On African-Caribbean Boys and School Exclusion

This paper indicates a lacuna in social science explanation: that rising rates of exclusion from schools, which is a significant social issue, has received little attention from social scientists and has largely remained unexplained. Our suggestion is that this lacuna can be filled if we understand the psychodynamics of exclusion in general and of exclusion from schools in particular. In addition, attention to the psychodynamics of exclusion may well allow us to understand (1) how exclusion is seen as an act of hatred and violence (2) how the behaviour of the excluded may be changed by the lead up to, and the act of, exclusion, and (3) how exclusion makes subsequent re-inclusion difficult.

In a society which emphasizes the importance of social inclusion, the exclusion of students from compulsory schooling and the fate of those who are excluded later in life is a major issue. This is particularly the case, given evidence that the numbers of excluded school students has been rising for several years (Gillborn, “Exclusion”), and the apparent inability of schools to do anything about that rise. We will see, in the next section, that existing explanations for rising rates of exclusion and existing strategies to combat this rise, are, respectively, relatively unconvincing and relatively unsuccessful.

Who are Excluded: The Official Picture

Schools have the legal power to exclude students for a range of reasons: constant infringing of the school rules, violent behaviour, criminal behaviour, and disruptive behaviour. Those powers lie with the head teacher and the governing body. There are now two types of exclusion: fixed term and permanent with a number of the former usually leading to the latter. Statistics indicate that exclusions have been rising for a number of years, in both primary and secondary schools. In effect, students are being excluded at younger and younger ages. This is despite the fact that exclusion is, officially, seen as a last resort. As Gillbor