Breaking the cycle:: A phenomenological approach to broadening access to post-secondary education

• Autores: Carmel Cefai, Paul Downes, Valeria Cavioni
• Localización: European journal of psychology of education, ISSN-e 1878-5174, ISSN 0256-2928, Vol. 31, Nº 2, 2016, págs. 255-274
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in post-secondary education participation in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries. This increase, however, does not necessarily reflect a parallel equitable growth in post-secondary education, and early school leaving is still an issue of concern in particular regions and countries across the world. This paper presents a study on increasing participation in post-secondary education in Malta, the country with the one of the highest proportions of early school leaving in the European Union. The study was carried out in a region with one of the highest rates of early school leaving in the country, making use of a phenomenological approach as well as a resilient systems perspective to early school leaving. On the basis of students' narratives, the study identifies a number of risk and protective factors in early school leaving and makes various suggestions on how to build more resilient systems to facilitate access to post-secondary education, particularly for students coming from low socio-economic, excluded backgrounds.