Nevertheless, frequency of student attendance is one of the measures of system success. Although this measure of system success may result in the problematic tendency to view student success similarly (suggesting that what is good for the system is good for the student), regular or frequent attendance is a well established and salient measure of system success, measuring what is most measurable: that students continue to attend. In British Columbia institutional funding from government sources is usually tied to student attendance. It is useful to keep not only these perspectives in mind, but also to ask how the system can accommodate the student, rather than the reverse, for the system's own success. Therefore, it may be in the interest of the institution to examine how it might accommodate the student instead of focussing on how the student should adapt to the institution.

It must also be noted that student attendance fluctuates for many reasons beyond the scope of school influence. As well, it is likely that no single reason is sufficient to explain any student's attendance pattern. I am interested in discovering how student resistance, in particular, relates to student attendance. Therefore, the findings focus on and represent this (partial) description and interpretation of attendance behaviours.

Resistance Information

This section explores the concept of resistance as I have applied it in this research context: how the Fundamental ABE students manifested resistance and how their teachers addressed it. It begins with the definition of resistance used in this study. The presentation of the five categories of resistance behaviour that I developed from the data and which shaped my definition of resistance, follows. I used these five categories to organize the range and volume of resistance behaviours that I observed for each key student participant.