A study of four student pushouts from the perspective of four sociological theories

This study explored the process by which students were pushed out from the regular public education classroom, whether because of behavioral misdeeds or because of a mismatch between student and school organization. An in-depth retrospective educational life history, elicited by informal conversational interviews, described the student perspective concerning how they experienced "school."

Each of the four students selected were represented by a narrative written from his/her "meaning perspective" reporting key events in their personal lives that affected their learning experience in school. The key events were from the wider social context, including family, peer group, community, migration, and work place. The "distorting lens" of the student was accepted as the student's reality on which he/she based decisions for social interaction at school. The past experience of the pushout affected the way in which the student interacted.

Besides the presentation of data in the form of four student narratives, the data were pooled and analyzed for emerging themes.

The three major themes described are: (1) prevalence of alcohol and drugs, (2) peer groups and gangs as influence, and (3) perceived teacher favoritism tied to a hidden curriculum of social status. A final conclusion was that key events, in the form of emotional stressors from a wider social context, interfered with a student's in-school learning. Of major importance was that the key events reported were non-curricular in nature.

The study described patterns of leaving school as well as a description of the student's place in a wider social context that produced stress factors affecting school performance. Most of the stress factors infiltrated school organization from the outside.