Friday, March 11, 2016 at 12:30 p.m.
Room 200, Graduate Student Center (6371 Crescent Road), UBC Point Grey Campus
Title: Former Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of their Alternative Education Experiences: A Narrative Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Nancy Perry (HDLC)
Supervisory Committee: Dr. Deborah Butler (HDLC) and Dr. Richard Young (CNPS)
University Examiners: Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (HDLC) and Dr. Theresa Rogers (LLED)
External Examiner: Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim (Texas Tech University)
ABSTRACT
Distressing numbers of North American youth are disengaging from school, dropping out, and engaging in high risk behaviour. In an attempt to keep struggling youth in school and out of trouble, they are often being placed in a growing number of alternative education programs (AEPs). However, few studies have identified effective practices within AEPs, which has impeded the creation of a set of optimal characteristics that may be applied to these programs in general. To address this paucity of research, I examined characteristics of AEPs that former students perceived to be effective. Two semi-structured narrative interviews were conducted with six participants who attended four different AEPs. All participants were female—no males volunteered to participate. The first research interview captured participants’ perspectives on their experiences at the AEPs generally. The second focused on their perceptions of whether and how characteristics of the AEPs addressed their needs and were linked to outcomes both during and after they attended the programs. Holistic-content analyses identified themes within and across cases. Interviews with former teachers and document analyses provided additional contextual information. The former AEP student participants described characteristics of the AEPs they attended that they perceived addressed their unique and varied social, emotional, and academic needs and facilitated their success, not only while they were attending, but beyond their time at the AEPs. Analyses of their interviews revealed seven predominant themes: relationships with a key teacher and with other students; counselling services; the identification, use, and development of personal strengths; flexibility and structure in the organization of academic learning; life skills learning; exercising control over the goings-on and culture at the AEP; and a homelike physical set-up. My study contributes to the promising new field of research investigating the effects of alternative education (AE) practices from the perspective of students. This approach contrasts previous research that has largely ignored the perspectives of these key stakeholders. I present a view that AEPs can be positive contexts to support some youth-at-risk, countering prevailing negative conceptions of AEPs. In fact, these programs appear to be an alternative essential to the success of some youth.