Background of students in Alternative Education: Interviews with a selected 2008 cohort

5. Students’ educational pathways and experiences

This chapter explores the views of the AE students about their past schooling experiences, and chapter 6 explores their views about their current AE educational experiences. Both chapters need to be read together, as the students often made comparisons in their discussions, but in this chapter we focus mainly on their perspectives on primary and secondary schooling and the kinds of learning these young people identified as helpful. Our findings show that the most common experience and trajectory for AE students is that they enjoyed primary school and considered in the main that they were successful learners there, but that at secondary school, or for a minority—intermediate school — they became disengaged in their learning. Their reasons for engagement and disengagement are diverse, and we explore these in greater detail in this chapter.

The most surprising finding in this study was that virtually all the students had become “turned on” again to learning in the AE centres, after being “turned off” at secondary school. Almost all participants said they liked learning and that they wanted to learn. We think this finding is significant because it rejects the common myth that these young people are irretrievably lost to the education system and a potential drain to society. However, the way that secondary schools are structured and organised does not appear to meet the needs of this group of students.

Primary Schooling

Most students (80%) said they liked their primary school experiences and enjoyed learning there.

It was good aye? Real good! I was full of joy when I was young—I enjoyed it heaps. I wish I still had that. Primary school you have one teacher and you see them every morning and you go “Hi Mr ….” I had heaps of friends there. [Sam]

I loved primary school. I used to read journals at home to my dad. I was in everything—all the cultural groups (kapa haka)—sporting activities and things, but when I got to college, I didn’t like it. [Lush]

Most of the students we interviewed believed that they had been moderately successful learners at primary school, while some appeared to have been very successful learners.

I liked primary school. I remember going on camps and trips. Neat teacher there. I was quite brainy at primary school so I had to go to another class because it was harder. Favourite teacher there—he was really good at teaching us. He taught us until we understood what he was saying and it was fun. [Kahlia]

I enjoyed primary—had good memories of it. I was in a higher ability group when I was 11/12 and was a year ahead. Found the work OK—it just became normal. The teachers were good back then, they would help you out if you needed it. They would understand if I needed help. [Max]

Learning was good there—I was a bit slow to start to read—I went to Reading Recovery and did well. I’m reading way above my age level now. I like reading—a good book makes me feel I can escape my surroundings. I like science fiction and some true stories. Go to the library a couple of times. I was a good chess player—my principal at primary school taught me for private lessons. He said I thought outside the box—I came up with new moves—he was stumped because I beat him. I was only 10 or 11. I went to the championships—won for my school. When I left no-one helped me go further with that. [Will]

Relationships with teachers

Several students talked about favourite teachers in their interviews and most of these were primary school teachers.

At primary school I was really good, I had this teacher, she was the best thing that ever happened to me. I liked her. She was always there, helpful teacher, caring teacher, whenever we get into trouble, she'll be there to help us. I liked her probably more than my mum sometimes. Before high school—I liked being with my teachers and friends, reading and writing, I’d write stories. When I was in high school, I changed… started wagging. I was a troubled kid. [Kitty]

I was a real good boy at primary school. Played rugby there. There were good teachers there. I learnt a lot—like fractions. I can read pretty good now, but had RR which helped at primary school. Dad used to ask about my homework but I told him I didn’t have any [Jerry].

I liked a woman teacher at primary school –every day she had a shared lunch for us kids. She did heaps of things for us kids—brought over a lot of her goods and shared a lot of things with us kids. Didn’t like Mr. H. who would growl at us for little things. I was wagging at college—wasn’t interested, teachers too boring, trying to teach us in a bored way. Not like that at primary. [Bruce]

I remember the best time of school was just when I started primary—getting to know other kids and my teacher. I had some teachers that I really liked. I liked their attitudes and personality, they were all different but they were cool with us. It was a cool feeling to stay with them through school, you got to know them better. [Tom]

One student was also able to articulate quite clearly the kinds of learning that appealed to her at primary school:

I liked primary school—its better than college, and the learning was fun. I could sing and sit on the mat and jump around and at college you walk around in circles. It was hard to function cos there’s no playgrounds here and no monkey bars and all the bigger people. Learning at primary school was better cause I remembered everything with music and I was in the choir. Because we learnt to music like spelling by rhyming. That’s how I learnt to spell “Mississippi” and “computer” and things. Teachers there liked me and they stop and chat to me when I see them, when I go and pick up my little brother and sister. [Rose]

Less successful experiences at primary

Not all the students had successful experiences at primary school. Twenty percent of the students told us that problems began for them at primary school. Most of these children had serious problems going on at home during this time, and some could remember being labelled as having learning disorders.

I went to two primaries—I really liked it, just the fact that I was more behaved back then. Got on with other people, did what I was meant to do, so this sort of made it easier. I liked the people, the work was easy. Learned the basics OK. But my second to last year of primary school, things started to go down hill. Started not behaving properly, couldn’t be bothered doing work or anything like that, it was hard to stay concentrated, and getting up every morning was too hard. Started playing up, good at this. I’ve got a learning disorder. We went to family mental health. Been there a few times. I’ve got dyslexia and a bit of autism—the learning part. I can’t remember what I’ve read. I learn best when people read to me. [John Doe]

E-Rep’s family had gang connections which possibly contributed to his out of control behaviour at school.

I went to … Primary School—Left school when I was 12. Mr. ‘W’ was my teacher. I liked him. I got angry now and then but I tried to do my best. I would just lose it and start hurting people. No one came to help, but sometimes I’d do one-on-one with teachers. I’d talk a lot [in class] with mates—made it a bit hard to concentrate. My record was too bad, couldn’t go to College. In terms of behaviour, at the end of primary school, it was out of control. Smashing windows, cameras. Tagging. But looking back, it was bad. [E-Rep]

Educational Interventions

Almost half of the students (46%) mentioned various educational interventions they had received at primary school, especially reading recovery (30%) and one-to-one teacher aide assistance.

Teacher aides helped me with reading (RR) and spelling [Robert].

All primary schooling was good. I got help with reading recovery, and help with teacher aides. Maths was my favourite subject. [Tweety]

Those [primary] teachers came to me to help me—didn’t have to go to them. Easier to talk to those teachers. Had a teacher-aide that came into the class for my reading. English—was best in the class, but I stink at Maths [Nate].

Primary School was good—mum used to help there with the Rainbow Reading and Toe by Toe¹⁰. I’m a good reader, and my little brother wasn’t good at reading so mum helped him with it [Pam].

Medical interventions for health and behaviour

We also asked students about their general health and whether they had been through the usual medical checks at school for ears, eyes and other disabilities¹¹. Most students reported that they had been healthy young children¹². Some students mentioned medical interventions for behavioural problems such as medication for ADHD.

I’ve always been hyperactive. Me and my two brothers have got ADHD. Started taking medication at Intermediate, don’t like taking it—Ritalin—lose my appetite and it makes me—if I don’t take it, it makes me all giggly and whatever I want to do. If I take it I listen better and co-operate better. I can see the difference. A teacher picked up on it at Intermediate. [Bonny] 

Primary school was alright, but a bit boring. Teachers going on and on and on. Sitting through assembly was hard. I went to three intermediate schools—It was hard, focusing in class. Got easier when I was put on my meds. Mum took me in for an assessment. Then learning but not behaviour got better. I have ADHD. My biggest brother and my big sister have it too. I take medication for it and it helps, makes it easy to sit down and concentrate—I’m not so hyper and I don’t feel like being violent. More chilled out. In primary—I was not that great. I could read, do some maths, write after primary. [Bob Down].

Both of these examples mention a number of siblings in the family having ADHD. The tendency for society to attribute medical causes to behavioural problems may be occurring in these instances.

Intermediate Schooling

Three quarters of the student cohort that had attended intermediate schools reported that they had had successful educational experiences there.

Intermediate was alright, pretty ok. I liked school there, could do the work and stuff. Had two teachers at intermediate that I got on with, and my reading teacher. I had two good teachers in two years at intermediate. I had help for everything (school work and stuff). They were heaps different to my teachers at secondary school. One teacher was helping me out with my behaviour, my attitude and a bit of my school work… I listened to him. He was the main person who would listen to me and I could talk to. He seemed like a good person and had time for me. I learnt heaps at intermediate, enjoyed it. The learning was good at primary and intermediate. At secondary school everything changed. My teachers talked quite a bit to my mum and dad when I was at intermediate. I stop in to my old school to see those teachers sometimes. When I was at college if they saw me around they would ask how college was. I would tell them it was alright but really it wasn’t. One of my teachers told me I’d find it hard at secondary school—he was right. He told me I could do the work but it would be hard if I didn’t try. He helped me at intermediate and it was good [Ace 1].

About a quarter of the students told us they became disengaged, bored and started wagging classes at intermediate school.

Trouble didn’t start until intermediate. Just there was more discipline and it was a new environment and new people. I was used to seeing the same people. I was shy and scared when I got to intermediate…when I made new friends, that was when things started to get worse. I think once you get to somewhere new, or a place that is new, you start to change. You can change a lot. That’s what basically happened with me. Copying older people and what they do—the bullying and all that, that’s what I did. You don’t want to be left out or anything. [Tom]

Keeping track of student achievement between schools

This cohort of students had typically attended a number of schools. This can present a problem in terms of sending on records of the student’s learning, so that the learning is continuous and uninterrupted. The primary and intermediate sector seemed to have managed this function well, but some students believed that their records had not been used effectively by secondary schools :

When I got to primary school, they found out what I’d done at all my other schools so they knew what I knew and stuff. They had heaps of ways of teaching too, that felt good for me. It filled up all those gaps for me—they found all my tests and what was wrong. The same thing happened at Intermediate—they knew what I’d done, so that made it easier. The college got information from intermediate cause they knew that way had helped me, but the work was hard—too many levels up. But AE got this information as well. The gap from intermediate to college was just too big [Ace 1].

Overall these students believed that they had been very well served by primary and intermediate schools, in spite of all their family hardship problems. In their views teachers had established effective and positive relationships with them in the main; learning and teaching styles appeared to be appropriate; the majority of the students were enjoying learning and learning effectively, several were assisted with learning and behavioural problems via various interventions, and most students reported feeling secure and safe in these schools.

Secondary Schooling

The situation changed dramatically for this group of students at secondary schools. The majority of students (93%) reported becoming disengaged and bored with learning, after several months and many started wagging classes. Sometimes wagging was seen as often the only way out of a situation that students had no influence, power or control over. There were some aspects of secondary schooling that worked against their sense of belonging and engagement. These features included the large size of the schools, the structure and ways secondary schools are organised with constantly changing time-tables, different teachers for each class, an impersonal culture and ‘chalk and talk’ style of teaching.

Sometimes the loose structure (constantly changing classes) was destabilising for these students and offered new freedoms which were too tempting:

It was real easy to wag from sec school and then it became a habit. [Lush]

You could wag a class and turn up at the next one and they wouldn’t know—used to forge notes. You can get away with things there. I liked my first term but it got boring at lunch time—walked around talking at free time and then classes were boring—made you want to go wagging and get high [Jerry]

Some found it unsettling to have multiple changes of teachers and classrooms:

It was a big change to come to secondary school. I found it hard at first changing teachers and classes. [Colin].

Relationships with teachers

For many students secondary school became untenable because of the lack of, or negative, relationships with teachers:

I had a problem with male teachers trying to tell me to do something. The way they spoke to me. Don’t respect me, so I don’t respect you [Bob Down].

College—I hated it. Teachers always grumpy, picking on me. Just strict-as. Picked on my uniform, behaviour and just some stupid things really. Thought they over-reacted. Just little things. Like once, I threw paper, got warning [John Doe]

I just did 1 or 2 terms at College. I went up north, my sister is there. I just dropped out altogether. College was dumb. Not interested in the work. I hated all the teachers—didn’t like any. They’re grumpy all the time. I didn’t really go to class [Nate].

Trouble would happen if I don’t like someone… just happens. If I don’t like someone that’s it. Sometimes it would be about teachers. I know how it feels—I get pissed off. Sometimes it’s about how they treat me. I hate people treating me different in front of other people. I don’t like talking to teachers in front of lots of people, like in class. The teachers I don’t get on with are unfair to me—I just ignore those teachers. [Anaru]

One or two teachers just hated me, so would send me out when I got to their class. They just didn’t like me. [Method]

A perceived lack of expectations was sometimes part of the disrespect students commented on:

The teacher always picked on me—the maths teacher—because she thought I was the type of girl who wouldn’t achieve anything. For two years I didn’t do much maths. The teacher didn’t like me so I couldn’t be bothered going to her class. [Naomi]

Max had been a successful student who had been accelerated by a year at a full primary. When he got to college (Year 7–13 College) he was moved down a year because he was a year younger than other students:

It was a big change between primary and secondary. More responsibilities, harder to make new friends. Didn’t know any people there and was separated from the only friend I had. Felt pretty lost—was a bit scared by it all. Having more freedom was part of the problem—I was used to more rules and stuff. Teachers were meaner there, they got straight into the work. I got over it and realised they wouldn’t change. There were some teachers I was really good friends with, but others hated me and I hated them too. I’d talk to teachers and interact like they were friends… some teachers were fine with this and some didn’t like it. In the end I’d wag the classes where the teachers didn’t like me. [Max]

A number of students reported verbal abuse from teachers and staff:

I was at college one term and one day. Me and my mates were smoking and I got in trouble with the principal—he said some stuff about my family and I didn’t like it. I decided I didn’t want to be here. Tried to burn the east block down but it just burnt the bushes down because it was damp. Got dobbed in by some boys who were wagging and smoking in the bushes, who saw us. Principal didn’t like my older brother and he dissed me because I was wagging and he said ‘you are just like your brother.’ I thought he was here to help us—not take us down. Shit teachers here, me and my mate were getting hassled for being lesbians and the teacher didn’t stop the kids— just said ignore it. We would walk out of class. Got stood down in first term for fighting, then on first day back I got caught fighting again, so got expelled. Most fighting is because kids dis my mum and put me down. I’m good at looking after myself. Hated all the Deans and most of the teachers here. Liked one teacher at ‘P’ College. Teachers not interested to find out about my life. [Tweety]

The teacher called me stupid and then I got angry and I didn’t think about what I was saying when I swore at her. I walked home afterwards and got into trouble from mum. [Kahlia]

It was apparent from the students’ accounts of their behaviour that they would present challenges and frustrations to most teachers. It is also harder for secondary teachers to forge significant relationships with the large numbers of students that they are typically required to teach in a week. There are structural reasons that contribute to difficulties in engaging these challenging students, discussion of which is beyond the scope of this study.

Views on approaches to teaching and learning in secondary schools

Students reported that their teachers in secondary schools tended to rely on a restricted repertoire of teaching approaches with, what they saw, to be an excessive reliance on writing.

Only thing is the teachers give us quite a lot of writing to do. I would like to do more practical work at school rather than sitting down writing. In English we just sit and write all the time [Kahlia].

Many students said they found learning hard at secondary school and that the gulf between their skill level and what was being required of them was too great. They thought that they were expected to jump or close that gap on their own.

I didn’t really like school since the end of primary school. During Year 9 I would go to school then leave throughout the day—I’d only go to PE. It was too much work.—I couldn’t cope with it all and there was too much learning. All the homework and everything sucked. It was a big change from primary school. I’d heard it was hard but didn’t think it’d be that hard. I just couldn’t do the work. By the time exams came around at the end of the year it was like “Nah!” and then there was even more work at the start of year 10 for the next lot of exams. [Matt]

Teachers weren’t listening to me and that’s when I got really angry, frustrated. Would wag after that, picking fights. I wanted to talk to the teachers about the work—didn’t understand the work. They would wait for ages before they came over. I’d get upset and walk out. I’d wait like 20min and it was frustrating and everyone else was nearly finished—I’d just take off. [Bob]

Most of the time the teachers would say ‘keep trying’. One day I had a teacher who kept saying it, and I said she wouldn’t help me cause she didn’t know the answer either, and then I left the class. I just didn’t want to hear another ‘Keep trying’ [Anaru]

Only went for a month and a half. I was just wagging, walking around corridors during the day and the work was too hard for me. Mainly not doing my work and wagging that got me to AE. Biggest change in my life for school was coming to secondary school. I felt stink cause I knew the work would probably be too hard for me to do. When I was first going I didn’t know how I was going to cope so I just walked around the corridors and stayed out of the class.

I didn’t really get any attention from teachers here. I didn’t really know any teachers at college and I don’t think there was a teacher there that I could communicate with. It felt different and hard. At college the teacher writes on the board, tells you what to do then tells you to get into it. But they don’t really help you. The teachers treated me well—but not how I wanted to be treated to get help with my work. They didn’t understand me and I couldn’t tell them. They told me I had to learn to do it without help but I couldn’t, they said ‘ask for help only when you’re stuck’, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want them doing my work for me but I needed more help. I was dragging the teachers into doing my work for me, but I wanted them to explain it much more to me so I could do it. The teacher would tell you what to do but then you don’t get any help. You just gotta sit there looking bored and they get angry. [Ace 1]

This student had even worked out what needed to happen to get him back on track with his learning, but he also could understand the limitations of the secondary schooling system:

“The way they did the work wasn’t attractive to me—it wasn’t done the way I wanted to work. If there was a teacher that could have given me 1–1 time that might have helped. I’m not saying that it would of, cause I know they didn’t have enough time to do it… they had lots of other stuff to do. It would have been hard for the teacher to do 1–1 for everyone [Ace 1].

Harder to ask teachers at schools cause they’ll go and tell all the other teachers about you (that you were dumb or something)…Normally at college they’d just give you the worksheet and you were meant to go off and do it. I never used to learn like that. They’d have to explain it to me before I could do it. Biggest change [primary to secondary] was that there were hardly any teachers at college and they were always off with other students helping them out. You didn’t really get a chance to talk to them or ask them questions. With most of the teachers if you hadn’t finished during class you’d have to stay in and do it. Maybe they thought I was slack or lazy…I’d talk to my cousins and they would help me with my work, it helped a bit. [Tom Lee]

Student views on relevancy of curriculum content

Some students commented on preferring to learn by doing practical activities:

We used to do technology and cooking and sewing at intermediate. That was cool. Year 7 or 8. It was hands on. Teachers treated us like kids. At College you’re treated like an adult, but we’re too young, trying to do it too fast, we’re not ready. [Method]

Another particularly perceptive student thought secondary school classes needed to be more about practical concerns, in preparation for the world outside schools:

I think they are teaching the wrong classes—they should have classes on money. That would be a good class, because money is just a big circle. Everyone just works, pays taxes, pays fines, pays bills, buys food—and then they go back to work. It’s just a big circle. They should teach more adult things—practical—we get taught our driving licenses here at AE [Will].

Students’ dis-regulated behaviour at secondary

Where levels of frustration rose for these students, they would often erupt with inappropriate language or behaviour, and teachers would deal with the problem by removing them from the classroom or the learning situation. As one student explained, this did not help them learn:

If kids get into trouble here they get two warnings and then pulled out of class and put in isolation. It doesn’t really work because you are getting pulled out of class and it doesn’t help your work—it is punishment, but not learning. [Kahlia]

Pacific Islands students found the lack of connection with teachers particularly difficult. Both of the following students are Tongan:

Teachers at that school don’t know much about the Island students. Our life boundaries are different from the Palangi boundaries. That’s why I like ‘Course’ (AE) because we don’t have home-work, and because we do it all in one day and the work is easy. At college I used to go home, I make something to eat, I clean the house, I help my parents do whatever they need, and then I do my home-work—no matter how late it is. [Naomi]

I didn’t do much learning there. At secondary school I go to at least 5 classes, and the teachers just do what they have to do and they don’t really care about what you want to do. [Sam]

While some schools may have successful strategies for helping their “at risk” students to stay connected, schools had not been able to keep the participants in this study on-track. There were examples of strategies that however well-intentioned, were not going to provide a long term solution, as evidenced by the teacher who reportedly tried to manage Matt’s behaviour by lowering expectations and tolerating behaviour that was unacceptable for other students

I didn’t really talk to any teachers about how hard the work was. Did have a deal with one teacher that I could eat and listen to music if I did my work, but it didn’t really work—other classmates got jealous and I didn’t really do any work. Did feel good that someone was trying to help me out. They tried to keep me at the school—one of the Deans thought I should stay. He was trying to help me out and keep me on the right track. He’d try and help me out when I got into trouble. Felt good to have someone there who could stick up for me. [Matt]

Students were appreciative when individuals made efforts to connect with and to help them.

The principal is really cool up at the college—works really hard to get on with the young kids and talk to them. [Reuben]

Two teachers would help me out if I got behind [Method]

Actions that led to students’ exclusion from secondary schools

As part of the interview we asked students how they had come to be excluded from school, and why they were sent to AE centres. Many reported that when their frustrations reached a peak, they lashed out violently and threw things (chairs, scissors), fought, bullied teachers and other students, or wagged school.

College was a waste of time. I wagged school. My problems started here. The kids, the teachers and the learning was what made me get into fights. The counsellor said AE would be better. She was the only person who talked to me about my problems. I was just smashing up the school aye, and having fights and things. They (other students) were just shit stirring and I couldn’t take it anymore. I was having problems with learning. I’d just started ‘N’ College as a third former –I kept on swearing at teachers and started to throw things round like scissors. Swore at the principal. [Robert]

Others were expelled for drinking or smoking drugs and cigarettes, sniffing glue, tagging and vandalism. Some, for more serious offences, such as when Tweety tried to burn down the classroom. The following student had done the most serious thing in our cohort:

I was sent here because I was wagging class—not doing well. I threatened the shop-keeper over the road with a machete. Had up on charges—went to Youth Justice for 5 weeks then did 200 hours of community work, cleaning outside of a villa. Parents weren’t too happy. First charge I’ve ever had. That day I had trouble with mum in the morning, and I grabbed the machete on my way out the door, and when my friend got a hiding from the shop-keeper down the road, I pulled out the machete and swung out twice but missed [Jerry]

Fifteen percent of students reported being excluded for truancy issues only, where no violence was involved. There were some cases where the ‘offence’ was seen by the student as unfair, where there had been one incident, with no warnings (Naomi fighting her bullies out of class), and others who said all they did was swear at teachers (Kahlia, Mere). Secondary schools make decisions about keeping and excluding students using principles of natural justice, but to these students there appeared to be little appreciation of how that worked.

The next story illustrates how a student seemed to disappear off a school’s radar for a whole year, without any attempt being made to find out where she was or what help could be given to get her back to school. Mudz is a very bright, intelligent girl who was kept home by her parents to look after her four year old sister for a year, against her wishes. When she returned to school the next year, she was excluded for truancy:

I stayed home for a whole year (2007) looking after my 4 year old sister. Mum and dad had to go to work—don’t know why they didn’t put her in kindergarten. I felt really, really bad because I wanted to go back to school. I begged them to let me do correspondence. The best school I’ve been to was xxxx. I went to two intermediates. Two cool teachers there. I was learning the same rate as other kids. I was happy at school. I wasn’t confident –like speeches in front of the whole class, but I kept up with the other kids in reading and maths. I didn’t have teacher aides, but got some reading recovery help, but then I caught up. So my learning was OK until I took the year off last year. Now I feel real dumb—I feel way behind in my maths now. At least I wasn’t in school and wagging [Mudz].

This student’s parents had made a judgment call that reflected their value system, where the safety and care of a younger child was considered more important than the older child’s education, and where it is likely poverty was a factor in both parents having to return to work. In such a situation, the interests of students should be paramount— in Mudz’s view she had been further penalised for a situation that was beyond her control.

Non-educational interventions

The main non-educational intervention mentioned at secondary school by 30 percent of the students was counselling. About 20% of the students who mentioned having school counselling, said it was not effective for them:

Mum tried to help me lots—she got me lots of counselling but I went thru heaps of counsellors. They were no good—some didn’t want to listen, it was too hard to cope with me, some told my mum they couldn’t take any more [Rose]

Two students hated other students seeing them go for counselling in school time:

I’m getting counselling. I did it thru my social worker -she has set it up and I’ve had one session and it will be useful. At school I had counselling but I didn’t feel comfortable cos people can see you going in and out [Pink].

The social welfare kept visiting me during school hours and I didn’t like it—that got me angry and I kept taking it out on other people. I wasn’t handling it. Started fighting at intermediate school—not primary. I got stood down 4 times. Almost got expelled. Had heaps of counselling here but it wasn’t useful. [Tweety]

Others found their relationships with counsellors false, and the strategies suggested unrealistic:

Counselling –that’s dumb I don’t like it, it makes me angrier—don’t like people asking me hard out personal questions and stuff if I don’t even know them. And they don’t really help. The strategies they give you don’t work—unless you have hard out self control. I’d rather sort it out myself [Superman].

After leaving school at 13 my friends were there for me, we talked, we were in the same situation—our families didn’t approve of us leaving school at such a young age. I was being bullied. Didn’t want to commit suicide. I did counselling, that was supposed to help me and the bully, but they didn’t do anything about that. I didn’t feel I should be talking to someone I didn’t even know, didn’t make sense to me. [ Samantha]

Only four students at secondary school reported positive experiences with counselling help. Tweety’s school counsellor stood up for her at her exclusion meeting; Lush said her school counsellor was cool; Robert’s college counsellor was the only person who talked to him about his problems; and Ace 1 talked about a teacher at intermediate who had assisted with his behaviour, and a college counsellor who supported his change to Alt Ed and worked with his family.

Summary

All but three of the AE students we interviewed had not encountered a good match between their own needs and their experiences at secondary school. The majority of the cohort of students we interviewed was not disengaged from learning before they reached secondary school. A quarter had started to become so at intermediate, but only one had been excluded from intermediate. For almost all of the participants schooling began to unravel soon after entering the secondary sector. For some it was a term, for others a couple of terms and a few survived for a whole year. Most of the students in our cohort were 14–15 years old.

As we have described there were many reasons for this disengagement:

• Many students found secondary schools too big and too impersonal. They described feeling lost and socially disconnected from their friends;
• Others found the size of secondary schools with more students, opened up more possibilities for trouble, peer pressure, bullying, gang fighting, etc.
• They found the constantly changing classrooms and teachers disorientating and destabilising;
• Many thought that their teachers made no attempt to get to know them or try to find out what was causing their problems¹³;
• Most found the work was too hard and above the level they were working at, suggesting that the data from their previous schools had not been used to ensure that teaching was pitched at the appropriate instructional level.
• There was resistance to the limited pedagogical approaches used by secondary teachers, with too much focus on writing;
• Very few students appeared to be offered educational interventions;
• Apart from one rural college, students did not report that there had been strategies/programmes put in place to address their learning and behavioural needs;
• For those identified with emotional or psychological problems, school counsellors were in the main not perceived to be effective¹⁴.
• When students chose to use the only option they had any control over (wagging), there did not appear to be effective systems to intervene quickly before it became a pattern¹⁵.
  

Once the student had exhibited a problem serious enough for the school to exclude or expel them (anti-social behaviour or extended truancy), the disengagement from learning had probably happened at least 3 months to a year earlier (by our calculations). This raises questions about the efficacy of this sector’s ability to do their job of teaching these students. Our data is indicating both a presence and an engagement gap, but that the engagement gap occurs first. Students in our study, disengaged from learning first and then wagged. The schools (apart from one clear example in our study) reportedly failed to notice, or they noticed but did nothing to prevent the disengagement, and they only picked up on the presence problem after extended truancy.

The international literature endorses the fact that engagement is related to connection between the student and the school. As Levin (2007, p.3) points out:

A large amount of research shows that students’ sense of connection to the school is a prime factor in their persistence. Over and over again students who dropped out report feeling that nobody cared or made any attempt to keep them in school; indeed, often they felt encouraged to leave. Similarly, the literature on resilience (e.g. as discussed in Levin, 2004) shows how powerfully students can be affected by even a single adult who they see as believing in and supporting them. No amount of change in curriculum or policy will compensate for school environments that students, especially those with the greatest challenges, find alienating and unsupportive.

Our study also reinforces what previous studies such as Russell Bishop’s (2007) Te Kötahitanga study have told us, about the importance of relationships in learning. He emphasizes the relational aspects of teaching and the importance of this for teachers knowing where students are at in terms of their learning. Our students considered that their teachers did not pick up on their disengagement, which resulted in inaction in relation to putting in place effective interventions to alleviate the disengagement.

The second problem is an organisational or systems level problem, where at the school level there appeared to be ineffective systems in place to identify and stop wagging when it first occurred. The first instances of wagging the students told us about were the first obvious signals that disengagement was becoming serious. Many spoke of asking for help repeatedly from teachers in class when they didn’t understand the work, but being inadequately helped or even just passed over. They reported feeling frustrated, stupid, dumb, helpless and failing. Each successive episode reinforced these feelings leaving them further and further behind, feeling more foolish in front of their peers, and more inadequate. Not turning up for class became a better option for them than having their self esteem damaged further.

 

Footnotes

10. Toe by Toe is a phonetic reading programme mentioned in a Listener (July 5–11) article called “Seizing the day” by Rebecca Macfie. Several students mentioned it being used as a reading intervention in the AE centres.
    
11. In a recent study of Year 9 and 10 students at Linwood High (Christchurch) in 2006, 70% of these students tested for medical (ears, eyes, and aerobic fitness) and dental problems, needed a referral for at least one problem. ( Listener, July 5–11.)
    
12. Another study of alternative education students in New Zealand—the Alternative Education Students Health report (Adolescent Health Research Group—Auckland University, 2002) which came out of the survey “Youth 2000”— focused on health behaviours such as dangerous driving behaviours, violence victimisation, substance use, sexual behaviours, and mental health problems. In this study, students also reported their health as good or excellent, but the study found the majority have had problems getting health care when they need it, for reasons such as costs, not wanting to make a fuss or because they couldn’t be bothered.
13. Our advisory group at Challenge 2000 agreed with this statement whole-heartedly for the majority of secondary teachers, but said there was often one teacher who did make an effort to get to know them, and they added that they did all the school work for that teacher, showing a sense of agency and choice these students used quite discriminately and purposively.
    
14. The Challenge 2000 advisory group added an insight about lack of trust of counsellors especially round issues of confidentiality. Several described how other teachers had been told about their personal details divulged only to the counsellor.
    
15. The Challenge 2000 students said that their schools often did find out they were wagging early on, but that effective interventions were not put in place to get them re-engaged. Instead ineffective and ‘hassling’ types of interventions such as a daily report, or detentions were used to deter them from wagging.