School attendance problems (SAPs) have received increased attention internationally in recent years; however, there are still few qualitative studies that explore attendance promotion from the perspective of young people with such experiences and who have managed to increase their attendance. This study contributes by focusing on six young people's experiences of and perspectives on pathways to increased attendance and support related to SAPs in Sweden. Qualitative interviews were conducted with young people with experiences of SAPs, and a thematic analysis was conducted. The results reveal that a combination of relational (informal) and formal support, mainly in the social and learning environment in school, but also from actors outside school, stood out as helpful in increasing their attendance. The young people emphasized that schools should listen to them, understand, offer inclusive support and hope in order to promote attendance. The results might be understood in light of recognition theory by stressing the significance of individual recognition in school in order to promote attendance and that SAPs might be understood as a way for young people to protect themselves from a lack of recognition in different spheres within the school context.

This article contributes to understanding school attendance during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and Sweden. Sweden presents a unique European case, as compulsory schools largely remained open with only brief closures, while Germany, opted for extended school closures. This study explores how changes in lower secondary students’ attendance – and schools’ efforts to support attendance – can be understood in relation to each country’s education and welfare systems, and their policy decisions during the pandemic. Focus-group interviews were conducted with school personnel in both countries and analysed by an international research team. The findings suggest that the pandemic and the measures implemented in schools affected students’ opportunities, challenges and willingness to attend school regularly. The described experiences highlighted how consequences varied across student groups, including those in different school grades, with differing access to digital tools, special educational needs (SEN) or previous school attendance problems (SAPs).

School attendance problems (SAPs) are a growing concern worldwide, particularly among students with social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties (SEBD), who are at elevated risk of school-related stress and disengagement. While much research has focused on the factors contributing to SAPs, effectively addressing these challenges requires insights into the viewpoints of those most affected and involved in school. This qualitative study explores commonalities and differences in the perspectives of students and school-based professionals regarding prevention-focused supports and interventions for SAPs related to SEBD across levels of support. Data were collected through focus groups with school-based professionals and individual interviews with students aged 15-16 in alternative and special education settings in Saxony (Germany). Qualitative content analysis was used to identify key support strategies and elements, which were then mapped across the levels of the Multi-Dimensional Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MD-MTSS) framework. The findings reveal that trust-based relationships, coordinated school-based care, flexible learning pathways, and clear communication were central strategies identified by both groups. At the same time, differences emerged at the level of intensive interventions. Professionals emphasized legal and procedural responses, while students stressed the need for emotionally responsive environments, reduced academic pressure, and having a voice in shaping their own reintegration process. The study underscores the value of participatory, context-sensitive approaches that integrate learning and mental health support to strengthen well-being and promote school attendance, especially among students with SEBD.

Introduction: School attendance problems (SAPs) affect both the education and development of young learners. There is a need to better understand what supports are needed to overcome and prevent SAPs from students’ perspectives. The aim of the current study is to explore students’ perspectives on what challenges they faced, and what they perceived as helpful in overcoming attendance challenges on their pathways towards completing their education.

Method: We conducted interviews with students (n = 9) in a local comprehensive school (Stadtteilschule) in the city-state Hamburg in Germany. Students were in their final year before obtaining a certificate that qualifies them for possible admission to post-secondary education. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: Findings show that students experienced complex challenges to school attendance that were associated with emotional distress, negative school experiences, and reduced well-being. Our findings point to common protective mechanisms in students’ perceptions of what helped them overcome SAPs. The key drivers of school attendance are located within students and their social contexts, including personal resilience, supportive relationships at school, and the social environment.

Discussion: Based on students’ views, we present a model that illustrates the interconnectedness of perceived challenges and supports in the function of risk and protective factors moving across ecological systems in the development of SAPs. We highlight how these areas can guide prevention and intervention to support students in successfully completing their education and transitioning into multiple post-secondary pathways.

This article explores which students–with regard to gender, socio-economic background and migration background–skip school in Germany, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK) according to PISA data. Students who skip school are observed in many countries, but there is not much systematic research that studies this across countries. Comparable data is to a large extent missing. PISA data offers an opportunity to use comparable data. In PISA, students were asked in 2018, 2015 and 2012 whether they had skipped school a whole day in the last two weeks prior to their completion of the PISA student questionnaire. Patterns of how absence relates to sociodemographic factors vary in countries and school systems. In the comparison between the four countries the UK stands out as having a higher percentage of students who have reported that they have skipped school than in the other countries. This does not seem to be related to any specific group of students. Japan also stands out with a lower percentage of students who have reported that they have skipped school. According to PISA data, skipping school is more related to socio-economic background than any other of the variables studied. The socio-economic background seems to be related to skipping school in all three PISA studies in Sweden and the UK. Gender seems not to be an important factor in the four countries. In Sweden and Germany there is a lower percentage of non-immigrant students who report that they have skipped school than first-and second-generation immigrant students. In the UK the figures are more ambiguous. When the percentages of students skipping school are compared over time and in the countries, it is difficult to find any trends, but the data only covered three measurements during a period of six years, which may be too short a time span to see trends.

There is growing concern in many countries about school absenteeism with its wide range of topics and challenges. International comparative studies on school attendance are rare. Methods, actors’ perspectives, theoretical stance and approaches to comparison also vary in the field. We want to shed new light on school attendance, absenteeism, and prevention for counteracting related problems. We propose new research questions to the study of attendance, absenteeism, and preventive measures in international and comparative research.

There is general consensus on the negative consequences of school non-attendance, but from an international comparative perspective, it is surprising how few studies have compared school attendance problems (SAPs) in different societies and education systems. In this article, SAPs are analysed through the lens of official statistics in four countries with different education systems: England, Japan, Germany (represented by two federal states), and Sweden. The purpose of this article is to investigate which data on school attendance and absence are available in four different countries and to facilitate a comparison between school attendance statistics and possibly different conceptualisations of SAPs. The article analyses statistics and official data collected by national school authorities and education agencies. Backgrounds within systems are provided and differences between the countries are analysed. England and Japan provide official data to the public on a regular basis, while Sweden and most federal states in Germany do not. A lower threshold for how much absence is considered problematic is found for Japan, England, and Thuringia (one of the investigated German federal states) compared to Sweden and Berlin (the other German federal state under study). Due to differences in recording and reporting school attendance, it is not possible to compare the quantitative extent of the problem or trends regarding SAPs across the four countries based on the available official school statistics.

School absenteeism is a challenge in many countries. Still, there are few comparisons between countries, which is partly due to a lack of shared definitions of concepts. This article makes use of PISA data to compare self-reported student absenteeism in Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (UK). Three data sets are used, from 2012, 2015, and 2018. The self-reported absenteeism, which is referred to as truancy in the PISA studies, was measured as having skipped a whole school day at least once in the two full weeks before students completed the PISA student questionnaire.

The results show great variation between the studied countries, from 24.4% in the UK in 2015 to 1.5% in Japan in 2012. The percentage of students who reported having skipped school is much higher in the UK than in the other three countries. The differences between the countries concerning the percentage of students reporting having been absent from school are significant for all years, except between Sweden and Germany in 2015. Germany and the UK have a similar pattern in development, with the highest percentages in 2015, while Sweden and Japan have small (albeit not significant) increases from 2012 to 2018. The UK is the only country where the changes between 2012 and 2015 as well as between 2015 and 2018 were significant.

It is not possible to see any obvious patterns between the countries that might be linked to differences related to their welfare regimes, education systems, or values. To find such patterns, it may be necessary either to include more countries in a study or to conduct more in-depth studies on each country.

This presentation builds on an international comparative project on school attendance problems (SAPs) in four different countries: Sweden, Germany, England and Japan. The aim of this project was to examine national, organisational and individual dimensions of school attendance problems among 15- to 17-year-old students. We will present results of this project funded by the Swedish Research Council and discuss some of the challenges we encountered during our research process. The study, planned in 2018, aimed to explore different perspectives on schooling and SAPs, as we could understand from the international research literature that problem descriptions and practices differed between research communities and stakeholders. However, the pandemic impacted our research opportunities and the results of our international case studies have been overshadowed by the new reality during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. School systems reacted differently: in some countries, schools were closed for long periods, while in others, schools stayed mostly open. Based on case studies with expert interviews and focus groups revolving around support structures for young people with SAPs in different national and regional contexts, we will discuss how – according to stakeholders at school – the pandemic may have impacted students' opportunities, challenges and willingness to attend school regularly. In summary, regardless of the strategies chosen by education authorities, the COVID-19 pandemic has left scars that are relevant to well-being and regular school attendance. Schools need to take this into account when working with prevention and intervention measures for school attendance. 

Hur kan lärarutbildningen arbeta systematiskt med att förbereda studenterna för deras uppgift att agera och undervisa för ett jämlikt samhälle? Denna fråga har ställts i många samhällen länder och inte minst i Sverige. Alla universitetsutbildningar har ett uppdrag att jämställdhetsintegrera sin verksamhet och Högskoleverket har sedan länge arbetat med frågor kring jämställdhet. Syftet med detta kapitel är att bidra med kunskap om hur ett systematiskt arbete med jämställdhetsintegrering i högre utbildningar och framför allt i lärarutbildningar kan etableras. För att uppnå detta studerade jag hur grundlärarprogram (årskurs 4– 6) vid 20 olika lärosäten har – inom ramen för granskningar som UKÄ genomfört – beskrivit att de arbetar med jämställdhet i sina utbildningar. I kapitlet presenterar jag en analys av hur olika lärarutbildningar beskriver sitt eget arbete med att inkludera ett jämställdhetsperspektiv i sina utbildningar. Texten vänder sig till kollegor i högre utbildning som till exempel funderar över hur lärosäten kan utveckla och redovisa sitt arbete med att ålägga ett genus- och jämställdhetsperspektiv på sin utbildning eller som helt enkelt undrar hur det de gör är i linje med vad andra gör. Kapitlet har därmed en praktisk ingång i frågan om hur ett jämställdhetsarbete kan realiseras, men det innehåller även ett kritiskt analyserande inslag om möjliga fallgropar och problem som kan finnas i det arbete som beskrivs i utvärderingsrapporterna.