barriers they face. The need for a more holistic perspective on the challenges faced by students with a migration background throughout education is emphasized.

KEYWORDS:

• ethnic minorities
• educational achievement gap
• educational inequity
• school attendance
• school dropout

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ghent University, Belgium.