Identification and Prioritization of Factors Influencing School Dropout in the Iranian Education System

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim of identifying and prioritizing factors influencing school dropout in the Iranian education system. This research is applied in terms of its objective and mixed-methods in terms of data type, with the nature of the content analysis being based on interview texts. The statistical population included experts in the field of school dropout. In the content analysis section, the sample size consisted of 15 interviewees selected based on the principle of saturation and purposeful sampling. For the content analysis, the validity of the interview questions was reviewed by experts, and reliability was calculated using inter-coder agreement and intra-rater reliability. In the quantitative section, regarding the pairwise comparison questionnaire, content validity was used for validity, and consistency ratio was used for reliability, with the results indicating the tools were valid and reliable. Data analysis was performed using thematic analysis (basic, organizing, and overarching themes) in the qualitative section with MaxQDA-V2018 software, and in the quantitative section, prioritization was carried out using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with Expertchoice-V11 software. The findings revealed that the factors influencing school dropout in the Iranian education system, in order of priority, include family economic factors (0.355), family social factors (0.273), students' psychological factors (0.209), and educational factors (0.163).