Why Do Students in Vocational and Technical Education Drop Out? A Qualitative Case Study
Abstract views: 310
/ 
PDF downloads: 95
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33200/ijcer.935042Keywords:
Vocational education, Dropout, Cultural capital, Economic capital, Social capital, Vocational capitalAbstract
The aim of this case study is to examine the economic, social, and cultural reasons behind the dropout of VE students. The participants of the study are 23 students included in accordance with the criterion sampling method. We gathered data with semi-structured interviews. Then we analyzed data with content analysis. Themes obtained as findings of the study are vocational habitus, capital agents, how to survive, and post-experience. As a finding of the study; while individual problems are the most emphasized problems experienced at school by the participants, economic reasons are the most emphasized reasons behind the dropping out of the students.
References
• Aarkrog, V., Wahlgren, B., Larsen, C. H., Mariager-Anderson, K., & Gottlieb, S. (2018). Decision-making processes among potential dropouts in VET and adult learning. In C. Nägele & B. E. Stalder (Eds.), Trends in vocational education and training research. Proceedings of the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Vocational education and training research. Proceedings of the European conference on the Educational Research (VETNET) (1-9).
• Acar, E. (2011). Effects of social capital on school success: A narrative synthesis. Educational Research and Reviews, 6(6), 456–461.
• Alspaugh, J. W. (1998). The relationship of school-to-school transitions and school size to high school dropout rates. High School Journal, 81(1), 154–121.
• Azzam, A. (2007). Why students drop out. Educational Leadership, 64(7), 91–93
• Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, E. M. (2001). Truancy reduction: Keeping students in school. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Bourdieu, P. (1973). Three forms of theoretical knowledge. Social Science Information, 12(1), 53-80
• Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of A Theory of Practice, Cambridge University of Press.
• Bourdieu, P. (1985). The market of symbolic goods. Poetics 14(2), 13–44
• Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education, 241-258. Greenwood
• Bourdieu, P. (1988). Homo Academicus. Stanford University Press.
• Bourdieu, P. (1990). Language and symbolic power. Harvard University Press
• Bourdieu, P., Passeron, J.-C., & de SaintMartin, M. (1995). Academic discourse. Stanford University Press
• Bourdieu, P. (1997). The forms of capital. In A. H. Halsey, H. Lauder, P. Brown, & A. S. Wells (Eds.), Education, Culture, Economy, Society (pp. 47-58). Oxford University Press
• Bourdieu P. (1998). Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market. Free Press
• Bourdieu, P. (2002). The Politics of Globalization, Le Monde
• Boyacı, A., Karacabey, M. F., & Öz, Y. (2018). Organizational problems challenging the capacity of open vocational high schools in dealing with the school dropouts. Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 9(1), 1-25
• Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. (1963). Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research, Houghton Mifflin
• Cavanagh, S. (1997). Content analysis: concepts, methods and applications. Nurse Researcher, 4, 5-16
• Cemalcilar, Z., & Gökşen, F. (2014). Inequality in social capital: Social capital, social risk and drop-out in the Turkish education system. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35, 94–114. https:// doi:10.1080/01425692.2012.740807
• Christine, C. A., Jolivette, K., & Nelson, C.M. (2007). School characteristics related to high school dropout rates. Remedial and Special Education, 28(6), 325-339
• Colley, H., James, D. & Tedder, M. (2002). Becoming the ‘right person for the job’: vocational habitus, gender and learning cultures in further education, paper presented to the Learning and Skills Development Agency Annual Research Conference, University of Warwick.
• Colley, H., James, D., Tedder, M. & Diment, K. (2003) Learning as becoming in vocational education and training: class, gender and the role of vocational habitus. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 55(4), 471-496
• Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches, Sage Publications
• Croninger, R. G., & Lee, V. E. (2001). Social capital and dropping out of school: Benefits to at-risk students of teachers’ support and guidance. Teachers College Record, 103, 548–581
• Dika, S. & Kusum, S. (2002). Applications of social capital in educational literature: A critical synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 72(1), 31-60.
• Dumais, S. (2002). Cultural capital, gender, and school success: The role of habitus. Sociology of Education, 75(1), 44-68.
• Edgerton, J. D. & Roberts, L.W. (2014). Cultural capital or habitus? Bourdieu and beyond in the explanation of enduring educational inequality. Theory and Research in Education, 193–220.
• Elffers, L. (2012). One Foot out the School Door? Interpreting the Risk for Dropout upon the Transition to Post-Secondary Vocational Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33(1), 41–61.
• Farías, M., & Sevilla, M. (2015). Effectiveness of vocational high schools in students’ access to and persistence in postsecondary vocational education. Research in Higher Education, 56(7), 693–718.
• Ferm, L., Thunqvist, D. P., Svensson, L., & Gustavsson, M. (2018). Students’ strategies for learning identities as industrial workers in a Swedish upper secondary school VET programme. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 70(1), 66–84.
• Frey, L. R., Botan, C. H., Friedman, P. G., & Kreps, G. L. (1992). Survey interview research. In L. R. Frey, C. H. Botan, P. G. Friedman, & G. L. Kreps (Eds.), Interpreting communication research: A case study approach (pp. 125-160). Prentice Hall
• Gaddis, M.S. (2013). The influence of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement. Social Science Research, 42, 1–13
• Gale, T., & Parker, S. (2017). Retaining students in Australian higher education: Cultural capital, field distinction. European Educational Research Journal, 16(1), 80–96
• George, A. L., & Bennett, A. (2004). Case Studies and Theory Development, MIT Press
• Glennie, J., Harley, K., Butcher, N., & van Wyk, T. (2012). Open educational resources and change in higher education: Reflections from practice. UNESCO-Commonwealth of Learning.
• Goldschmidt, P., & Wang, J. (1999). When can schools affect dropout behavior? A longitudinal multilevel analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 36, 715–738.
• Gottfredson, G. D., & Gottfredson, D. C. (1989). School climate, academic performance, attendance, and dropout. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 308225)
• Grenfell, M. (2009). Applying Bourdieu’s field theory: The case of social capital and education. Education, Knowledge and Economy, 3, 17-34
• Güngör, G. (2019). Mesleki ve Teknik Ortaöğretimde Okul Terkinin Nedenleri ve Çözüm Önerileri: Bütüncül Bir Program Önerisi (Publication No: 566855) [Doctoral Thesis – Kocaeli University] Council of Higher Education Thesis Centre https://tez.go.yok.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/tezSorguSonucYeni.jsp
• Harvey, L. (2001). Defining and measuring employability. Quality in Higher Education, 7(2), 97-109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538320120059990
• Israel, G. D., Beaulieu, L. J., & Hartless, G. (2001). The influence of family and community social capital on educational achievement. Rural Sociology, 66(1), 43–68
• Kılıç, V. P. (2017). School dropout tendency among vocational high school students, 2017 Conference Proceedings, Erte Congress
• Konold, T., & Cornell, D. (2015). Measurement and structural relations of an authoritative school climate model: A multi-level latent variable investigation. Journal of School Psychology, 53, 447-461
• Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Sage Publications
• Lin, N. (1999a). Building a network theory of social capital. Connections, 22, 28-51.
• Lincoln, Y. S. & Denzin, N. K. (2003). Turning points in qualitative research: Tying knots in a handkerchief. AltaMira Press/A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
• Møllegaard, S., & Jaeger, M. M. (2015). The effect of grandparents’ economic, cultural, and social capital on grandchildren’s educational success. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 42, 11–19.
• Murdock, T. B. (2000). Incorporating economic context into educational psychology: methodological and conceptional challenges. Educational Psychologist, 35(2), 113–124
• Nash, R. (1999). Bourdieu, ‘habitus’, and educational research: Is it all worth the candle. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 175–187 National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center (n.d.). https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ datacenter/selectVariables.aspx
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. (2018). Education at a Glance 2020: OECD Indicators. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/educationat-a-glance-2018_eag-2018-en
• Parr, A. K., & Bonitz, V. S. (2015). Role of family background, student behaviors, and school-related beliefs in predicting high school dropout. The Journal of Educational Research, 108(6), 504–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 00220671.2014.917256
• Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Sage
• Pittman, R. B., & Haughwout, P. (1987). Influence of high school size on dropout rate. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 9(4), 337-343
• Plank, S. B., DeLuca, S., & Estacion, A. (2008). High school dropout and the role of career and technical education: A survival analysis of surviving high school. Sociology of Education, 81, 345–370. https:// doi:10.1177/003804070808100402
• Polat, S. (2014). Reasons for echool dropout in vocational high school. Educational Research and Reviews, 9(18), 711-718
• Porowski, A., & Passa, A. (2011). The effect of communities in schools on high school dropout and graduation rates: Results from a multiyear, school-level quasiexperimental study. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 16(1), 24–37. https:// doi:10.1080/10824669.2011.545977
• Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1-24
• Reay, D. (2010). Sociology, social class and education. In Michael W. Apple, Stephen J. Ball & Luis Armando Gandin (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education, 396–404.
• Rogošić, S., & Baranović, B. (2016). Social capital and educational achievements: Coleman versus Bourdieu. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 6(2), 81–100.
• Rumberger, R. W. (1987). High school dropouts: A review of issues and evidence. Review of Educational Research, 57, 101–121.
• Rumberger, R. W., & Thomas, S. L. (2000). The distribution of dropout and turnover rates among urban and suburban high schools. Sociology of Education, 73, 39 – 67
• Stanton-Salazar & Ricardo D. (1997). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of racial minority children and youths. Harvard Educational Review, 67, 1-40
• Swartz, D. (1977). Pierre Bourdieu: The cultural transmission of social inequality. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 4545–4555.
• Tanggaard, L. (2013). An exploration of students’ own explanations about dropout in vocational education in a Danish context. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 65(3), 422-439.
• Tas, A., Selvitopu, A., Bora, V., & Demirkaya, Y. (2013). Reasons for dropout for vocational high school students. Educational Sciences, Theory and Practice, 13(3), 1561-1565
• Thøgersen, M., Aadahl, M., Elsborg, P., & Klinker, C. D. (2020). Dropout at Danish vocational schools: does the school’s health promotion capacity play a role? A survey-and register-based prospective study. BMC Public Health, 20, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08955-4
• Thompson, D. F. (2008). Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science. Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 497-520.
• Thorpe, H. (2009). Bourdieu, feminism and female physical culture: Gender reflexibility and the habitus-filed complex. Sociology of Sports Journal, 26(1), 491-516.
• Trainor, A. A. (2010). Reexamining the promise of parent participation in special education: An analysis of social and cultural capital. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 41(3), 245-263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2010.01086.x
• Werblow, J., & Duesbery, L. (2009). The impact of high school size on math achievement and dropout rate. The High School Journal, 92, 14 –23. https:// doi:10.1353/hsj.0.0022
• Winship, C., & Korenman, S. D. (1999). Economic success and the evolution of schooling and mental ability. In: Mayer, S.E., Peterson, P.E. (Eds.), Earning and Learning: How Schools Matter, 49–78.
• Yi, H. Zhang, L. Yao, Y. Wang, A. Ma, Y. Shi, Y. Chu, J., Loyalka, P., & Rozelle, S. (2015). Exploring the dropout rates and causes of dropout in upper-secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) schools in China, International Journal of Educational Development, 42, 115-123
• Yin, R. K. (1994). Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Sage
• Ziomek-Daigle, J., & Cavin, J. (2015). Shaping youth and families through positive behavior support: A call for counselors. The Family Journal, 23, 368–373.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 International Journal of Contemporary Educational Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
