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The role of social support in fostering school engagement in urban schools characterised by high risk of early leaving from education and training

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Abstract

Tackling early leaving from education and training (ELET) is one of the main education policy targets of the European Union and many of its member states. This paper offers new insights on this issue by studying how so-called at-risk students develop their educational trajectory by embedding their attitudes towards and engagement in schooling within the various support networks they navigate. We argue that the concept of school engagement, operationalized within the broader theoretical framework of the self-system model of motivational development, is crucial for better understanding ELET. The structural equation modelling is based upon survey data from 1401 students in grade 10 and 12 of vocational tracks across 26 different urban school locations in Flanders, Belgium. The results show that parental, peer and in particular teacher support directly and indirectly strengthen students’ academic and behavioural engagement. We argue that universal and targeted support by educators can positively impact pro-school attitudes and school engagement of so-called at-risk students and may be one of the most important strategies in addressing ELET.

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Notes

  1. ELET was initially developed as a statistical concept within the European Union (Eurostat) and is defined as young people aged 18–24 who have left education or training without an upper secondary education diploma. As this study was part of a large-scale EU-funded comparative research project on Reducing Early School Leaving in Europe (RESL.eu Project), we will use this concept rather than school dropout (more commonly used in the US context and other countries).

  2. When considering the EU Labour Force Survey Data, the 10% target is being reached in the Flemish Region. Calculations based on administrative data from the Flemish Department of Education and Training (2018), however, showed that the EU target was not reached for the 2015–2016 school year (10.4%).

  3. A report from the Flemish Department of Education and Training presented the following ELET rates by educational track for the 2015–2016 school year: 2.5% in general secondary education; 15.5% in full-time school-based vocational education.

  4. The general track primarily prepares students for higher education, while the vocational track is directed towards labour-market entry after graduation. Apart from the general and vocational tracks, Flemish secondary education also provides technical tracks that intend to prepare students for both higher education and/or direct labour-market entry.

  5. When compared at the overall Flemish level, this is still a strong overrepresentation of young people with a non-European migration background.

  6. Students could answer on a five-point Likert scale ranging from ‘not at all important’, ‘not very important’, ‘neutral’, ‘fairly important’ to ‘very important’.

  7. These items were also scored on a five-point Likert scale and allowed for responses ranging from ‘never’, ‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’, ‘quite often’ to ‘very often’..

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Ward Nouwen

  2. Department of Training and Education Sciences, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Noel Clycq

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  1. Ward Nouwen
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Correspondence to Ward Nouwen.

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Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study (involving minors) were in accordance with the Belgian national Commission for the protection of privacy (CPP) and the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee for Social Sciences & Humanities (EA SHW, University of Antwerp).

Informed consent

Written informed consent was signed and obtained from the school management of all the schools included in the study. Beforehand information letters and information meetings were organized for the heads of schools concerning the project and what participation involves. Next to this all the parents received an information letter concerning the project, that anonymity and confidentiality is ensured and no personal information on their child will be shared with the school and with an explicit ‘opt-out opportunity’ by simply informing the school or the project team of the non-participation of their child.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Standardized regression weights of the measurement model
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Table 4 Standardized regression weights of the control variables in the structural model
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Nouwen, W., Clycq, N. The role of social support in fostering school engagement in urban schools characterised by high risk of early leaving from education and training. Soc Psychol Educ 22, 1215–1238 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09521-6

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