Comparing early leaving across Spain and England

This paper applies a conceptual framework of five key categories (personal challenges, social relationships, family circumstances, institutional features of school/work, and structural factors) to consider the comparative contexts of risks to Early Leaving (EL) in key regions within Spain with a hig...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Brown, Ceri|||0000-0001-9112-1788, Díaz Vicario, Anna|||0000-0003-3389-4138, Costas Batlle, Ioannis|||0000-0002-4030-5971, Muñoz Moreno, José Luís|||0000-0003-2572-4155
Format: article
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:320613
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/320613
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/13639080.2021.1983526
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Comparative study
Disadvantage
Early school leaving
Education
NEETs
Risk factors
SDG 4 - Quality Education
Description
Summary:This paper applies a conceptual framework of five key categories (personal challenges, social relationships, family circumstances, institutional features of school/work, and structural factors) to consider the comparative contexts of risks to Early Leaving (EL) in key regions within Spain with a high national level of EL and England, a nation with low relative EL. The two-country comparison draws from 77 interviews and focus groups with 309 educational stakeholders across 21 settings involved in the European Commission funded project [Orienta4YEL]. Key findings are elicited in highlighting the points of convergence and dissonance within data patterns. Notwithstanding the high level of interaction between them, the most significant risk categories identified were 'personal challenges' linked to 'family circumstances' for Spain and 'structural factors' for England. Key differences can be partly attributed to the different vulnerability groups of at-risk (of EL) young people, as well as differences in the geographical and socio-cultural regions. There is, however, convergence in findings with respect to the key structural factors seen to be barriers to EL, specifically with respect to the impact of socio-economic disadvantage and challenges raised with regard to the educational system and educational policies, as well as the role of young people's relationships.