Professional Documents
Culture Documents
151-165
School absenteeism is an alarming problem for administrators, teachers, parents, and the society,
in general, as well as for the students, in particular. It may indicate low performance of teachers,
students dissatisfaction of the schools services, or lack of or poor academic and non-academic
structures or policies that address the problems or factors influencing or reinforcing this behavior.
Parents are financially burdened for having their children to stay longer in the school, having to
re-enroll them in subjects where they fail due to excessive absences. The present study aimed
to explore the process by which the phenomenon of school absenteeism evolves or is experienced
by the college students. In-depth interviews of ten absentee students and the use of editing
style analysis and a method described by Colaizzi (1978) yielded three category schemes of
experience of school absenteeism: (a) disempowering circumstances - feeling of helplessness;
(b) misguided value system - mixed up priorities; and (c) pedagogical dilemmas - unappealing
academic environments. Based on the findings, the pedagogical, psychological and socio-cultural
implications are discussed.
Keywords: Absenteeism, qualitative research, regular attendance
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METHOD
Research Design
This study employed qualitative research design
to explore the nature of school absenteeism among
college students in one university in the Philippines.
The experiences of absenteeism were reduced to
a central meaning o r the essence of t he
experience (Moustakas, 1994) and how it
evolves or develops Specifically, the researcher
utilized a phenomenological approach called
descriptive phenomenology, specifically the
met ho d s o f Co laizzi ( 1 9 78 , as cit ed in
Cresswell, 2003; Denzin & Lincoln, 2000) in
seeking for a thorough description of the meaning
and process of the experience of absenteeism by
identifying essential themes. Common patterns
shared by particular instances were described.
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FINDINGS
A total of ten participants were interviewed
abo ut t heir experiences regarding schoo l
absenteeism. Each interview was carefully
recorded and transcribed. With high concordance
between interviews, the researcher felt that after
the eighth interview, sufficient data saturation was
achieved. At the cessation of the tenth interview, it
was clear that additional themes had emerged since
the eighth interview.
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School absenteeism
Feeling of helplessness
DISEMPOWERING CIRCUMSTANCES
Mixed up priorities
MISGUIDED VALUE
SYSTEM
Pedagogical dilemmas
UNAPPEALING LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
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DISCUSSION
School absenteeism as experienced by the
college students is related to various circumstances.
For many, the decision to miss classes come from
experiences of disempowering situations that are
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Students who exhibited less mature socioemotional functioning in the classroom, as indicated
by scores on approaches to learning, interpersonal
relations, self-control, as well as on externalizing
and internalizing problem behaviors, had higher
absenteeism rates than those with greater socioemotional maturity. Likewise, children who,
according to their parents, complained about
school, were upset to go to school, or claimed to
be sick to stay home had higher absenteeism than
those who did not engage in these behaviors
(Romero & Lee, 2007).
Without a doubt, classes are particular kinds of
environments. They have unique characteristics that
affect students no matter how they or the
classrooms are organized or what the teacher
believes about education (Doyle, 1986). How the
teacher manages the classroom environment affects
the sustained interest of students in attending
classes regularly.
During a single day, teachers have literally
hundreds of interactions with students. Classrooms
have differing abilities, goals, and preferences.
Actions occur concurrently all takes place at once
and t he pace is quick. In these rapid-fire
interactions, events are also erratic. Moreover,
classrooms are public; the way the teacher handles
these unexpected interruptions is observed and
judged by everyone. Students always perceive if
the teacher is being fair. Is there favoritism?
(Woolfolk, 2004). What happens when a rule (like
regular attendance to classes) is broken? Lastly,
Classrooms have histories. The implication of a
particular teachers or students actions depends
in part on what has happened before. The fourth
time a student is absent requires a different
rejoinder from the teacher than the first absence.
In addition, the history of the first few weeks of
school shapes life in the classroom all semester.
Thus, a problem like absenteeism is related to how
teacher reacts to it; how they are reminded of the
importance of regular attendance to classes
Why are students bored in their classes and
eventually lose interest? Unappealing learning
environments can be avoided if individual variations
are taken into account in instructional planning.
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