Empirical research has shown that children’s and adolescents’ motivation and attitudes toward school significantly decline over time. This can lead to school alienation.
The phenomenon of school alienation can be described by the following processes:
- negative attitudes toward learning at school
- lack of belonging to school
- devaluing of school education
- unwillingness to go to school
These processes influence not only short-term educational outcomes, such as students’ academic success, but they can also have a long-term impact on students’ attitudes toward learning processes and educational institutions in general.
A binational research project, School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg (SASAL), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), was started at the University of Bern (Institute for Educational Science, Department of School and Teaching Research) in autumn 2015. The goal of this longitudinal study is to investigate the nature, precursors, and causes of school alienation.
The questionnaire is administered among primary (grades 4 – 6) and secondary school students (grades 7 – 9) in order to investigate their subjective attitudes and educational experiences toward school and learning once a year in the period between spring 2016 and spring 2018. In addition, 6th and 7th grade students as well as their teachers will participate in group discussions, to assess their subjective perspectives and attitudes toward the transition from primary to secondary education.
The aim of the SASAL project is to reveal precursors and causes of school alienation. The findings from the SASAL project will contribute to the development of prevention and intervention strategies to decrease student alienation from school.
