Alternative education on Prince Edward Island: a hybrid of ‘mainstream’ and special education

ABSTRACT

Alternative education programmes have acted as a disciplinary practice used by schools in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, as a response to providing students, especially those identified with challenging behaviours, who do not fit into ‘mainstream’ schools.

This article highlights the emergence of alternative education in PEI and brings to light the complexities underpinning how a child with challenging behaviour is viewed. Through the use of Foucauldian genealogical analysis and critical discourse analysis, this research centres on the discourse of ‘alternative education’ and problematises how alternative education programmes have been put in place as a solution to the problem of the child with challenging behaviour in ‘mainstream’ schools as constituted in the 1990s in PEI, Canada.

Using data generated from educational policies, government documents, and interviews with educators who worked in alternative placements and practitioners who worked with students identified as having problematic behaviour, I propose that alternative education programmes are hybrid programmes emerging from an overlapping of understanding from ‘mainstream’ education and ‘special education’.

KEYWORDS:

• ‘At risk’
• alternative education
• challenging behaviour
• genealogy
• inclusion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In 2016, PEI merged the Eastern School District and Western School Board into one English board known as the Public Schools Branch.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolyn M. Thorne

Carolyn M. Thorne is an assistant professor and academic lead in the Master of Leadership and Learning (Inclusive Education cohort), Faculty of Education UPEI. Her research interests include children with challenging behaviour, social emotional learning, and interdisciplinary research in discourses of medicine, psychology, education, and justice.