"Please Leave the Classroom": The Private Troubles and Public Issue of Classroom Expulsions

• In Event: Interrogating Systemic Inequity: From Standards to K–12 Spaces

Abstract

This paper explores the under-researched topic of classroom expulsion. Most research concentrates on formal expulsion from the school premises. However, this is only one dimension of exclusion. In this paper we focus on being removed from the classroom. Drawing on cohort data from students and interviews with school principals and other stakeholders in Wales, we find that classroom expulsion is a common phenomenon. Moreover, the frequency of these expulsions reflects wider patterns of exclusionary processes, particularly in respect of socio-economic disadvantage. The paper examines how the capacity of schools to ‘contain’ students within their walls is also unevenly distributed and concludes by discussing how particular policy approaches may suppress rather than resolve the enduring issue of ‘deviant’ students.

Authors

• Sally Anne Power, Cardiff University

• Chris Taylor, Cardiff University