Quo vadis education? A qualitative longitudinal study in early school leaving

According to the European Commission there are presently around six million early school leavers in Europe, which means that in the European Union every sixth 18-24-year-old has only compulsory education. Today early school leavers are more than other groups at risk of unemployment with its consequences of poverty, diseases, and deviance. Numerous quantitative surveys have examined the causes of early school leaving, but there are only a few qualitative studies that have reconstructed both the dropouts’ problems and exclusion histories and their coping strategies. The qualitative study “Quo vadis education?” wants to close this gap and to contribute to a deeper understanding of early school leavers’ social reality. The contents-analytical evaluation of the empirical data uses “habitus hermeneutics” with the aim of improving the types that have already been reconstructed and of establishing new types.