Understanding in-school truancy

• Published in: Phi Delta Kappan Vol. 96; no. 6; pp. 65 - 68
• Main Authors: Shute, Jonathan W., Cooper, Bruce S.
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA PDK International 01-03-2015; SAGE Publications; Phi Delta Kappa
• Subjects: Behavior Problems; Children; Classification; Cognitive psychology; Curricula; Decision Making; Educational Improvement; Emotional Disturbances; Juvenile delinquency; Learner Engagement; Learning; Minority group students; Pedagogy; Perceptions; School truancy; Schools; Social factors; Student behavior; Teacher education; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Evaluation; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Truancy
• ISSN: 0031-7217; 1940-6487
• DOI: 10.1177/0031721715575303

The usual view is that truants are lost and troubled juveniles with psychological problems. While the authors agree that many well-known sociological and environmental factors promote truancy, they also confront more disconcerting causes: curriculum and pedagogy. Truancy is much too widespread to continue classifying it as the behavior of social and educational misfits. In recent years new assertions have been made that most truants aren’t social deviants; rather they’re students who become truant as a rational decision. In other words, these rational decision makers are wandering from the appointed place — the school and the classroom — because in their perceptions these places aren’t beneficial for them.