Year: 2024
Type: editorial
Abstract: Since the invention of schools (Elliott, Ravitch, Grant, Snyder, & Sonnenberg), work on attendance has centered on benefits and harm (Ceci & Williams, 1997), both within and outside of educational settings versus what was learned in schools (Hanushek, Jamison, Jamison, & Woessmann). The focus has largely been on understanding the links between attendance and learning outcomes (Elliott, Ravitch, Grant, Snyder, & Sonnenberg) as opposed to the people, their health conditions, their racial and ethnic disparities, interventions across school types, and the data for reconfigurations at systemic and analytic levels.Despite existing efforts, high rates of absenteeism continue to influence adolescents (LeBoeuf, et al., 2023) and concerns have been raised among preschool students (Purtell & Ansari, 2022). We may learn a lot from Kearney and colleagues' (2022) primer on the field's past and future trajectory to help us to evaluate our present.We must critically reflect on our own practices if we are to be knowledge stewards and carers of our students and schools and those working within and around them. Using umbrella systematic review (Jay, et al., 2023), machine learning (Bowen, et al., 2022), quasi-experimental evaluation (Arbour, et al., 2023), and conceptual and trend analysis 44 researchers, included in this special issue, assessed the field's current status. The scholars pointed to glaring reasons for a needed reflective pause. They examined the status of students from preschool to college (Korotchenko & Dobbs, 2023), from early childhood (Purtell & Ansari, 2022) to adulthood and shared a threaded story of what is happening and why we are now at a critical juncture (Heyne, et al., 2024).Our Frontiers special topic aimed to 'pause' for critical assessment of the knowledge in the field of attendance and absenteeism by including the ideas for change of the world's leading experts and trailblazers. These 44 scholars studying in 21 fields of study ranging from Education, Psychology, Social Work, and Sociology to Early Childhood, Health, Mental Health, Medicine, Business, Criminal Justice, and Data Analytics via 13 manuscripts across 10 countries (USA and the UK to Chile, Norway, Spain, and Finland) offered thoughtful and calibrated directions for the future science and practice of school attendance. We invite your own careful reading of the papers, but here follow the main ideas: IdeasAddressing the ideas for change requires removing old categorizations and processes and using modern approaches (Kearney & Gonzalvez, 2022), like machine learning, multi-tiered systems of support (Kearney & Graczyk, 2022), and data tracking to expose hidden factors influencing attendance. Using a tried but true cliché: it is a call to think outside the box!When taken together, the findings from this special issue suggest we needed to recalibrate (Heyne, et al., 2024), especially after the COVID-19 pandemic (Havik & Ingul, 2022). Recalibration was overdue. We need assessment to shore up broken systems and support all students irrespective of how they accessed learning (e.g., homeschooling, special education, Montessori or other), but we need to include teachers too (Havik & Ingul, 2022).Unlearning has two parts. The first to 'Un.' To undo, to stop, to pause. The second, the verb, learn. To gain knowledge, to revise or realign knowledge. We have tried to do both in this collection of articles offering guidance for future exploration in the study of attendance and absenteeism.As editors, we have brought to light the core of the work on school attendance and absenteeism, and why it remains central. The numerous analyses presented here reflect the basic premise that schooling and attendance remain critical for belonging and emotional stability, and engagement in the learning process inside the school context. Missing school disrupts this continuity, leading to gaps. A void unreplaceable in any other environment.###
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,295
OpenAlex ID: W4393479844