Young People’s Stories of School Failure and Remedial Trajectories – Clues to Prevention of School Absenteeism and Early School Leaving

Abstract This article aims to increase knowledge of ways to counter school absenteeism and early school leaving. It analyses stories of youths who either attended or probably would be referred to a Swedish remedial program because of failure to complete compulsory education. Histories of school absenteeism were frequent in both groups. Most participating students reported that a holistic approach, individually adapted support, and a respectful socio-emotional environment helped them to regain self-esteem and school motivation. The findings indicate essential factors for prevention of school absenteeism and early school leaving.


Introduction and Aim
Approximately ten percent of young people in the European Union fail to complete lower secondary education, and the shares are even higher for youths with a history of problematic school absenteeism (Ripamonti, 2018).Young people distancing themselves from school through problematic school absenteeism or dropout currently belong to the most urgent social problems at local to European levels, as school completion at least at upper secondary level has proved to be a crucial precondition for labor market establishment and social inclusion (e.g., Lorentzen et al., 2019).
There is a growing body of research on prevention of school absenteeism (Keppens & Spruyt, 2020), and (to a lesser extent), interventions for re-integrating students with problematic absenteeism into mainstream classes (Brouwer-Borghuis et al., 2019;Nouwen et al., 2016).Commonly, however, interventions do not exclusively address youths with problematic school absenteeism, but also others who for various reasons leave or are at risk of leaving school early.This applies to the "Individual Alternative" (IA), a Swedish remedial program catering for students who leave compulsory education with large knowledge deficits and weak motivation (The Swedish National Agency of Education [SNAE], 2022a).Despite a lack of relevant statistics, there is good reason to suppose that the IA is a major recipient of youths with problematic school absenteeism in compulsory school.This supposition has been corroborated by interviews with teachers and career counselors in the research project that provided the foundations of this article. 1We believe that stories of the youths themselves may provide valuable insights regarding measures for handling problematic school absenteeism and early school leaving (ESL).Here we firstly focus on the youth's experiences of not qualifying for a 3-year upper secondary program, associated with deviation from the "normal trajectory," and secondly on attending the IA.

Disposition
The next section of this article outlines the Swedish context, including the Introductory program (IP) which has four parts (the IA and three others).Next, we present the aim of the study and the specific research questions addressed.We then briefly summarize international research on problematic transitions, as well as programs designed to prevent or reduce school absence and ESL.This is followed by sections on the article's theoretical approach and method.A major part of the article is devoted to our findings regarding: youths' experiences of referral to the IA (or risks of such referral) through insufficient grades due to school absenteeism and other problems, supportive and non-supportive aspects of the IA, and experiences of IA in retrospect after moving on from it.The final section is devoted to our conclusions and a discussion of our findings' contributions to knowledge of approaches to counteract school absenteeism and ESL, in relation to the theoretical framework and previous international studies.

The Swedish Educational Context
From the 1960s into the 1980s, Swedish primary and secondary education were characterized by comprehensiveness, little streaming, and in international terms a high degree of educational equality, enabled by strong and detailed state governance.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Swedish education system was subject both to extensive decentralization and deregulation, and market-oriented school choice reforms, including substantial increases in local autonomy and responsibilities.The combination of decentralization and marketization of education has resulted in growing inequalities between municipalities and schools in terms of student composition and results (Alexiadou et al., 2019), as well as considerable local variations in special needs education and other support.According to Swedish legislation, children should be included in the mainstream school as far as possible.In 2022/23, only 2 percent of all compulsory school students received special support in separate groups or individually (SNAE, 2023).
In the 2010s, an intensive wave of reforms of Swedish compulsory and upper secondary education introduced changes including earlier grading, more extensive national testing, and a new standards-based and performance-oriented curriculum (Wahlstr€ om & Sundberg, 2015).Students with special education needs were placed in increasingly competitive mainstream schools and classrooms without sufficient adjustments or special needs support (H€ ogberg & Lindgren, 2023).School-related stress increased, and academic self-esteem and wellbeing decreased (H€ ogberg et al., 2021).Reported feelings of exclusion, loneliness, and non-belonging increased dramatically after 2010, especially among low-achieving students, students from working-class backgrounds, and foreign-born students (H€ ogberg & Lindgren, 2023).This development is highly relevant to the focal groups of students in this article.

Transition from Compulsory to Upper Secondary Education. The Introductory Program
Almost all young Swedes enroll in upper secondary school, which offers 18 three-year national (vocational and higher education preparatory) programs and the Introductory Program (IP).The vocational programs may include apprenticeship training, and "apprenticeship-oriented training" can also be included in the IP.A large share of young people leaving compulsory school lack eligibility for a 3-year program in Sweden À 15 percent of all 9 th graders in 2021/22 -and hence face a critical transition to upper secondary education.This high level, compared to levels in similar countries (Schmid, 2020), has been attributed to relatively strict admission rules and high numbers of newly arrived migrants (Holmlund et al., 2020).
Between 1994 and 2011 young people who had not completed compulsory education were referred to the Individual Program and since 2011 they have been referred to its successor, the Introductory Program.A major aim of both these programs has been to help non-completers of compulsory school and newly arrived youths acquire eligibility for upper secondary education (USE) and/or become prepared for work.Unlike remedial programs in most other countries, the IP is positioned at upper secondary level (Olofsson, 2016).The IP has four tracks: the Individual Alternative, Language Introduction, Vocational Preparation, and Program-Oriented Choice.IP attendance is optional, but in practice completion of USE is required for most entrance jobs, so the IP is a standard stepping-stone for 16-year-olds with incomplete compulsory education, almost all of whom attend an IP for at least one year.The students and their parents are usually informed about the IP by career counselors in compulsory school.IP students can transit to a 3-year national program before they are 20 years old, or to adult "second chance" education thereafter, as Swedish legislation does not allow students to begin a national USE program at this age.
In 2022, the IP catered for 17 percent of all beginners in USE, and of the four IP programs the Individual Alternative catered for the highest share, approximately 6.5 percent of all first-year USE students (SNAE, 2022b).Passing the IP and continued education and training-normally a national USE program or adult education-are often long journeys, particularly when starting from the IA or Language Introduction tracks.Of the students starting IA studies in 2020, 34 percent made the transition to a national program within three years, and two thirds of those to a vocational program (SNAE, 2023).Sixteen percent of all IA students beginning in 2016 had graduated from a 3-year upper secondary program within five years (SNAE, 2022c).
To meet students' individual needs, the IP is lightly regulated and lacks national course objectives.Instead, local curricula of the IA and other IP tracks are specified in municipal education plans and individual study plans.Hence, they are highly variable, but students commonly follow the national syllabi of the compulsory school subjects they must complete to qualify for national USE programs.Strengthening of the regulation in 2018 included obligations to specify the purpose, main design, contents, and planned duration of the studies in the local and individual plans (Education Act, 2010:800).National statistics and a survey in 2018 of head teachers and career counselors working with Introductory programs displayed large variations in local and regional conditions, generally to the disadvantage of rural areas.For example, nine out of ten IP teachers in urban upper secondary schools had a teacher education degree and were qualified to teach their subject, but only eight out of ten schools in the rural regions.However, the IP programs had many common organizational features: creation and follow-up of individual study plans, individually adapted instruction, small teaching groups and high density of school staff (Lundahl et al., 2020).

Aim and Research Questions
Studies addressing young people's experiences of risky transitions and compensatory programs are relatively scarce (O'Gorman et al., 2016;Schmitsek, 2022), despite their potential values for addressing associated problems.Thus, our aim here is to increase knowledge of possible approaches for promoting school attendance and minimizing ESL by listening to young peopl� es accounts of experiences of the IA remedial program and preceding educational trajectories.
We specifically address the following research questions (RQs): I. How do compulsory school students and IA students describe their educational trajectories and their expectations of the IA before entering the program or being at risk of doing so?II.What experiences of supportive and non-supportive aspects of the IA do students describe during and after attending the program?
III.What are the implications of the answers to RQs I-II for counteracting school absenteeism and early school leaving?

Preventive and Remedial Measures: Findings from International Research
A wide range of risk factors have been identified behind processes resulting in problematic school absence and/or ESL (Ripamonti, 2018).Recent research on measures to counteract and prevent absenteeism and ESL has been dominated by studies of effects of single interventions with a single component, addressing individuals or small groups at high school level (Freeman & Simonsen, 2015;Keppens & Spruyt, 2020).As Keppens and Spruyt (2020, p. 4) conclude, "such an emphasis distracts attention from the conditions under which certain initiatives work best."However, four major systematic reviews have provided more comprehensive analysis of a broad range of prevention and intervention measures targeting young peopl� es school absence (Keppens & Spruyt, 2020), school dropout (Freeman & Simonsen, 2015), and early school leaving (Nouwen et al., 2016;O'Gorman et al., 2016).As shown in Table 1, these reviews identify factors that help students stay in or return to school.The review by O'Gorman et al. ( 2016) is based exclusively on young people's experiences of various interventions and alternative learning contexts.Their perspectives are also included in the review by Nouwen et al. (2016).
All four reviews identify two sets of factors that may contribute to students' re-engagement in school.The first set, which reportedly contributes to the school's acting as a learning space, includes flexible organization and curricula adapted to the individual students' needs, instruction in small groups/classes, and engaged teachers.The second set contributes to the school's acting as a beneficial socio-emotional space and includes teachers and other staff listening to students, as well as actively helping to strengthen their feelings of belonging and trust in school by showing engagement, empathy, and respect.Other factors consistently identified in the reviews are the school's partnership with parents and other stakeholders, and a holistic, multiple component approach.Factors such as strategies addressing school organization and long duration of intervention are also mentioned, but not consistently.Conversely, high staff turnover, lack of sufficient resources, as well as negative and stigmatizing attitudes to alternative education may have negatives effects on interventions' results (Nouwen et al., 2016).

Theoretical Approach
We focus here on young people's own perspectives and sense-making with an interactionist lens, regarding norms, resources, and opportunities as both structured and contingent (Walther et al., 2015).We draw on sociological concepts such as careership (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997) and trajectory (Walther et al., 2015).Thus, we recognize the importance of students' agency and consider school experience to result from interactions between structural factors and agency, involving both pragmatic-rational decision-making (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997) and emotions (Barbalet, 2001).We frame these interactions in terms of relations between institutionalized life courses and subjective biographies (Walther et al., 2015, p. 350).
Our theoretical framework also incorporates recent attempts to understand the ecology of school attendance and absenteeism through localized and biographical perspectives (Kearney & Gonz� alvez, 2022).These include flexible definitions of school attendance and "a move away from an historical emphasis on physical location and toward dimensions of school engagement such as behavioral, cognitive, and emotional investment in academic achievement" (Kearney & Gonz� alvez, 2022, p. 3).
We find the empirically deduced notions of a remedial and intermediate trajectory (Walther et al., 2015) a useful starting point to explore risky transitions and supportive measures.This trajectory describes patterns of destination, rupture, and choice in disadvantaged young people's lives.Experiences of earlier ruptures are common and often related to school absenteeism as well as lack of sufficient and adequate education or training opportunities.Students with low socioeconomic status, a migration or ethnic minority background, migration-related trauma, addiction, health problems, and psychiatric diagnoses are over-represented in groups with this trajectory (ibid).A remedial program may help students on the trajectory improve their qualifications and ease their return to regular education and training.However, it may also function as a parking lot for stashing and stigmatizing young people (ibid).
Theories of self-worth protection may contribute to important insights regarding school attendance and absenteeism (Covington, 1984).In a performance-oriented school context like contemporary Swedish compulsory education, academic ability, results, and grades signify worthiness and are tightly linked to feelings of social belonging and non-belonging.Failure-avoiding strategies used to maintain a sense of competency may involve not trying, making excuses, and procrastination or withdrawal from school (ibid).To balance the growing preoccupation with ability, teaching methods must somehow foster students' motivation to learn and include "additional sources of worth beyond the mere possession of ability" (ibid, p. 17).

Method
Informants were obtained by selecting one compulsory school and one upper secondary school in each of six municipalities with highly varying geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics.
This article builds on semi-structured, audio-recorded, and fully transcribed interviews conducted in 2018-2020, with students recruited with the help of the schools' career counselors.The students were interviewed individually, except for two IA students who preferred to be interviewed together.Three sets of interviews were conducted (Table 2):one set with sixteen ninthgrade students who were likely to be referred to the IA because of considerable gaps in their studies.These interviews reflect their (at the time) fresh experiences of approaching such a transition, and provided valuable information for answering RQ I. Ideally, we would have followed these students over time, but this was not possible due to the limited project time.The second set, with 22 IA students, provided complementary information for answering RQ I and further information relevant to RQ II.The third set consisted of follow-up interviews with 11 of these 22 students, two years later.
It was often difficult to reach students for the follow-up interviews, partly because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and partly because some of the contacted students failed to show up.The first interview rounds with grade 9 and IA students took place in the schools, but the follow-up interviews were conducted online because of the ongoing pandemic.
As the larger research project that this article emanates from did not specifically focus on school absenteeism, it was not a primary consideration in either selection of students or formulation of the interview questions.Many of the students explicitly described having had frequent or prolonged absenteeism in compulsory school due to social, health, and/or learning problems when asked about their school experiences.Teachers and career counselors interviewed in other parts of the project testified that previous problematic school absenteeism was a very common feature of the IA students' histories.Several students also reported a disengagement in compulsory school, which can be regarded as a type of mental absence (cf.Kearney & Gonz� alvez, 2022).
The interview transcripts were subjected to empirically and theoretically informed thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) in three steps, beginning with reading to acquire a holistic view of each interview.This was followed by empirically based thematization of the contents, and finally the researchers analyzed the thematized contents in relation to our theoretical framework.The identified themes captured important aspects related to the research questions, as illustrated by selected quotations presented in this article.
The project was ethically reviewed and approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Umeå (ref. no. 2018/173:31).

Results: The Individual Alternative from the Students' Perspective
The quotations in this section predominantly, but not exclusively, emanated from students with self-reported histories of absenteeism.They were mainly chosen to illustrate the major themes brought up in most interviews, but in a couple of cases they illustrate deviating experiences and trajectories.

Being Referred to, or At Risk of Referral to, the IA
In line with RQ I, this section focuses on how grade 9 and IA students described their previous school experiences and expectations of the IA before entering the program.

"My Own Fault"
The interviewed IA students left compulsory school without meeting the eligibility requirements for USE, and the 9 th grade students were at risk of this as they lacked required grades in many subjects.The stories of the two groups were very similar.Apart from problematic absenteeism, many described a background of learning difficulties, adverse mental and/or physical conditions, frequent changes of schools and teachers, bullying, and language problems due to migration.Feelings of failure and being different from others recurrently featured in their self-descriptions.They commonly blamed themselves for having school difficulties and/or being absent, being lazy, not studying enough, or not attending school despite being offered support.For example, 9 th grade student Dani, who had had a high degree of school absence due to truancy, claimed that he did not attend compulsory school because of his bad character, despite the school's efforts to make him come to school.The school had offered various forms of support, and Dani and his mother had several meetings with his mentors.He felt bad that he disappointed many people, including his mother.Thus, the 9th grade and IA students described complex feelings of guilt and self-accusation in relation to school failure, and this self-understanding constituted a crucial component of their transitions.

A Shameful and Uncertain Trajectory
Some 9 th grade students regarded the IA as an opportunity to move on, but for most students the transition to the IA was emotionally charged.They expressed resistance to starting the program as it was associated with feelings of deviating from the norm, and even shame.
I thought it was embarrassing to start on the IA.It was like everyone else got into a program.(-) Yes, I thought so from the beginning when I started, that this is the end.Kind of almost gave up when I didn't pass the 9 th grade.(Julia, Small City Upper Secondary School 2) Some students seemed rather indifferent about the situation because it's just the way it is.This can be interpreted as an expression of acceptance, but it may also be a way of protecting one's self-esteem when deviating from the norm.
Lacking eligibility for the USE national program entailed great uncertainty regarding the transition to USE for both the students and their parents.The transition to the IA seemed to be very uncertain for the students for several reasons.Many lacked clarity about the kind of education the IA entailed, and there was often uncertainty about where to go after compulsory school, particularly for the students in urban regions with large numbers of upper secondary schools.In some cases, the very start of the IA was shaky and raised risks of school absence.For Lisa, for example, the roll call in a large gymnasium became very stressful, and after ending up in a group where she felt insecure, she went home and refused to return.Emotional support from the family seemed to be important in such situations, as well as "parental brokering" (parents striving to arrange schooling and secure their children's rights in 2 The names of the informants and schools are fictious.contact with schools).Lisa's mother supported her by listening to her and, not least, contacting the principal.
So, I was home maybe a week from school, then my mother said she should talk to the principal and say how I feel, it's not okay to feel like that.Then we talked to the principal and he said that there is a small group for girls.And then I visited the group, which I go to now.It's a small group so I felt safer, and I feel good now.(Lisa, Small City Upper Secondary School 1) We do not know how the school reacted to Lisa's school absence, but her mother's support seems to have been particularly important for shortening it.Furthermore, the school's ability to adapt the education to Lisa's experience and needs also significantly assisted her return to school.
In summary, the students' school experiences and self-images had been shaped by school failure, and the expected and/or actual transition from year 9 to an IP appears to have reinforced their feeling of not being like others.Thus, such transition itself may create continuing uncertainty regarding the students' future schooling for both the students and their guardians.

Students' Experiences of Supportive and Non-Supportive Aspects of the IA
The aim of this section is to answer RQ II by describing supportive and non-supportive aspects of the IA according to the IA students.

The Importance of Recognizing Individual Needs
When addressing the support in the IA, it is crucial to bear in mind the students' highly varying needs, as exemplified by the organization of the school days.For most of the students, the school days were quite short, in some cases only a couple of hours per day.For some of them, longer school days provided a context that strengthened a sense of belonging and a perception of school as a place for learning.However, for several with a history of school failure and absence, flexibility and being offered short school days seemed to be essential for them to attend school at all.Josefin, who had a prolonged absence in compulsory school due to illness, described the individual adaptation of the IA as life-changing: Interviewer: They were able to adjust the times to suit your needs?Josefin: Yes.That's probably what has saved me, otherwise I don't know how I would be able to continue the program.
Interviewer: Do you think you would have dropped out of school otherwise?Josefin: I probably would have had to.(Josefin, Rural Upper Secondary School 2) Some students combined schoolwork with practice at workplaces.Most of them appreciated the time in working life, which seemed to offer these students alternative and meaningful ways of participating that enabled them to use their resources.Others, however, perceived workplace-based learning as difficult and stressful, suggesting that internships cannot be regarded as a universal solution.For instance, Jennie had high absenteeism in compulsory school and subsequently during the IA.The school had suggested an internship as an alternative, but she refused: I don't like being with people I don't know, I get uncomfortable, find it hard.So, I don't know how long I will stay here.(Jennie, Rural Upper Secondary School 1) In the follow-up interview Jennie revealed that she had neither had an internship nor attended school and had been staying at home.

The IA as a Turning Point
Many students perceived their time as an IA student as a turning point where they regained faith in themselves as "learning individuals" and in school as a possible place for learning and positive social relations.
Interviewer: Do you remember anything about the IA that you thought was not so good?Ketifa: No, not that I can think of.It was my best year and a half, I must say.
Interviewer: What made them the best years?Ketifa: Everything, the friends, the teachers.(Ketifa, Rural Upper Secondary School 2) Ozzy clearly stated that the IA offered a profound restart and enabled him to succeed in school: And then I started on the IA and I had to learn from the beginning to the top and it was a good start.It has led to something good.(Ozzy, Rural Upper Secondary School 1) Despite students' initial resistance to starting the IA program and shaky transitions, a striking number of the respondents expressed appreciation of the IA as well as the support and help they needed to get on in school.The students had supportive perceptions of the entire IA context, including teachers, mentors, career counselors, school counselors, and classmates.The students underlined the importance of study groups being smaller than those in compulsory school.They felt safer and found it easier to concentrate.They also stressed the importance of the positive relationship with their teachers for turning the previous negative development into progress.They described having considerable trust in their teachers, who cared about them and understood their challenges in school and life in general.The teachers not only adapted their teaching and requirements to students' level of knowledge, but also responded to their emotional reactions to schoolwork.For example, Orvar, who had a history of extensive absenteeism and drug abuse, commented that: Maria and Erik understand me, they have dealt with me since I started, they understand when it becomes too much and I start to give up, that they should not put too much pressure on me.(Orvar, Rural Upper Secondary school 1) When comparing the IA to his previous school experiences, Stefan emphasized the significance of the presence and support of the teachers at the IA.
/in compulsory school/I would have liked more help from the teachers (-) The teachers did not realize the situation I was in, nothing happened.It was like I was sitting and crying for help, but nobody answered.(-)/on the IA/the teachers are always there and help you.(Stefan, Rural Upper Secondary School 1) Fanny became ill when she was 15 and felt that she had no future.A month before she turned 18, she tried to take her own life.
So, I hadn't really planned and thought about my future at all.I never thought I would have a future.And now I'm here!(Fanny, Commuter Upper Secondary School 2) According to Fanny, the situation had changed during her time at the IA, and she had gained hope for the future.An internship, the individual adaptation of the education, and important relationships in school seemed to have contributed to this positive change.

The IA as a Dead End
In contrast to the positive experiences reported in the previous sections a few students perceived the IA as a dead end though.Fia and Jennie had high absenteeism rates and difficulties in lower secondary school.Initially, they appreciated the IA and the studies went well.They even found it fun to be at school, but after one semester the situation changed and neither of them wanted to continue.They argued that the teachers had begun to focus too much on school achievements without considering how the students were feeling.Even if Fia and Jennie wanted to be at school, they could not always come, and they perceived the demands as being too high.They lost motivation and received warnings for high absenteeism.
Fia: It was better in the beginning, they focused on our mood as well, and how we were as individuals, but now we just have to do what we have to do and if we don't, it's chaos.
Jennie: The most important thing now is that you come to school and that you work … not how you feel.Because it's also important to be able to feel good about yourself to perform.
(Fia and Jennie, Rural Upper Secondary School 1) In the follow-up interview, Jennie explained that both students had left the IA and started a study-motivational course at a folk high school (adult education) instead.Both Fia and Jennie had intended to resume their IA studies in the following semester, but the restart did not work for Jennie and when the school suggested an internship for her she stayed at home.Apart from an extended summer job, she had been staying at home since then, for about 18 months.At the time of the follow-up interview she had a contact with a youth coach, but it was unclear what she would do in the future.
In sum, most of the students indicated that the IA significantly helped them to progress in school.They reported that it was a turning point for them due to factors including the smallgroup instruction, teaching adapted to their individual needs and abilities, and inclusive and trustful relationships with the teachers, other staff, and classmates.They also regarded teachers' empathic understanding of how it feels to have school difficulties and being unable to meet school requirements as significant.However, some did not have such positive experiences of the support, and it failed to create a sense of belonging for them.Hence IA students may have very complex life conditions and needs that are difficult for school to meet, and performance-related demands may even result in continued absence from school.

The Transition to a Regular Upper Secondary Program
From the 11 follow-up interviews we learned that all except three students had continued to a vocational USE program of some kind.Two interviewees were still IA students, and one was not in employment, education, or training.The students' thoughts about their future were almost exclusively concerned with vocational programs.For many of them, a study preparation program was not an option as they lacked sufficient grades.
Even when succeeding in getting eligibility to a national USE program, students' school-related difficulties rarely ended completely, and the individual adaptations that worked well in the IA could differ considerably from what they encountered in mainstream USE.Hence, the step from the IA to a national program was often perceived as challenging.The regular USE programs were perceived as more demanding than the IA, with a higher study pace, studying several subjects in parallel, less teacher-student contacts, and demands for students to work more independently.The former IA students often had individually customized schedules or extra support in some subjects to help them to succeed, but less than in the IA classes.
Well, I had a lot of support from the IA teachers, they got really close.But here on the health and social care program, it's not the same.So, you get homework, and they explain, but it's not like they guide you all the way until you finish the task.(Ketifa, Rural Upper Secondary School 2) All of the interviewed former IA students seemed to be engaged in full-time studies, except for Fanny.She had had extensive absence from compulsory school due to illness and still had trouble keeping up full-time.She was on a reduced schedule, and it was agreed that she could stay at home when she got tired.This worked quite well according to Fanny.
To summarize: in the follow-up interviews many students described the transition to a national program as challenging and often expressed needs for extra support and adaptations to cope with their studies.

Analysis and Discussion
In this section we analyze our findings in relation to our theoretical framework and international research, and discuss possible implications for counteracting school absenteeism and early school leaving (RQ III)

Choice, Destinations, and Ruptures
The students' narratives of their career choices, ruptures, and destinations clearly confirm that educational trajectories are both structurally framed and individually appropriated (Walther et al. 2015).Leaving compulsory school without qualifications for a national USE program, our respondents had few career choices as the demand for early school leavers in the Swedish labor market is very limited.For these students with considerable gaps in compulsory education, the IA was the main destination.The students perceived the probable or actual transition to IA as a serious rupture in the normal pathway from compulsory to upper secondary school.Leaving the IA with eligibility for USE, the students had more choice, but this was normally restricted to vocational programs with little competition.Together with possible remaining problems such as learning and health difficulties, this restricted these young people's horizons of action and marked their pragmatic-rational decision-making for future destinations of education and work (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997).
The students consistently described difficult conditions in compulsory school affecting their educational careers and destinations: learning difficulties, health problems, bullying, and extensive absence from school.They also brought up frequent ruptures, including repeated moves and changes of schools and teachers.Unsurprisingly, the students did not mention the conditions of the Swedish educational system, such as increasing performance orientation, failing support, and strict USE admittance requirements, which result in structurally enforced ruptures for many youths.Instead, the students understood their situation in agentic terms, as primarily caused by their own lack of motivation, laziness, and similar shortcomings, blaming themselves for not following the common route.
Many of the IA students lacked a sense of pride in relation to school and often were highly uncertain about the future (cf.Barbalet, 2001).Their low confidence in future possibilities and worry about the future is not very surprising.Following self-worth theory (Covington, 1984), it may also be difficult to formulate future educational and professional plans once a self-understanding of being lazy and unable to learn has been established.For such students, horizons of action tend to diminish, and it may be difficult to imagine themselves becoming something else, especially someone working in a profession that requires extensive formal education.

Lessons from the Interviews with IA Students
The international research reviews previously cited identified four aspects of preventive and remedial programs as essential for success.These are: providing an individually adapted learning environment, providing an engaged and supportive socio-emotional space that can build students' self-confidence and feelings of belonging and trust, partnership with parents and other stakeholders, and a holistic approach (Freeman & Simonsen, 2015;Keppens & Spruyt, 2020;Nouwen et al., 2016;O'Gorman et al., 2016).
Our findings from interviewing IA students regarding important factors for helping students to stay in or return to school are well aligned with the cited reviews (mostly based on other sources of information than the young people themselves).The first two of the four aspects referred to above were particularly prominent in narratives of our IA students.They frequently contrasted the IA's positive learning and social environment to the feelings of failure and deviance instilled in compulsory school.Most perceived the IA as a helpful space for learning with high staff density allowing for small-group instruction and considerable adaptation to the students' individual needs and appreciated the considerable flexibility in school time (in terms of both total duration and daily teaching hours).
The students further characterized the IA as a safe, friendly, and inclusive socio-emotional context where they were treated with understanding and respect by teachers, other staff, and classmates, rather than being regarded as different and incompetent.Their descriptions coincide well with students' characterizations of alternative learning environments as "sanctuaries" reported by O' Gorman et al. (2016).The participating students in our study found the combination of learning and socio-emotional characteristics crucial for increasing their self-esteem and willingness to continue their studies.In further alignment with previous findings (see above), they expressed feelings of belonging to the school, in stark contrast to previous experiences from compulsory school.
Previous research has identified close partnerships with parents and other stakeholders as essential for preventing school absence and ESL.This aspect was less visible in our interviewees' narratives, except for descriptions of frequent contacts between staff and parents while attending the IA.Many students and their parents seemed to have too little information about the IA before starting their studies, which created concerns and may have contributed to the common feelings of stigmatization and resistance.Similarly, students' narratives of troublesome transitions to mainstream USE indicated that there were information gaps between the IA and the receiving schools, particularly in urban areas.Collaboration between schools and local places of work appears to be essential, because with some exceptions, training in workplaces reportedly strengthened students' self-confidence and thus could provide a useful step into working life or a vocational program.The fourth supportive aspect underlined in the cited research overviews, applying a holistic approach, was also reflected in the narratives of the IA students, however less explicitly.
Two students who did not find the IA helpful felt that the teachers neglected their varying capability and health conditions, after an initially better phase, which led to continued absence.Such narratives indicate that although the IA provides a flexible and predominantly inclusive environment, certain boundaries and characteristics as an educational environment are maintained in line with its formal assignment.The IA may therefore ultimately exclude students with high sensibility toward school-like environments.

Limitations
The students who participated in the study probably constituted a positive sample, particularly in the follow-up interviews, and we were unable to address dropouts.The difficulties in reaching several of the informants may have been partly due to unwillingness to expose perceived difficulties and failure.

Conclusion and Implications
The aim of the study was to increase knowledge of approaches to promote of school attendance and prevent ESL by listening to young peopl� es experiences of the remedial IA program and their preceding educational trajectories.A major conclusion is that individually adapted instruction and timing, and socio-emotional learning spaces that create a sense of belonging and self-confidence in the students are crucial.We regard these as important clues for constructing learning environments that foster students' willingness to stay and complete their education.We argue that sustainable measures, particularly in compulsory school, based on our informants' experiences and similar previous findings regarding safe and supportive learning and socio-emotional school environments, could prevent painful and expensive school absenteeism and adverse longterm consequences of ESL.More opportunities of small-group and individual instruction, extended mentoring and career counseling, homework support, and more systematic collaboration with parents and social school activities are all helpful.Moreover, they can increase all students' motivation to learn and feelings of belonging in school -not only the students in risk of leaving school for either short or long periods of time.The students' narratives indicate that precisely school's ability to instill feelings of belonging are crucial for regaining study motivation and selfconfidence as learners and social beings in school (cf.Covington, 1984).
In summary, it is essential both to strengthen measures to help young people feel safe and succeed in compulsory school and to import supportive mechanisms from the IA into mainstream upper secondary programs.This is important not only to prevent absenteeism and ESL, but also to maintain and strengthen young people's beliefs in themselves as capable life-long learners and citizens.

A Final Comment
This paper was based on data acquired in a research project on problematic transitions that did not primarily address school absenteeism.Returning to previously recorded interviews with a new focus helped us add dimensions to our understanding of remedial transitions and drew our attention to silences in our data, regarding important questions about absenteeism that we failed to ask our informants.Conversely, research on school absenteeism may be enriched by insights from research on transitions, support, and social, cognitive, and emotional school engagement, i.e., research focused on qualitatively different modes of presence (cf.Kearney & Gonz� alvez, 2022).Overall, we argue that this observation may be indicative of possibilities for combining these two strands of research.
Saga: My mother is very worried, more than I am.Interviewer: Do you know what she's worried about?Saga: That I might not continue to another school.She was worried when choosing.Then it was very stressful for her.(Saga, Commuter Compulsory School 2) Fantastic people all of them.(-) Classmates and everything, they are all friendly.(-) The teachers are important, that they are supportive and ( … ) can respect other people.(Henrik, Commuter Upper Secondary School 2)

Table 1 .
Foci and factors identified in reviews of research on interventions and measures to prevent prevention and intervention of school absenteeism and ESL.
� School as a safe place ("sanctuary") enabling students to focus on academic tasks � Strong sense of belonging � Identification with school community � Symbolic representation of student culture � Staff engaging with students � Students feeling respected

Table 2 .
Interviewed students and the research questions.
… it's completely my fault, there's no one else I can blame.(-) My teachers, everyone has tried everything.It's just, if I don't feel like it, I won't do it.I'm pretty bad, can't remember what the word is called, bad trait.I only do things I feel like.(Dani, Commuter Compulsory School 1) 2