The fears and hopes of problematic school absenteeism and attendance work: notes on the politics of expertification

• Aim Throughout modern school history, fears of losing particular groups of children have caused public debate about the modalities of schooling, e.g., fears in regard to children with diagnoses or from ethnic minorities. Such fears, however, are recurrently coupled with hopes of redemption, restoration and salvation, e.g., in the form of special needs education or inclusive education. In this paper, we approach a profound school-related fear of our time, i.e., problematic school absenteeism. We argue that a displacement has occurred in the modalities of how schools answer to these types of fears. Tentatively, we analyse this shift as a displacement from modalities that emphasize teacher autonomy and a holistic approach to students’ school difficulties to modalities in which professionals work within divided and differentiated practices, drawing on different expertise, and focus on different aspects of the situations and problems identified in relation to the students. To make this claim, we draw on a case study where a school’s work with problematic absenteeism is analyzed in relation to development efforts that are channeled into a specific didactic model for subject teaching. We consider this didactic model to be illustrative of the displacement of modalities and we reflect on the wider scope of this displacement as the politics of expertification. Theoretical framework Our analyses of the phenomenon are based on discursive institutionalism (DI), since it focuses on ideas as the core content of discourse. DI distinguishes between four dimensions of ideas, on the one hand normative and cognitive ideas, on the other hand background and foreground ideas. While normative ideas concern values that legitimise policies and programs, cognitive ideas provide instructions for these policies and programs. While background ideas are unspoken and taken for granted, foreground ideas are more tangible, and thus more often challenged (Schmidt, 2008). Both cognitive and normative ideas can be either background or foreground ideas. This theoretical apparatus is used to analyse how actors negotiate and give meaning to problematic school absenteeism in relation to school development, and vice versa. Thus, by extension, we hope to reach insights into changes in school modalities in a more general sense. Methodology The data used in this study comes from a case study of a school’s work with problematic school absenteeism. Documents, observations and interviews have been used to map the school’s work with absenteeism and the didactic model; what is done, wished for and what are the expected outcomes. The analyses focus on recurring patterns as the basis for analyzing the four dimensions of ideas which govern and influence the various actors in their work with absenteeism and the didactic model (Alasuutari, 2015; Wahlström & Sundberg, 2018). Expected results Tentatively, we not only see the displacement from horizontal to vertical modalities in local ideas about the work with students with school absenteeism, but we can also trace these ideas to changes in normative ideas on a programmatic level about the school's overall mission, where issues on the purpose of education have been abandoned and are regarded unproblematic (Biesta, 2021).

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

problematic school absenteeism

discursive institutionalism

teacher identity

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)