Understanding school disengagement among refugee-background African students: institutional accounts

Abstract

School disengagement remains a significant challenge in many OECD countries, requiring a thorough understanding of its root causes. Using a socio-ecological systems framework, this paper explores factors contributing to school disengagement among African-heritage students with refugee backgrounds. Through in-depth interviews with school leaders, teachers, career advisors, student services staff, wellbeing officers, and community liaison personnel in three Australian states, the study identifies four key drivers of disengagement: learning gaps, competing demands, parental role uncertainty, and negative racial stereotypes and biases. The findings underscore the complex interaction of individual, familial, institutional, and systemic factors in shaping school engagement. Based on these insights, the paper calls for expanding the evaluative space of school disengagement and discusses implications for policy and practice.