Constructions of pupil absence in the British education service

'Truants' and 'truancy' have been construed as 'problems' in schools and the British education system since the introduction of compulsory schooling in the late 19th century. A review of the literature about 'truancy' reveals four principal perspectives which construe the 'problem' of absence as an outcome of: individual 'pathology'; 'defective' parenting; a failure to identify and meet the 'needs' of a child; and, nonhuman factors within the process of schooling (e.g. the National Curriculum). Findings are presented from a research project into the work of an education welfare service (EWS), which explored the social careers of pupils referred to the service. On the basis of these findings it is argued that particular 'regimes' and 'myths' in the education service provide a context within which decisions are made about children who do not attend school regularly. It is suggested that these 'myths' constrain the services which it is legitimate for agencies to provide for some of the most marginalised and vulnerable children, and families in British society; and legitimise a morally based, selective operational masking of the complex, multilayered factors from which a child's surface 'deviance' originates.