Analysis of endogenous and exogenous causes of early school dropout: A qualitative research

Abstract

Introduction: The employment and educational situation of young people is a subject of special concern for Governments and international organizations, as it affects issues as important as social cohesion, inequality, the educational model, productivity and the sustainability of social protection systems. In this sense, the school dropout rate presents, at present, one of the most important educational problems and a determining factor in the success of the educational policies. The early dropout rate in Spain stands in 2016 at 19%, much higher than the average of the EU-28 (10.7%), despite the decline in recent years; and still far from the target of 15% marked in the European Strategy 2020. Method: From this reality, from the Observatory of Social Exclusion of the University of Murcia, a qualitative study developed with the intention of examining the diversity of causes that derive in processes of school dropout. Specifically, an extensive review of recent studies that address this phenomenon in Spain through primary sources took place, and with their own sources in the context of the Region of Murcia, three qualitative techniques were applied: life stories (24), interviews with professionals (16) and discussion groups (1). Results and discussion: This research confirms the wide spectrum of causes that explain early school abandonment and includes two factors not directly contributed by other studies: the conflicts with relation to the peer group and the loss of the social value of the studies. The results show that knowledge of the factors of early school dropout is mediated by the research technique used and by the type of informant selected, focusing on the complementarity of the techniques and the participation of diverse agents.