The Process of Leaving School and Meaning of Schooling: The Case of Turkish School Leavers in Germany

Germany is still among the countries where school performance is closely linked to the students social backgrounds. The proportion of school leavers among children of immigrants is almost two and a half times higher than their German counterparts. Most research points to the disadvantaged backgrounds and/or cultural frames of the immigrant children as reasons for leaving school. While providing valuable insights into what might cause leaving school, these explanations, however, do not explain how students leave school. Therefore, the present study focuses, with qualitative interviews and ethnography, on a group of Turkish school leavers as a case study in order to understand, from their perspectives, the process by which they disengaged from school over time. The findings point out regular interactions of students with structural limitations, common stigmatizing practices and social-psychological frustrations. These commonalities are used for the theoretical description of the disengagement model. Additionally, the findings also strikingly show that the Turkish school leavers damn self-seeking, competition and egoism as pro-school attitudes and consider Germanness in relation to such values, whereas they praise collectivity, brotherhood, cooperation and solidarity and relate Turkishness to these values. For the emergence of such common perceptions, which has a strong detrimental effect on the way schooling is seen, the data points out the structural limitations embedded in family, neighborhood and school practices.