Approaches to Improving School Attendance: Insights From Australian Principals

Abstract

School absenteeism has been concerning educators in the Global North (including Australia) as research suggests a relationship between school attendance, academic achievement and subsequent life chances. This paper focuses on the perspectives of 50 school leaders in Queensland, Australia about approaches to improving attendance. Strategies reflected the cultural, economic and social diversity of their school communities. In general, quality curricula and pedagogies were considered important, but were not explicitly linked to attendance. This suggests the need for schools to develop strategies to enhance student engagement in meaningful learning through quality curricula and pedagogies within a positive school environment.

Teachers' orientations to educational research and data in England and Australia: implications for teacher professionalism

“…Teachers (and principals) are expected to analyse these data to change classroom practice, sanction or praise students, or introduce school-wide reforms (see e.g. Stevenson, 2017, Mills et al, 2019. However, this limited understanding of data precludes engagement with rich forms of data that can emerge from well thought out research and inquiry into practice.…”