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Parents´ and students´ attitudes to truancy
VESECKÁ, Nela
Truancy is a behavioural disorder characterized by the student wilfully staying away from school without permission or appropriate excuse. The student's absence is always excused by the teacher rather than by one of the student's parents, upon a written request of the student's legal representative (if he or she is a minor), or the student himself/herself (if he/she is of age), and invariably in accordance with the school's rules. Truancy is a serious offence; the student intentionally avoids compulsory school attendance, thus violating not only the school's rules, but also the Education Act. The socio-pathological phenomenon mentioned above is not a rare occurrence in today's school practice, having become commonplace in both elementary and secondary education. Owing to its serious nature, topicality and potential negative impacts, it merits a deeper examination. The present bachelor thesis, Attitudes of Parents and Students to Truancy, attempts to identify views of today's ninth-grade students of elementary schools on truancy-related problems by means of an analysis of different components of their attitudes. Its objective is therefore to map opinions, emotional reactions and behavioural trends of the students with respect to the object of the attitude. At the same time, it outlines how the students perceive the attitudes of their parents to the same problem. The work is divided into two principal parts. The theoretical part summarises existing knowledge on truancy-related problems. The first chapter deals with truancy in general, presenting relevant terms and definitions. Subsequent chapters are dedicated, in particular, to the typology of truancy, a detailed analysis of different causes of truancy, available solutions, and last but not least very important prevention of the socio-pathological phenomenon. The empirical part is based on a qualitative survey; a semi-structured interview technique was used to collect the data needed to meet the objective of the thesis. The respondents were pupils of the "Vltava" Elementary School in České Budějovice, who were interviewed, after their grades had been closed, using a set of questions based on the objective of the work and prepared in advance. The survey shows that today's ninth-grade students harbour mainly negative attitudes to truancy. They deny they would intentionally stay away from school, although most of them admit they often fake health problems to be able to stay home and avoid school. The paradoxical attitude is attributable to the fact that the students do not have any information on types of truancy and that they are not aware of potential consequences of the phenomenon, thus not knowing that even faking health problems qualifies as truancy. Furthermore, the survey has confirmed that parents' attitudes to truancy are negative as well, although they often support the socio-pathological phenomenon by allowing their offspring to stay at home without a serious reason at the time they should be at school. The reason is that they too are unaware of consequences of their acts. It should be noted that the results of the survey may be skewed to a substantial extent, as attitudes to truancy are affected by many factors. The bachelor thesis aims to present a comprehensive view on truancy-related issues. The results of the survey it presents could be made use of by teachers and educators who encounter the socio-pathological phenomenon in their everyday work, as well as by parents or general public interested in the topic.
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