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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

School absence in Norwegian primary schools – institutional understandings and responses (SCANSchoolAbsence)

Alternative title: Skolefravær i norske grunnskoler - institusjonelle forståelser og responser

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Project Number:

324830

Application Type:

Project Period:

2021 - 2026

Subject Fields:

Partner countries:

All children have the right to adapted education in an inclusive environment. However, the growing problem of absenteeism in primary school represents a major threat to achieving the goal of inclusive education. Although absenteeism and dropouts from upper secondary education have received much attention in the last 10 years, there is little systematic and research-based knowledge about absenteeism in primary and lower secondary school. For example, there are no national statistics on school absence in Norwegian primary and lower secondary school, except for the second semester in 10th grade (SSB 2018). Focus in this project is on how school absence is distributed, understood and handled at the intermediate level in primary school, ie children between 11 and 13 years of age. Since there are no national rules and guidelines for primary and lower secondary schools in how to deal with school absenteeism, there is probably some variation in routines and ways of understanding in different schools and municipalities. We will try to capture and understand this variation. And perhaps the pandemic experiences from 2020 and 2021, with school closures and limited physical attendance in school, have changed both perspectives and practices regarding attendance and absenteeism in school? The main goal of the project is therefore to contribute to the field of knowledge by • map the extent and variation in school absenteeism in all primary schools in three counties • map follow-up systems and routines in different schools and municipalities • study how school absence is understood and handled within different schools The project design includes the use of both questionnaires, interviews and observation, and will therefore be able to provide both overview images and in-depth knowledge. Nord University is collaborating with Nordland Research, NTNU and the University of Bergen on the project.

All children have the right to adapted education in an inclusive environment. However, the growing problem of school absence in primary school represents a large threat to fulfilling the goal of inclusive education. While school absence and drop out from upper secondary education has received a lot of attention the last 10 years, so far pupils with extended school absence in primary school has largely been neglected. There exist no national statistics on school absence in Norwegian compulsory education, apart from the second semester in 10th grade (SSB 2018). The scarce research in this field makes it difficult for both schools and other professional services to develop high quality knowledge-based practices, as well as for authorities to develop good strategic policies to support schools and families. The primary objective in the study is to fill this knowledge gap by producing a new multidisciplinary understanding of school absence in primary schools in Norway, analyzing school absence as formed by local multiprofessional social practices and understandings and categorizations. The project design proposes a multidisciplinary and mixed methods approach executed through surveys, interviews and observation studies, covering a broad spectrum of academic fields. This design is particularly suited to achieve the study’s three secondary objectives; i) To map the scope and variation in school absence in primary schools, as well as mapping follow-up systems and routines in different schools and municipalities, ii) to provide knowledge on how school absence is understood and dealt with within different schools, and iii) to develop conceptual understanding of school absence in institutional school contexts, with the aim of complementing the theoretical perspectives. The project results will facilitate new understandings of how school absence is practiced and experienced in primary schools and will provide updated knowledge of the form, function and extent of school absence.

Funding scheme:

FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren