Abstract:

Empirical research on factors that influence children’s educational participation has demonstrated ways in which a variety of national-level, community-level, and family-level variables influence children’s school enrollment. This is due in large part to a search for generalizable large-scale solutions to children’s school absence. Prevailing models of educational participation have not sufficiently addressed the influence of community variables. The community-level factors are a key for understanding the relationship between these fields. Through my quantitative and qualitative research in Tajikistan over the past 15 years, I found that cultural norms in the community and school quality factors significantly impacted school participation, especially for girls. School factors are especially affected by the national-level policy and economic environment, but are also subject to community factors, such as availability of teachers and economic outcomes.