Family background

During the process of analysis, the second most influential theme that emerged for at-risk students/dropouts before secondary school career was family background. About 80% of the interview participants reported that there had been problems at home (mainly divorce), which had caused uncertainty in relationships with parents, and in some cases separation from siblings. Moreover, according to many, this was one of the main reasons they had to leave school early. Some research participants claimed that divorce had created conflict and altered

the value systems of parents, resulting in confusion, role-conflict, and complicated dynamics in the separated family.

Benjamin (27, male, DK) talked about how hard it had been for him to be separated from his brother, and to cope with the very different values of his parents after they divorced:

Mum was a kinda hippie, and dad was a disciplined economist, hardcore, you know. Of course, they divorced, I dunno why they chose each other in the first place. My dad moved to Jylland, far-far away with my little bro, so anyway, I travelled every second weekend to their place to meet my little bro.

Benjamin’s constant traveling to spend time with his brother at the weekends caused difficulties in his social life as he became isolated from his peers: ‘[S]o I could hardly make friends at Folkeskole (comprehensive school) and then dad set up a family and a new baby came, and mum had different boyfriends, but all I wanted was to spend time with my bro … ’

The same pattern of isolation experienced in school occurs in Roland’s (25, male, DK) story, where it is evident that divorces and repeated relocations made him a complete outsider at school:

Basically, I started school in [place], and my mum and dad divorced and the whole trip began. So I moved from that school to another school, for, I think, one and a half years, but I was bullied so bad, so I moved to another school and my mum also moved around and we moved three times … and then we moved to a small town, ‘cos mum had found a new guy, and I was bullied again. Then I moved to a Catholic school, I went there for two years, and it was pretty great, except for the teachers. And then we moved to another place, which is a slum, we lived there for two years. When I grew up, kinda became a teenager, kind of did not know what to do, and we moved away

again, I started a new school, a class, it was 8th grade. So it wasn’t that bad actually, and after I started speaking with my vejleder [guidance counsellor].

Likewise, in April’s (32, female, England) narrative, divorce resulted in her moving locations and schools, and there are startling resemblances with Roland’s story:

I don’t know really, my mum just liked moving. So every time she moved, we had to move schools. Then we moved to a totally different area called [place] and we lived there for three years, and then we moved back. I was really quiet at school, and I got bullied quite a lot. I struggled quite a lot, I thought, because I was very shy and that I never opened up and never asked for help. So we just kept moving to different areas, so we had to move schools. It was only when we moved back here from [place], when we became stable because I told my mum to put her foot down, I always said: Mum, I’m starting high school, I don’t want to move no more, I want to stay at the same school.

From the research participants’ narratives it can be seen how the divorce of parents and related adversity were associated with a negative spiral involving school failures, isolation, and sometimes deviance and drug use/abuse. It was interesting that a number of research participants from the Danish and Hungarian cohort talked openly about their drug misuse. In contrast, research participants from England hardly referred to drug issues in the interviews. I believe the reason for this mainly involved the atmosphere of the educational institutions, and my position as a researcher there (see more detail in Chapter 3 and the next subchapter).

One research participant from the Danish cohort, Amir (27, male, DK) explained that he grew up in different countries because of his parents’ divorce, and from age 14 he lived with his adult brother, without parents, which resulted in drug addiction: ‘...So I just came and lived

with my brother and then I started going to school, and then I met X, and then we started smoking weed..’

The findings of this research emphasise that, before the age of 16, divorce is a significant factor in at-risk students’ school careers. A number of European cross-country studies (EP, 2010; EC, 2011; TWG, 2013) similarly point out that family events such as divorce can lead to inadequate/inconsistent parenting, which may impact students’ engagement.

During data analysis, I identified other family factors, which influenced the at-risk school careers of students, such as the fact that family expectations about social behaviour are different from those at school; and parental expectations were too high. There are narratives in the research participants’ interviews that describe how students did not live up to their parents’ high expectations in their school years. In the English and Hungarian stories, the mismatch between expectations led students to drop out temporarily. In contrast, Danish participants whose intentions regarding schooling differed from their parents’ were offered an alternative study pathway.

Jessica (25, female, Eng) from the English cohort did not meet her mother’s high expectations so she left the sixth form, and later her mother, too:

I live with my dad ‘coz at the time I lived with my difficult mum and she chose the 6th form for me. It was awful, and I didn’t tell her I stopped going to the 6th form, I was not brave. I went in, she dropped me in the morning and I used to walk back out, and hang out with friends. She didn’t know anything. And then I came to college and finally told her: “Listen, I stopped going to the 6th form, I found this course at college.” I explained it to her, well what that was all about. But she went ballistic, obviously. She didn’t listen, and then I just decided to leave ‘coz I couldn’t live with her anymore.

Similarly, a Hungarian research participant, Eszter (32, female, Hun) also suffered from what she describes as a demanding, achievement-oriented mother:

My mum is a well-known economist. So, I attended a primary school first until the 4th year when I locked myself up, and then mum took me to a private school to make me more confident. It helped for two years, but in the third year I needed a different school according to mum, therefore we went to a prestigious secondary school where I had to repeat a year because it was difficult, I did not understand what my mum did really.

Christian (39, male, DK) from the Danish cohort was more fortunate, since he found an alternative pathway after comprehensive school. He did not want to follow his parents’ wishes:

Yeah, I saw some of their [Support School] plays, so I told my parents that I wanted to go there too, and I remember that they thought it was a bad idea. They told me I should go directly to the gymnasium. And we talked a lot about that with the teachers at my folkeskole [comprehensive school], and they also thought it was a stupid idea, because I had a lot of good grades. So, they were afraid that I would drop out of the gymnasium if I went to Support School first. But I was convinced that I wanted to be an actor. And I knew I would go to the National Theatre School, so I had to do theatre all the time. I just remember that it was really based on my own beliefs that this was to be a good place for me, and I dared to take this year off [from mainstream education] and stayed in the alternative arena. And after that year everyone told me that I was right, and then I started gymnasium.

impact on the educational careers, achievement and performance of the research participants. These findings are reflected in the literature. According to Coleman, social capital is a resource that is available through attachment to a network and to various human relations (Coleman, 1998). Coleman argues that social capital is associated with education, particularly the social relations between children and their parents, moreover how these relations influence education. On the other hand, social capital is determined by the time and energy that families spend on their children’s education, which plays a significant role in educational achievements (Coleman, 1998). According to the former author, in one-parent families and in families with a high number of children social capital is limited, which can have a negative effect on students’ education (Coleman, 1998). Findings from this research highlight the importance for young people’s career progression of educational achievement and the ways in which social relations and social capital influence educational achievement, together with financial and human capital. For instance, in Hungary and the UK socio-economic status plays a significant role in schooling, as young people of higher socio-economic status perform significantly better at every stage of the education system than do those from lower socio-economic groups. In addition, the gap between the best and worst performers widens as young people proceed through the education system, which obviously influences school participation (Steedman & Stoney, 2004; Kendall & Kinder, 2005).