Abandono escolar precoce

: compreender para prevenir

Abstract

The issue of early school dropout is a social concern, not only internationally, but also national, passing by the State, by different agencies of public administration and social solidarity and private sector. This issue has remained present in the Portuguese official documentation of education and researches continue to be made. The concern for the early school dropout is not confined only to Portugal but it extends to an European level. In Portugal, by the various existing studies, the early school dropout rate has been reduced, however, the phenomenon is still present today, remaining still a considerable delay in relation to the European target set. The phenomenon of school dropout is very visible in vocational courses, so our research aims to achieve an answer to a question of general range: What perceptions have students, teachers and leaders about the factors that contribute to early school dropout in vocational courses? In order to answer this question we proceeded to the formulation of sub-questions: How is school organised to prevent early school dropout? How are students at risk of early school dropout diagnosed? What concrete actions are taken place to prevent students at risk of early school dropout from effectively dropping out of school? How have students who left the vocational courses without completing the 12th form experienced and felt school? How do students at risk of early school dropout experience and feel school? In order to obtain an answer to these questions, we proceeded to a review of literature that allowed us to sketch the evolution of the phenomenon at national and European terms and analyse the measures that have been implemented to prevent it. We have elected to our investigation two data collection techniques, document analysis (biographical records of students, minutes of class meetings, final evaluation grids and structuring documents of the School, Educational Project, Rules, and Curriculum Development Plan) and semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted to the School Principal, a Class Director of a vocational course, teachers, students at risk of early school dropout and young people who have dropped out the educational system.The data collected and analysed in this study allows us to conclude that the educators interviewed, namely the School Principal and teachers have the same perception regarding the factors that contribute to early school dropout in vocational courses, identifying the main factors: the economic difficulties leading families to emigrate in search of better living conditions, the demand for financial autonomy, the accumulated difficulties that lead to a total lack of interest in school and the fact of belonging to dysfunctional families that often discourage the frequency of school. Behavioural problems and the high number of absences and lack of engagement are reported as factors that often lead to situations of school dropout. The conclusions reached by our study seem to meet the currents of thought of other researchers to the extent that there is a lack of adequate answers, by the school, for most school failure situations, expecting students to learn by themselves, what makes them to drop out of the educational system. We also conclude, that the school model that we have, with its traditional and unquestioned grammar of schooling, tends to be the most responsible for the situation of school dropout.

Date of Award	21 Oct 2016
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ilídia Cabral (Supervisor)