Relational Analysis of the Phenomenon of Early School Leaving: A Habitus Typology

Although there is an extensive body of literature on the causes and consequences of early school leaving (ESL), little is known of how early school leavers cope with their situation after having left the education system. This paper's main objective is to fill this research gap. At first we look at developments in the social positioning of early school leavers in Austria that show that their situation has deteriorated not only because of changes in the labour market (e.g. due to globalization) but also because of displacement processes that are influenced by habitus formation and capital endowment. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital, we explored the situation of young people who had left school early. We used a multi-perspective approach and conducted 123 narrative interviews which we analysed by grouping cases that demonstrated similar social practice and perception patterns generated by a set of socially learned dispositions. Thus we were able to reconstruct a habitus typology consisting of seven different types: the "ambitious", the "status-oriented", the "non-conformist", the "disoriented", the "resigned", the "escapist" and the "caring". How young people experience stigmatization is the common thread that runs through all seven habitus types

Education Policies Concerning Early School Leaving in Austria

This paper deals with the key issues of early school leaving and youth unemployment in Europe and takes a look at the causes and consequences of these problems. A summary of relevant early school leaving statistics and research studies which describe the situation in Austria is presented. Measures and initiatives to reduce early school leaving that have been implemented in Austria since the Lisbon 2000 Strategy are discussed along with the questions of whether, and if so which, EU policy documents have influenced Austrian measures to tackle early school leaving. The conclusion critically sums up the following relevant results: although many of the policies recommended by the EU have been implemented in Austria, many preventive measures are also still outstanding. These include, for example, the continued lack of (tertiary level) training for kindergarten teachers and the failure to introduce comprehensive schools. The call for the latter was not met by Austrias' introduction of so-called new middle schools, a workaround which has not led to a reduction in social inequalities in educational pathways. The supra-company apprenticeship training concept is a positive development, since it reaches some of the countrys' early school leavers. (authors' abstract