This study intends to clarify the characteristics of high school dropouts’ school life after
returning to school. The following research questions were investigated using a case study
research method. First, what are the reasons for high school students discontinuing their
education? Second, what is their life like after dropping out of high school? Third, what is their
life like after returning to school? Seventeen students who had experienced dropping out of
school were interviewed in depth.
The main results of this study are as follows: The reasons for discontinuing school were an
unstable home background, a series of juvenile delinquency charges and deviations from an
early age. Life after dropping out of school was spent working part-time. School life after
returning to school was a continuation of school life before quitting school. These students
experienced ‘hesitation’ during the course of returning to school. They did not have confidence
in spending too much time at school just to get high school diploma since they did not have
clear goal about reinstatement at school. Nevertheless, they took on the ‘challenge’ of school
life because of parents’ persuasion or their feeling of envy for their friends at school. However,
the ‘promise’ they made themselves at the beginning of their renewed studies leads to
‘carelessness’. They end up falling into ‘a habitual routine’. Bad habits formed before dropping
out of school were not corrected but they continued. Some of them experience ‘frustration’ and
‘give up’ on their studies again.
Based on the results of the study, I have proposed several policies such as the revitalization
of mentoring, reinforcement of vocational education, and the operation of a variety of
educational curriculum in order to reintegrate into school.