”I never got a chance to explain to them” : a narrative study about problematic school absenteeism

The purpose of this study is to deepen the knowledge of young people´s experiences of problematic school absenteeism. It aims at examining obstacles and opportunities for attending school that the young have experienced and how the obstacles have been handled by them. The study is based on three narrative interviews, which were analysed by using two theoretical concepts, structure and agency, within sociology of childhood. The results show that school factors were predominant as regards to school attendance and absenteeism. The school factors could be divided into two categories; school structure and adult behaviour. School structure was found to be an obstacle in terms of insufficient adjustments for the youths and adult behaviour referred to adults not listening and not understanding the needs of each pupil. When aforementioned school factors limited the young persons´ ability to attend school, they used strategies to handle their everyday lives within these limitations. Staying at home from school was one strategy. Another strategy was doing things that were found to be more meaningful than attending school, for example dog walking or spending time with friends