Conference Agenda

Across educational research, participatory, co-designed and youth-led methodological approaches have gained increasing prominence, with growing efforts to engage young people as collaborators in research that directly impacts their lives (Habib et al., 2024; Cuevas-Parra, 2020). Within these approaches, compensating young people for the time they give to research activities is recognised as ethically necessary (Afkinich et al., 2020), most often through vouchers or symbolic payments. While these practices move away from extractive research models, they also raise less frequently examined questions about how labour, value and benefits are configured within the research process - questions that intersect with wider European debates regarding youth labour, where access to paid work remains uneven and tied to socio-economic disadvantage (ILO, 2024).

This paper addresses two related research questions: What happens when young people’s participation in education research is organised through paid employment? And how do wages enter into knowledge production by reconfiguring research relations? Conceptually, our analysis draws on Gillen’s (2019) Power in the Room to explore how paid work structures educational activities and outcomes. Through his analysis of the Baltimore Algebra Project, a youth-run cooperative in which mathematical learning is organised through paid work, Gillen treats wages as a structuring condition under racialised capitalism that reorganises educational work and gives material weight to young people’s intellectual labour, particularly for those positioned precariously within racial capitalism (Robinson, 2019). In the context of education research, where funds are fiercely surveilled by university systems and structures, paying young people through waged labour raises questions about the nature of work, value and just rewards. Certainly, the payment of wages can be seen as ethically suspect because productive labour under racial capitalism is organised through the exploitation of the worker as they produce commodities that hold surplus value for those in power (the white capitalist). Yet this labour may also operate as a form of collective inquiry that has use-value for young people and their communities (Williams, 2011). Thus, we offer an analysis of paid participation as a condition that intervenes in unequal conditions of participation and recognition, while bringing into view different logics of value within educational research.

The paper draws on the Very Local Maths project (https://verylocalmaths.org.uk/), conducted in collaboration with a community centre in Manchester. Inspired by the Funds of Knowledge approach (Moll et al.,1992), which foregrounds the cultural resources of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the project explored ‘community mathematics’, understood as mathematics emerging beyond formal schooling and connected to young people’s lives and experiences. Seven young people (13-16) took part in the project, most of whom identified as Black, neurodivergent and struggling with their participation in formal schooling. Over six monthly workshops, they were employed as co-researchers and paid an hourly wage to participate in the research.

The analysis draws on video recordings and written artefacts produced during the workshops, focusing on two episodes from our fourth workshop, where payment shifted from a background condition to an explicit object of negotiation. In the first episode, co-researchers explored how their labour might be valued if the project ran next year, considering factors such as travel costs, changes in minimum wage, or the university’s financial capacities. The second episode centres on a collective discussion about how young people were using their wages, drawing attention to how payment circulated within the group and shaped possibilities and relations within and around the project.

The paper contributes a situated reflection on wages as a research device and their effects within educational research, highlighting payment as more than a practical or ethical arrangement supporting participation. This reflection makes visible how economic arrangements enter into research practices, supporting a more reflexive engagement with the conditions of educational knowledge production.

Early leaving from education and training is identified as a significant challenge both by the EU and the UN. There is evidence that those who are successful at school primarily come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (Broer, M., Bai, Y., & Fonseca, F., 2019; Chung, K. K. H., 2015). Socioeconomic status influences their success at school in terms of engagement and grades, in turn influencing their performance in upper secondary school (Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Horsey, C. S., 1997; Benner, A.D., Boyle, A.E. & Sadler, S., 2016). From this perspective it can be argued that the educational system reproduces inequalities, and that those struggling have experienced a lack of social inclusion.

Although a substantial body of research has identified predictors of dropout, fewer studies examine dropout as a process shaped by structural conditions over time, and even fewer reviews foreground young people’s own perspectives and lived experiences. There have been several reviews in this field, but few with a perspective centered on young people’s experiences. Most research also points at specific predictors for dropping out, while examinations of the structural processes leading to dropout are less common. This review will therefore aim at viewing dropout from young people’s perspective and through their stories develop an understanding of what they have experienced. Additionally, in the reviewed articles, we will analyze structural and processual mechanisms contributing to dropout. This review applies a systematic approach seeking to systematically search for, appraise and synthesise studies and their findings (Grant & Booth, 2009). By using the methodology of systematic review of literature, certain steps were taken in the search. In this way the process of reviewing is made transparent (Moher et al 2015).

The research question for this systematic review is two-fold:

1) What reasons for leaving school early are reported in qualitative studies from young people’s perspectives?What do qualitative studies point to as reasons for dropping out of school, seen from young people’s perspective? and

2) What patterns of structural and processual mechanisms over time are identified and discussed by the authors of these studies?

Research Questions & Objectives

This study investigates hidden dropout—a critical yet under-researched phenomenon where students remain physically enrolled but become psychologically and academically disengaged. Focusing on junior high schools within Yi ethnic townships in Western China, the research addresses two pivotal questions: What are the multi-level causal mechanisms that drive hidden dropout within a culturally distinct, marginalized indigenous community? And how can meaningful, culturally responsive interventions be designed to restore educational engagement and dignity, rather than merely enforcing physical attendance?

The objectives are threefold: (1) to identify and typologize the manifestations of hidden dropout; (2) to analyze its causal factors across interconnected ecological systems; and (3) to propose and preliminarily evaluate intervention strategies that are grounded in local culture and responsive to systemic inequities.

Theoretical Framework

This research employs an integrated theoretical framework to unravel the complexity of hidden dropout.

Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model serves as the foundational lens, framing student disengagement as the outcome of dynamic interactions across multiple systemic levels: from the microsystem of classroom and family dynamics, through the mesosystem of home-school cultural disconnection, to the exosystem of policy implementation gaps, and ultimately to the macrosystem of broader cultural norms and values.

Critically extending this model, Cultural Mismatch Theory interrogates the structural incongruence and conflict between the standardized, state-mandated curriculum and the indigenous Yi value systems, traditions, and worldviews.

Together, this combined framework moves beyond conceptualizing dropout merely as an individual deficit, instead positioning it as a process of sociocultural negotiation and a systemic issue of educational justice. Consequently, the study situates itself within broader global debates concerning inclusion, cultural rights, and the purpose of schooling in pluralistic societies.

Methodological Orientation & Contribution

To address these questions, the study adopts a critical ethnographic approach grounded in the aforementioned theoretical framework. This methodology is chosen for its strength in uncovering the lived experiences, cultural meanings, and systemic contradictions that underlie phenomena like hidden dropout. Conducted in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture—a region emblematic of the intersection between poverty, cultural distinctness, and state-led educational campaigns in China—the research generates nuanced, context-rich insights.

This approach has enabled the research not only to identify and typologize expressions of disengagement but, more importantly, to trace their genesis across the bioecological strata and through the lens of cultural mismatch. By mapping these mechanisms, the study proposes and argues for intervention strategies that are genuinely culturally responsive. Therefore, its primary scholarly contribution lies in developing and illustrating a transferable, ecologically-grounded model for understanding and addressing student disengagement in marginalized, cross-cultural settings.

European/International Dimension & Scholarly Significance

This research engages directly with pressing European and international educational agendas by advancing theoretical dialogue, informing pedagogical practice, and providing evidence for policy deliberation. Specifically, it contributes to the application and refinement of ecosystem models within indigenous and Global South contexts by integrating the critical lens of cultural mismatch, thereby enriching the analytical tools available for understanding educational equity. In doing so, it informs practical efforts to design inclusive pedagogies that sustain rather than marginalize minority cultures—addressing a key priority for both EU and OECD educational policy aimed at effectively serving diverse learner populations. Consequently, the study provides timely evidence for ongoing policy discussions on balancing universal education goals with cultural integrity, thereby supporting the pursuit of UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) and aligning with the EU's strategic objectives of promoting equity, social cohesion, and successful integration.

By centering the concepts of cultural negotiation and systemic interdependence, the study offers a robust framework with relevance for understanding educational disengagement in diverse intercultural settings globally.