Skip to main content
Campus Community

Skipping school: New Research Explores Truancy and Ways to Get Students Back to Class

It’s common knowledge that attendance matters at any level of educational setting. Unexcused absence from school, or truancy, has been a significant issue in the United States for many decades. Now, thanks to a new wide-ranging study, educators can have better tools to help students want to be in class and even be better prepared for their time there.

Dr. Jonathan W. Shute, assistant professor of education at Brigham Young University–Hawaii’s School of Education, recently coauthored a book entitled Fixing Truancy Now: Inviting Students Back to Class with Dr. Bruce S. Cooper, professor of education at Fordham University Graduate School of Education in New York City. The book describes a new, research-based approach to viewing and fixing truancy.

In the book, Shute and Cooper suggest that the problem is that the U.S. education systems have often treated all truancy the same and therefore have missed appropriate and intuitive solutions to the problem. “For decades we have viewed truants through the lens of juvenile delinquency,” explains Shute. “From this perspective all truants are social misfits with psychological problems, and/or juvenile delinquents from terrible home environments. Of course, this is an accurate description of some truants, but research suggests that the majority of truants are rational decision makers choosing to absent themselves from school or class to do something they deem is more important.”

As Shute and Cooper studied truancy more deeply, they realized that inadequate curriculum and inappropriate pedagogy play major roles in contributing to truancy. They asked students why they truant, and their answers were enlightening. “Even though truants state they value education individually and in their families, they were still truant,” says Shute. “Their comments as to why they truant ranged from boredom in class and meaningless content to inappropriate teacher behaviors. Some truants admit they miss class because they choose to do homework, study for tests, or because they don’t like the teacher.”

The book contends that as curriculum becomes more meaningful and pedagogy more appropriate, truancy will decline. It recommends inviting students into the discussion about ways to prevent truancy and suggests that instead of punitive measures (which lead to more students trying to escape the institution), better teaching, more choices in curriculum, higher expectations in the classroom propelled by better teacher-student relationships could help fix the issue. “The authors take a provocative stand by considering how schools are perpetuating truancy,” says Dr. Linda Venenciano, curriculum research and development professor at the University of Hawaii. “This book encourages educators to build a collaborative vision to prepare our children for the future and eliminate the path that leads to truancy.”

“One of the most obvious solutions is for educators to realize that truancy is an indication of how well school is meeting students’ educational needs,” says Shute. “With this awareness, our focus will shift away from blaming students to looking more closely at curriculum and pedagogy. Our teaching must be more than stand in the front of the class and lecture on topics which students feel are irrelevant to them. Teachers must become aware that other strategies are available, become informed, and attempt to move out of their comfort zones to better engage students in learning.”

To preview or purchase Fixing Truancy Now: Inviting Students Back to Class, click here

Book and Portrait.jpg