Teachers are students' first contact in the classroom and the ones with whom they experience their relationships most intensely after those with their own classmates. Relationships with teachers and their actions in the classroom are of great relevance in how students develop their careers. Young people at risk of exclusion, which has been…

Early School Leaving (ESL) as an important societal issue has been a matter of debate in policy making for 30 years. But the differences in students' experiences have often been neglected, leading to a one-size fits all policy and pedagogical approach. This paper explores educational experiences of dropouts in England, Denmark and Hungary, and…

In Germany about half of the adult learners who start second chance education drop out before graduation. In this paper we aim to contribute to an explanation for this low success rate. We focus on the normative expectations of learners: What are their expectations concerning teachers' attention to their personal abilities, teacher support and the…

Dropout from upper secondary education in Iceland is higher than in the neighboring countries, but varied options to re-enter school have also been on offer. This article focuses on how students, who had returned to a selected upper secondary school after having quit in one or more other schools, benefited from an innovative pedagogical approach…

Re-engaging young adults who have "dropped out" of school is an important and challenging task for educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices that encourage young people to re-engage in further learning. Through interviews with teachers and students, the study identified five major interrelated teaching…

The purpose of this qualitative research study is two-fold: (1) to narrate the realities and perspectives of adult students' learning experiences in a General Education Development (GED) preparation program in a Mid-western urban city; and (2) to document the thinking of the former director of adult education at the state level to understand the…

The following papers are included: "Schoolhouse in the Factory: The Phenomenology of Literacy" (Berlin); "The Self-Directed Learning Projects of Employed, Married Mothers" (Boyce); "The Forever Plan: Adult Men Who Continue in Postsecondary Education Compared with Those Who Drop Out" (Brown); "Burnout and Associated Factors among…