The Voices of Disengaged Youth: A Narrative Inquiry of At-Risk Students Attending Alternative Schools in British Columbia
Date
2014-04-28
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Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of students who attend alternate schools in British Columbia. The intent was to give them an opportunity to speak of their experiences and thoughts about school, both past and present, with the hope of generating an understanding of the perspectives students bring to school. This study employed a narrative inquiry approach in an attempt to answer the following questions: What are the experiences of school of students who currently attend an alternative school in BC? What does school mean to these students and how do they make and engage with these meanings? How do these students understand themselves as learners and how does school fit into their lives? What would make school better for these students?
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students. Once this fieldwork was completed, data were analyzed using a pluralistic approach that employed the concepts of Polkinghorne‘s narrative analysis as a construct to share the stories of the participants and his analysis of narrative as a means of constructing themes from the stories. Using the work of Furlong et al.. (2003) as a framework for student engagement: the Student Context, the Peer Context, the Classroom Context, and the School-wide Context, data were analyzed for themes. From the perspective of the students‘ experiences, this study found that throughout their time in a traditional school setting, periods of disengagement for the students in this study are rooted in a lack of strong peer relationships, the absence of a meaningful relationship with their teacher, the inadequate supports to meet their unique learning challenges, and the absence of relevant and interesting school work. Conversely, the participants of this study experienced engagement in an alternative setting. As such, this study reveals a need for the education system to be more responsive to student needs in these areas through intentional reflection on the part of educators
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and a shift from a school-centred system to a student-centred system, where educators critically examine the constructs of the system as opposed to the perceived shortcomings of the students.
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Education--Secondary
Citation
Toal, S. (2014). The Voices of Disengaged Youth: A Narrative Inquiry of At-Risk Students Attending Alternative Schools in British Columbia (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28419