In Hilary term 2020, the department ran a six-part seminar series on ‘Exclusion from School and its Consequences’ convened by the department’s Harry Daniels and Ian Thompson.
This series was run as part of Excluded Lives, a newly funded ESRC project.
The main objective of this research is to develop a multi-disciplinary understanding of the political economies and consequences of school exclusion across the UK. School exclusion has long and short-term consequences in terms of academic achievement, well-being, mental health, and future prospects. Yet there are great differences in the rates of permanent school exclusion in different parts of the UK with numbers rising rapidly in England but remaining relatively low or falling in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For example, in the latest available figures there were 7,900 permanent exclusions in England (2017-18) compared to just three in Scotland (2018-19). However, these figures do not account for many informal and illegal forms of exclusion. In this research, home international comparisons of historical and current policy, practice and legal frameworks relating to school exclusion will be conducted for the first time. Previous research and official government statistics show that exclusions are far more likely to affect pupils from specific groups e.g. low-income families, from some ethnic backgrounds, or with special needs. This project therefore aims to highlight ways in which fairer and more productive outcomes can be achieved for pupils, their families, and professionals by comparing the ways in which policy and practice around exclusions differ in the four jurisdictions.
The research will be undertaken by the multi-disciplinary (criminology, economics, education, law, psychiatry, sociology, and disability studies) and multi-site (the universities of Oxford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Queen’s Belfast, and the LSE) Excluded Lives Research Team established in 2014. Find out more here.
Listen to the podcasts in full:
Differences in rates of School Exclusions in the Four Jurisdictions of the UK
Speakers: Harry Daniels, Ian Thompson and Alice Tawell (Department of Education, University of Oxford)
Listen to the podcast here
Further information can be found here
Alternative Provision and School Exclusions
Speaker: Martin Mills (Institute of Education, University College London)
Listen to the podcast here
Further information can be found here
Behaviour and Attitudes in the Education Inspection Framework
Speaker: Daniel Owen (Ofsted)
Podcast to follow here shortly
Further information can be found here
Exclusion and Mental Health: Exploring the Role of Improved Provision in Schools
Speaker: Mina Fazel (University of Oxford)
Listen to the podcast here
Further information can be found here
Law and Exclusion from School
Speaker: Lucinda Ferguson (University of Oxford)
Listen to the podcast here
Further information can be found here
From Inclusion to Exclusion from School: Transforming the Lives of Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Speakers: Jill Porter and Ruth Moyse (University of Reading)
Podcast to follow here shortly
Further information can be found here
