Inter professional work in schools: Changing trajectories of vulnerability to school dropout among secondary students

Abstract

Preventing school drop-out requires inter professional work that addresses in a coordinated manner the multiple individual, school and structural factors that lead a young person to leave formal schooling. This study examines the configuration of inter professional work that is designed and implemented in two Municipal Departments of Education in Chile to prevent the truancy and drop-out among students in secondary education growing in a situation of social vulnerability. Data were produced through in-depth interviews with a total of 63 actors, including municipal-level and school level professionals, parents and students. These two cases show contrasting models in their approaches. The first model is oriented to offer psychosocial support so that adolescents can develop their life project; psychologists, social workers and teachers, under the leadership of the municipal-level coordinator and the school principal, deploy relational agency and relational expertise to develop common knowledge; and students feel that their needs are addressed. In the second case, the model focuses on the prevention of truancy and drop-out; the expertise provided by psychologists and social workers fails to expand motives in the practices of teachers; and students point out that psychosocial intervention is more of a barrier than a support. These results highlight the importance of designing psychosocial supports that consider students' voices and the need to prepare professionals for coordinated inter professional work that aligns motivations to work together.