‘We had dreams’ – In-between duty and ability A qualitative study of academic expectations and support from home within young men with minority background

Abstract

This article’s main theme is high school dropout within young men with minority background. Studies show that this group of students are most likely to quit high school. Here, a young man with minority background is examined in order to answer the research question What does a young man with a minority background say about academic expectations and support from home? The young man, which is in his early 20’s, has begun, interrupted, and re-continued his schooling. He is now a student in vocational studies, and has been interviewed about his school experiences and support from home. This study is part of the project Marginalization and Co-Created Education (MaCE). Therefore, the qualitative method that has been used to get insight into this man`s experiences is the indirect approach. This form of data collection has enabled the informant to decide which topics from his school history he finds most important to share. The data analysis is based on a social constructivism, which means that the researcher's knowledge is constructed through the interaction between researcher and informant. However, it is important to point out that it is primarily the informant’s perspective that is emphasized in this study. The findings show that his parents seem to have high expectations of him to excel academically. This seems to have influenced the young man's view of himself. To sum up, academic support from home is absent, but the academic expectations appear to be enormous. Thus, the idea of academic success seem to make the move from the parents' home country worthy.