Teacher Distance and Student Disengagement: School Lives on the Margin

Abstract

The school lives of 31 culturally diverse students who were identified by the school as potential dropouts were studied using ethnographic methods. Data were collected across 2 years and revealed that teachers who were identified by the students as most successful in helping them learn used practices based on two types of teacher knowledge: knowledge about the home lives and cultural backgrounds of students and knowledge about the impact of young adolescents' developmental needs on learning.