ERIC Number: EJ1143569
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jun
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0141-1926
EISSN: N/A
Promoting Gypsy Children's Behavioural Engagement and School Success: Evidence from a Four-Wave Longitudinal Study
Rosário, Pedro; Núñez, José Carlos; Vallejo, Guillermo; Azevedo, Raquel; Pereira, Raquel; Moreira, Tânia; Fuentes, Sonia; Valle, Antonio
British Educational Research Journal, v43 n3 p554-571 Jun 2017
Low schooling, high non-attendance and school dropout rates are critical phenomena within disadvantaged groups, especially among the Gypsy community. For example, in the UK, 10%-25% of Gypsy children do not attend school regularly and have significantly higher levels of overall absence from school (percentage of half-day sessions missed) than pupils from other ethnic groups. In Portugal, available data on Gypsy children is sparse, yet data from one geographic region of the country reports high school failure (45%) and dropout rates (15%) among this population. The present study assessed the efficacy of a four-year intervention to promote Gypsy children's behavioural engagement and school success. Gypsy communities were contacted and 30 children participating in the four waves were randomly distributed into control and experimental groups. Every school day throughout four years, 16 children in the experimental group were called at home and invited to go to school. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated in four waves (at the end of each of the four school years), assessing behavioural engagement (i.e. school non-attendance, classroom behaviour) and school achievement (i.e. mathematics achievement, student progression). Findings show the efficacy of the intervention on promoting behaviour engagement and academic success without devaluing Gypsy people's culture.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Access to Education, Attendance Patterns, Dropouts, Indigenous Populations, Program Effectiveness, Intervention, Dropout Rate, Learner Engagement, Success, Randomized Controlled Trials, Comparative Analysis, Academic Achievement, Cultural Influences, Student School Relationship, Longitudinal Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Portugal; United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A