Exclusion from school and recognition of difference

ABSTRACT

There has been an overall decrease in exclusion rates and numbers in recent years across the UK. This change has often been heralded as evidence that national inclusion policies are ‘working’ and that schools themselves are becoming increasingly inclusive. This article examines findings from a recent study on school exclusion in Wales, noting that exclusion is falling here in line with UK wide trends. However, exclusion rates of children with special needs and others who face multiple disadvantages remain stubbornly high. Given these findings, and the evidence that this is the case across the UK, an important question arises about the broader relationship between school exclusion and inequality. This article seeks to address this question, and asks whether and to what extent the politics of recognition of difference, in Nancy Fraser's terms, can help explain the continuing over-representation of some groups of marginalised and vulnerable children in exclusion figures, despite this overall downward trend.

KEYWORDS:

• Exclusion
• children's rights
• educational inequality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘Unlawful exclusion’ occurs when child is ordered to leave school premises because of serious misbehaviour, but where no record is kept of this and parents or carers not formally informed in writing as required in law.