An overview of school engagement: A systematic review

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the publications on school engagement in the SciELO, PsycINFO and ERIC databases with the following descriptors: “school engagement”, “engajamento escolar” and “envolvimento escolar”. The studies that met the inclusion criteria were selected: (a) articles with the abovementioned descriptors in the title, abstract or keywords; (b) studies published in the scientific article modality and (c) in the period from 2014 to 2018. As exclusion criteria: (a) articles focusing on other topics, (b) not fully available and (c) duplicates. There were 410 studies and 203 selected. Most of the studies are correlational and the production on engagement is concentrated on the North America/Europe axis. The engagement was treated in most of the studies as a three-dimensional construct and 35 scales were found to assess engagement. Further experimental and quasi-experimental studies are necessary due to their importance for the evaluation and development of interventions aimed at improving school engagement, and also studies that evaluate the relationship between school engagement and other relevant variables to the school context.