Problematizing School Exclusion: Perspectives From UK Wide Study of School Exclusion

• In Event: Reckoning With Exclusionary School Discipline: Illuminating Cross-National Patterns

Abstract

Objective: This paper critically examines school exclusion practices across the UK, focusing on remedying inequities and repairing harmful systems. Adapting Graham and Thrift's (2007) conceptualization of repair to analyze schools' responses to disruptions, reveal hidden infrastructures of exclusion. We develop a cultural-historical theory of exclusions to uncover tensions between policies aimed at educational excellence and those promoting inclusive practices. Our aim is to explore factors contributing to differential rates of school exclusion across the UK and the disproportionate exclusion of marginalized student groups. By identifying contradictions between exclusionary policies and inclusive ideals, we seek to uncover potential avenues for just education renewal.
Theoretical Framework: We employ a dual theoretical approach to examine school exclusion practices and their consequences. First, we repair and maintenance theory to analyze how schools respond to perceived threats to order, uncovering hidden infrastructures of exclusion used as "repairs" to disruptions. This framework allows us to challenge the normalcy of these mechanisms and propose equitable alternatives. Second, we develop a cultural-historical perspective to examine contradictions between policies for educational excellence and inclusive practices. By tracing legislative devolution across UK jurisdictions, we show how this led to differentiated exclusion practices, and analyze how these contradictions manifest in school cultures, and identifies opportunities for disrupting harmful practices.
Methods & Data: The paper draws upon data from the UK-wide ESRC funded, Political Economies of School Exclusion and their Consequences Study (POLESE 2019-2024), informally known as the Excluded Lives Study. The paper draws from the perspectives of school leaders and teachers across the UK, involving qualitative interviews with school principals (n=33) and 23 focus groups with teachers (n=103). We also draw from policy documentary analyses from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and empirical data from interviews with excluded young people (n=200). The paper will examine differential rates of exclusion across the UK and the prevalence of informal and unofficial methods of exclusion used by schools.
Results: The Graham and Thrift model helps conceptualize why schools use informal exclusions and provides evidence which points to the use of discretion in deciding if an exclusion should occur; a general reluctance to formally exclude students and attempts by some schools to reframe or legitimize the use of certain informal practices.
Policy divergence across the UK relating to school exclusions has both cultural and historical roots. In England, for example, this has resulted in the over-exclusion of certain categories of marginalized students. In extreme cases the development of a ‘common sense’ of exclusion in the ‘everydayness’ of school cultures arises as schools struggle to resolve dilemmas and contradictions formed between the perverse incentives of different policy frameworks.
Scholarly significance: The need for theoretical interrogation of the discourse of school exclusion arises from its contradiction with ‘practice-in-reality’. The scholarly significance of the paper arises from the need to disrupt these contradictions and contribute to a reconceptualization of practice in the interests of fairness and social justice.

Authors

• Gavin Duffy, Queen's University - Belfast

• Gareth Robinson, Queen's University - Belfast

• Ian Thompson, University of Oxford

• Tony M. Gallagher, Queen's University - Belfast