Trude Havik

This systematic scoping review was conducted to determine the extent of existing research on professionals’ attitudes toward school attendance problems (SAPs), including school refusal (SR), truancy (TR), school withdrawal (SW), and school exclusion (SE), in basic education. Five databases (ERIC, Academic Search Ultimate, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Web of Science) were systematically searched for relevant literature. Forty-five studies met the inclusion criteria that were set prior to the search and were eligible for inclusion. The results of this systematic scoping review reveal that there has been a continuous increase in studies addressing professionals’ attitudes toward SAPs since 2000, with the greatest number of studies published after 2019 and in Europe. Most studies were descriptive, cross-sectional, and used a qualitative approach and the most common informants were school-based professionals (i.e., teachers, school administrators, and other school staff). The included studies used a variety of concepts referring to SAPs and types of SAPs, underlining the present challenges in terminology and definitions that characterize the research field. The results of this review contribute to identifying gaps in knowledge and offer guidelines for future research as a prerequisite to enhance the contemporary comprehension of SAPs in research and in practice.

According to Norway’s Educational Act (§2-1), all children and youths from age 6 to 16 have a right and an obligation to attend free and inclusive education, and most of them attend public schools. Attending school is important for students’ social and academic development and learning; however, some children do not attend school caused by a myriad of possible reasons. Interventions for students with school attendance problems (SAPs) must be individually adopted for each student based on a careful assessment of the difficulties and strengths of individuals and in the student’s environment. Homeschooling might be one intervention for students with SAPs; however, researchers and stakeholders do not agree that this is an optimal intervention. Schools that were closed from the middle of March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to investigate remote education more closely. An explorative study was conducted that analyzed 248 teachers’ in-depth perspectives on how to use and integrate experiences from the period of remote education for students with SAPs when schools reopen. Moreover, teachers’ perspectives on whether school return would be harder or easier for SAP students following remote education were investigated. The teachers’ experiences might be useful when planning school return for students who have been absent for prolonged periods.

Attending school on a regular basis and to complete school is usually seen as a precondition for academic, emotional, and social learning and development. However, some students struggle with school attendance problems (SAPs) caused by a myriad of reasons. Homeschooling is a topic of concern in long-term or problematic SAPs cases. Some scholars claim that school absenteeism might increase and be maintained during homeschooling, while others argue that homeschooling may reduce student’s anxiety associated with school attendance. Anyway, homeschooling is often an intervention for academic learning and/or as a part of gradual reintegration to school for SAP students. Moreover, homeschooling/home education/home tuition is not a new phenomenon and is an intervention for students with long-term sickness. When schools in many countries closed from the middle of March 2020 caused by the Covid-19-pandemic, all students were given homeschooling. This gave us the opportunity to investigate homeschooling more closely in a large sample. In the current study, teachers’ thoughts, and experiences of homeschooling for students with SAPs prior to the pandemic, are investigated. The main aim was to gain more insight and knowledge about homeschooling: does it work for SAP students? Practical implications of homeschooling for SAP students are discussed.

Attending school is usually seen as a precondition for academic, social, and emotional learning. However, school absenteeism is a problem in many countries and covers different types of authorized or unauthorized absences and a myriad of reasons. An authorized absence is when there is a satisfactory explanation for the youth’s absence, while unauthorized absence is usually understood as school attendance problems (SAPs). The main aim of this article is first to investigate define, describe, and discuss school refusal (SR) and how SR differs from other concepts of SAPs, and the secondary aim is to understand SR using different theoretical perspectives. The article outlines this aim based upon a review of international research in this field and uses the systemic integrated cognitive approach and school alienation theories to explain how SR might emerge and develop. The review indicates that SAPs involve many types, concepts, definitions, and reasons. The most frequently used concepts are school refusal behavior, truancy, school refusal, and school withdrawal. Based on the review, the article argues for a common understanding of these concepts among all stakeholders. We suggest a narrow definition of SR to enhance clarity and agreement and propose that the systemic integrated cognitive approach and school alienation theory are relevant to the understanding of SR. A common understanding among all stakeholders is the importance of identifying and intervening in specific types of SAPs. By using a systemic integrated cognitive approach and school alienation theory, identification and interventions can be targeted at an early stage of the development process of SR.

The current study examined the associations between students’ perceptions of classroom interactions and students’ emotional and behavioral engagement. Given the nested structure of the data, multilevel analyses were employed to examine these associations. A total of 1769 Norwegian fifth to tenth graders from 100 classes and 10 schools participated in a web-based survey. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel structural equation modeling. The results indicated that students who perceived high-quality classroom interactions were more engaged in school, and teachers’ emotional support showed the strongest association with engagement at both levels. Furthermore, the findings indicated that primary school students were more engaged emotionally than lower secondary school students, and female students were more behaviorally engaged than male students.

This study investigated bullying victims’ perceptions of their teachers’ support and monitoring when controlling for level of mental health problems, peer relationships, gender, and grade level. Given the nested structure of the data, multilevel analyses were employed to examine these associations. The quality of classroom interaction is highly relevant for bullying prevention and intervention. A survey was administered to 1,571 fifth- to 10th-grade students in 10 schools. The findings revealed that bully victimization was significantly associated with weak teacher instructional support, but no significant association was observed between bully victimization and teachers’ emotional support or monitoring. These associations were negative when peer relationships were not controlled for because victims reported teacher support and monitoring issues less frequently than non-victims. The findings underscore the importance of classroom interaction and peer relationships for bullying prevention and intervention and the need to create positive relationships between teachers and students and among students in the classroom.