The investigation of school-dropout at the secondary level of formal education: the stated reasons by the school administrators and school counselors: a preliminary study

The subject of this preliminary study was to investigate the stated reasons of school dropout at the secondary level of formal education. The researcher investigated this issue from two viewpoints. One is the viewpoint of the school administrators and the other is that of the school counselors. This was a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were done with the administrators and counselors of 19 schools in Istanbul. The data were collected by the undergraduate students in the guidance and psychological counseling department of a private university and by the researcher himself. The schools were selected by the researcher among the schools which have the highest dropout rates in Istanbul. And then the ones the data collecting individuals would conveniently access were visited. The aim was to collect opinions of two important actors of the school institution about the dropout issue and to bring the dropout related themes to light. The dropout related factors were attributed to the students, families, teachers, educational system, and elementary school applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved