Up or down and out? A systemic analysis of young people's educational pathways in the youth justice system in England and Wales

Abstract

Many young people in the youth justice system in England and Wales are educationally marginalised and systemic barriers to their engagement with education persist. This article presents an analytical framework for understanding how education and youth justice practices shape young people's educational pathways during their time in the youth justice system with the aim of understanding the systemic dynamics that encourage or impede young people's engagement with education. It draws on data from a case study of 32 young people who were serving either a community or a custodial sentence under the supervision of one youth offending team in England and Wales. Using as analytical starting points Bourdieu's and Wacquant's conceptualisations of competing dynamics within the ‘bureaucratic field’ of state governance and Hodkinson's careership theory, this article discusses the interplay between exclusionary and inclusionary interests operating within and between the agencies of education and youth justice and the extent to which they play a role in sustaining young people's involvement in education or compounding their educational and social marginalisation.

Keywords:

• youth justice
• inclusive education
• neo-liberal governance
• social marginalisation

Notes on contributor

Caroline Lanskey is a postdoctoral researcher and teaching associate at the University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology. Her cross-disciplinary interests are drawn from her research in the fields of education and criminal justice and include the education of young people in the youth justice system (in custody and in the community), student voice and participation, citizenship and social justice.

Notes

1. Academies Act, 2010.

2. Apprenticeships, Skills and Children and Learning Act, 2009.

3. Education (School Leaving Date) Order 1997 (SI 1997 No. 1970).

4. Education Act, 1996.

5. Apprenticeships, Skills and Children and Learning Act, 2009.

6. Pseudonyms are used to protect the anonymity of the research participants.