Employed, rural high school seniors, mandatory attendance, and senior English: A phenomenological exploration.

Abstract

This phenomenological study examines the lived experiences of seven employed high school seniors to explore the research question: How do rural, employed high school seniors approach learning in English, their only required course for graduation. Through in-depth interviews, their emerging themes of frustration, values, personal growth/identify of self, and academic growth are explored through a situational triad of employment, mandatory attendance, and fulfillment of their last graduation requirement, English. Their candid recollections of gain and loss indicate that grade 12 fails and succeeds in meeting their educational needs. Their voices reveal that senior English accomplishes its goal of preparing them for college, but overall, they expose a sense of missed learning opportunities, many of which are directly linked to employment. They continue to work, despite the compromises to their health and relationships with others, even often adding more hours of employment, because their class schedules are not strenuous. Findings from this study suggest that English, as the only graduation requirement for these graduating seniors, did more harm than good.

Employed high school seniors in rural schools do not always have the class scheduling options of their counterparts in larger geographic areas. In particular, many are faced with mandatory attendance of six hours per day as required by state law. A non-college bound student, for example, must have only three credits of science, history, and math for graduation. As such, many will spend their senior year in electives throughout the day with English as their last and only graduation requirement.