Disengaged and Disenchanted Adolescents: An Arts-Based Case Study

Abstract

The pursuit of creating valuable learning experiences for adolescents is a complex challenge. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of a group of disengaged and disenchanted adolescents. I identified a gap in the literature; youth are often only quoted for comments affirming that interventions have been beneficial. The present study seeks to fill this gap by representing as directly as possible the experiences of participants that relate to their motivation and engagement. To investigate the processes at work that contribute to the general decline in motivation that occurs in early adolescence (Gottfried, Flemming & Gottfried, 2001; Harter, 1981; Whitlock, 2006), and that for some result in definitive disengagement with formal education, I used art elicitation to facilitate the communication of various experiences of school by one group of urban self-identified disengaged and disenchanted adolescents. The data were analyzed using traditional qualitative methods, as well as poetic inquiry, which offers aesthetic representations of reflexive research methods and meditations on significant themes and topics in the data. The visual and written data provide rich information about contemporary experiences of secondary school for the disengaged and disenchanted adolescent participants and inform a discussion of recommendations and personal discoveries.