The Discursive Construction of Early School Leaving in EU-Policies

Early school leavers (ESL) – 18-24-years olds without upper secondary qualification – have constituted a problem group in the realm of educational policies since 2000. Applying a sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD, Keller et al. 2018) I explore how ESL has become a public problem (Gusfield 1981) and ask for the ‘true knowledge’ about it and how to be solved by whom. My focus is on the early school leavers as subjects constructed within the EU-policy discourse. Starting with the Lisbon Strategy as a key-event I analyzed 18 policy documents from the European Commission, Parliament and Council, the most recent dating back to 2020.

In the 2000s, ESL has been mainly constructed as a matter of lacking efficiency. Within a broader discourse on global economic competition, early school leavers fail to efficiently develop their human capital thus hindering the economic flourishing of society. In the context of the financial and economic crisis 2008, the true knowledge about ESL has been subject to conflicts about the responsibility for social problems aligned to ESL. ESL as a matter of individual risk has become the dominant discourse. Individuals have the duty to prevent future risks via education. Education systems have the duty to promote resilient subjects who can participate in education despite their problems. By contrast, within an opposing discourse on ESL as a matter of equity the (school-)citizen has the right to education and early school leavers are deprived this right. ESL has thus to be solved by improving school quality and redistributive measures.

Gusfield, Joseph. 1981. The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.

Keller, Reiner, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, and Wolf Schünemann, eds. 2018. The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse: Investigating the Politics of Knowledge and Meaning-Making. London: Routledge.