Multidimensional Determinism and Selective Dropout; A Qualitative Study of Educational Survival Process of Afghan Children Living in Mashhad

Due to the legal or illegal recruitment of Afghan immigrant children in the country's educational system, there is still a dropout rate in these children. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the challenges of the Afghan immigrant children who have dropped out of school in Mashhad, in the form of a qualitative research. A narrative research method has been used to obtain the narrative of the lives of school dropouts. The statistical population of the study included Afghan immigrant children who had dropped out of school and lived in Mashhad. Data was collected through interviews with 20 children until reaching theoretical data saturation. Then, the narratives of each of the children were extracted and their narratives and processes were identified based on common patterns. To identify the challenges of the Afghan immigrant children out of school, the research findings showed that 1- Traditional and religious culture, whether in the acceptance of the religious role by the child or compulsorily by the family, causes the child to miss school; 2- The child's anxiety caused by the experience of war is the second factor that affects the process of her dropping out of school; 3- Labeling a child a delinquent by school officials makes a child proud, who considers delinquency a sign of masculinity. This is due to the subculture in which he grew up and caused him to drop out of school; 4. Due to the departure of the father from the cycle of head of the household due to addiction and disability, the children are studying or due to coercion or sacrifice, leave school and enter the labor market; 5. Among the child's relatives, the existence of unsuccessful educational patterns in Iran and successful non-educational patterns of immigrants migrating to European countries cause the child's family to consider his education useless. The child's educational motivation is lost, her desire to migrate is strengthened, and eventually the child leaves school; 6- A child who studied in Afghanistan and immigrated to Iran in the middle of the school year due to insecurity in Afghanistan is not accepted in the entrance exam of Iranian schools and degrades to lower levels of education because of the lack of educational compatibility between Iran and Afghanistan. In this way, the child's motivation to study is lost and causes him to stop studying.