Approaches to Improving School Attendance: Insights From Australian Principals

ABSTRACT

School absenteeism has been concerning educators in the Global North (including Australia) as research suggests a relationship between school attendance, academic achievement and subsequent life chances. This paper focuses on the perspectives of 50 school leaders in Queensland, Australia about approaches to improving attendance. Strategies reflected the cultural, economic and social diversity of their school communities. In general, quality curricula and pedagogies were considered important, but were not explicitly linked to attendance. This suggests the need for schools to develop strategies to enhance student engagement in meaningful learning through quality curricula and pedagogies within a positive school environment.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Department of Education, Queensland, for their funding and ongoing support. They also wish to acknowledge the 50 principals involved in the project for their time and contributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The project was funded by the Queensland Department of Education.