Vocational students’ intention to drop out in Flanders: The role of teacher beliefs

Abstract

For decades, western education confronts the problem of student unqualified dropout, which is most prevalent in vocational education. Relatively little research focuses on the role teachers might play in students’ decision to quit school. By means of multilevel analyses on data of 2589 vocational students in 48 Flemish secondary schools, this study examines whether teachers’ shared expectations of their students associate with vocational students’ (intention to) dropout.
In vocational education, teachers’ beliefs about the teachability of students influence students’ intention to quit, irrespective of students’ perceived teacher support and students’ sense of futility.