Staying in school, not dropping out - pupils' voices

Abstract

This article asks: <i>What can highly motivated pupils in upper secondary school tell us about dropout and relations?</i> Bauman’s concepts: ‘liquid identity’ (2011) and ‘instant living’ (2012), as well as literature on ‘relations’ (Spurkeland, 2011; Drugli, 2012) provide the theoretical backdrop for the study. The findings are based on nine individual interviews with pupils, each lasted approximately one hour. They share their thoughts, beliefs and experiences relating to school days, workloads, relations to others, school subjects and dropout. The study shows that also highly motivated pupils do think about dropping out from school, and they present ways to establish relations in class, both inter-personally and in school-subject settings.