Identifying themes for student re-engagement: The Ice Factor Challenge

Abstract

High school or secondary retention rates have been the subject of many studies over several decades. The potentially negative future outcomes associated with early disengagement from high school are known to affect individual, family and broader community levels. Research has generally supported the view, that the causes of early school leaving are complex and biopsychosocial in nature and that there are opportunities to provide interventions at important phases in young people’s development or school career. This current study qualitatively explores an Australian based multicomponent intervention program, known as the “Ice Factor Challenge” (IFC). The IFC is designed to assess disadvantaged or struggling high school students and re-engage them with their schooling and peers. The broad aim of this study was to identify ‘how’ and ‘if’ the program benefits its participants. Eight semi structured interviews of the program’s “key stakeholders” were conducted to investigate this topic. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse key themes and construct a bottom-up narrative of the program’s processes and outcomes. Four key themes were identified and converged to produce what key stakeholders perceived as the IFC’s beneficial outcomes for its students. In summary, the results indicated that the IFC was positively assessed by respondents. Furthermore, according to participants, IFC stated goals and known literature, the IFC appears to be somewhat successful in re-engaging its students into school and society, through IFC derived beneficial student outcomes.