Re-engaging Students in Education: Success Factors in Alternative Schools

Abstract

The central question that this research has addressed is: How do 'alternative' schools attempt to meet the needs of young people disengaged from the mainstream schooling sector? Within Queensland there are a number of 'alternative' schools that seek to meet the needs of young people whose interests have not been met by the mainstream schooling sector. These schools are of varying types. This project was concerned with those schools that seek to cater to the needs of young people who are unlikely to return to the mainstream sector for various reasons. Such schools contrast with special centres set up to cater to young people suspended and expelled from school and that have as their purpose returning the young person to a regular school. The focus of this research was therefore on schools that were not so much concerned with changing the student, but instead concentrated on changing the environment and the kinds of teaching and learning that young people engage in. Many of the young people attending these schools do so because there are no mainstream schools that will accept them and/or because they are unwilling to conform to the expectations of such schools. For such young people, these alternative schools have become a place that meets not only their academic needs, but also their social and emotional needs. The research was conduced for Youth Affairs Network Queensland (YANQ), the peak body for youth organisations in Queensland, who, in conjunction with the researchers, was interested in determining the extent to which these alternative schools were able to engage young people, who have been failed by the mainstream sector. The project was concerned with the following issues in respect to these centres: funding, students, environment, curriculum, pedagogy, post-schooling pathways, and staffing. A key aspect of this project was thus to determine the kinds of support such schools need in order to maintain a service to young people that is not being met elsewhere. Alternative schools play an important role in the catering to the educational needs, academic and social, of young people disengaged from mainstream schooling sectors. However, some alternative schools may provide a warm and caring environment, but fail to break the cycle of reproduction of academic disadvantage. Thus, the project also considered how alternative schools can develop practices that break this cycle. Whilst these alternative schools meet the needs of some of the most marginalised young people in society, there are also other young people in mainstream schools who are disengaged from the learning process and have very little connection to their school. There is much that mainstream schools can learn from 'successful' alternative schools in order to provide an education that caters to a wide range of students.