Secondary school students who had disengaged from mainstream classrooms have demonstrated that they had maintained hope in achieving a positive outcome from education. In a long-running schools-university project that employed a "students-as-researchers" method to investigate apparent low aspiration for tertiary education, at-risk students enthusiastically produced high quality results. This paper outlines the project and addresses the features that the participants state were instrumental in their re-engagement and that have re-connected them with formal education. These features are then considered in relation to maintaining the educational engagement of at-risk students in mainstream classrooms. The production of an award-winning DVD, conceptualized and created by the students, illustrates the quality of their engagement and provides a starting point for discussion.
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