Hidden Dropout, Actual Dropout, and Preserving Tradition and Language among Israeli Youth of Ethiopian Origin

Dropping out from school is a serious problem affecting education systems. This study aims to examine the importance of preserving Ethiopian culture among Israeli high school students of Ethiopian origin and the relationship between preserving this culture and perseverance in formal schooling. Keeping ethnic tradition was examined using two indices: keeping the language and preserving tradition. Although hidden dropout is very common, the related literature is insufficient. Moreover, there are hardly any studies examining dropout among immigrant students in general, and among Israeli immigrants of Ethiopian origin in particular. This study is a pioneering investigation, in both the phenomenon being studied and the target population—the relationship between preserving culture of origin and hidden dropout and actual dropout among adolescent immigrants and children of immigrants of Ethiopian origin in Israel. The current study follows qualitative interviews with members of three research groups: learners, hidden dropouts, and disengaged. The analysis revealed a relationship between the importance assigned to preserving tradition and hidden dropout. In the measures of assigned importance to preserving tradition and language of origin, both hidden dropouts and learners assigned high importance to these variables, as opposed to the disengaged group that assigned less importance to preserving ethnic tradition.