Opinions of teachers and school administrator working in secondary education institutions about the reasons for students' school drop out: A case study

In recent years, students want to leave formal education. The reasons of school drop out and taking measures against them are big importance of carrying out education. This study shows us the thinking of administrators and teachers in high schools about the reasons for dropout and solutions. According to the analysis of the data and the opinions of school administrators and teachers, the reasons for students to drop out of school are as follows; individual, family-related and reasons arising from education system. Individual reasons: Psychological characteristics, cognitive characteristics and emotional characteristics. Psychological characteristics were identified as violent tendencies and addiction, while cognitive characteristics were identified as academic failure. Emotional characteristics are subcategories such as not enough commitment to school and not enough concern for the future, and family-related reasons are identified as socio-economic level of the family, separated mother-father and inadequate family participation in education. Finally, the reasons for dropout due to the education system and policies were showed us as intensity of the curriculum, long school hours, basic deficiency from primary education and low number of social activities. This research is a qualitative research. For this research was used interview method. The reason for choosing qualitative research design is that it enables in-depth investigation of the research topic. In this research, "maximum diversity" sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used. The aim here is not to generalize, but to reveal similarities and differences between diverse situations. Two High schools in Nilüfer district of Bursa province, participated in the study. Interviews were done with 20 administrators and teachers share their views on the causes of school dropout and solutions. The research had been done in the 2022-2023 academic year. With this study, the reasons for school dropouts in secondary education institutions from the perspectives of administrators and teachers were developed solution suggestions. Keywords: school dropout, absenteeism, open education high school