Pre-service teachers' perceptions of factors contributing to school failure and their relationship to prior personal experience of school success

Abstract

Factors that pre-service class and subject teachers perceive as significant in explaining the occurrence of school failure were examined using mixed methods strategy. The qualitative phase of the study (N = 74) revealed that pre-service teachers recognize a wide range of causes for school failure (16 distinctive categories). The relative significance of the causes was established in the subsequent quantitative phase. The Scale of school failure causes was constructed, applied to 408 pre-service teachers and subjected to exploratory factor analysis, which pointed to the three latent groups of causes explaining 43% of variance. The lack of ability and motivation in students (1st factor) and the lack of educational support (2nd factor) were perceived as highly contributing to school failure, while moderate importance was attributed to the causes related to family and social context (3rd factor). Compared to pre-service subject teachers, pre-service class teachers were more willing to recognize the teachers' responsibility for the occurrence of school failure. Pre-service teachers' perceptions of different factors were related to prior experiences of school success.