Social factors outside of family and school related to student dropout

The paper presents a systematisation of broader social factors affecting student dropout in Serbia from the framework of Bronfenbrenner’s approach. Although recognised by authors and commonly related to community and education as a system, these factors are rarely investigated. Starting from our previous research into dropout, focused primarily on family and school, this study is aimed at investigating community and systemic factors. The data were compiled by semi-structured interviews with respondents from the following groups (including relevant public statistical data): students who dropped out/are at risk and their parents; school principals and counsellors from schools with high and low attrition rates; teachers’, parents’ and students’ representatives from schools with high dropout rates; social workers in charge of schools with a low attrition rate; representatives of national educational institutions. The findings reveal that factors with a negative impact on children’s education dominate over supportive ones which could have a preventive effect on attrition. Negative influences exist in all social niches: in microsystems (peers prone to risky behaviour, poor neighbourhoods), in weak mesosystem connections of school and family with local institutions, in exosystems (undeveloped regions), up to the macrosystem level (legislative inefficiency, lack of cooperation within educational institutions and between governmental departments). Productive features were observed in mesosystem connections of schools as examples of good practice, as well as at macrosystem level in the form of recognising the dropout problem at the national level. Although preliminary, the obtained results provide useful guidelines for future investigations