Gale Macleod

What happens to pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units in England

There is widespread consensus in the research and policy‐related literature over the last decade that young people who have been permanently excluded from school are at a far greater risk of a variety of negative outcomes than young people who have not had this experience. These negative outcomes include prolonged periods out of education and/or employment; poor mental and physical health; involvement in crime; and homelessness. This article presents evidence from a small‐scale qualitative study of destinations and outcomes post‐exclusion for a group of young people considered to be at particular risk of such negative outcomes: namely, those who have been permanently excluded from special schools or Pupil Referral Units (now known as short‐stay schools). The specific focus of this paper is on the 24 young people’s educational trajectories pre‐ and post‐exclusion; the reasons for their exclusion from school; and on what forms of alternative provision were available to them after their permanent exclusion.

Experiences of disabled students in initial teacher education

This paper reports on a survey that aimed to explore the experiences of students undertaking initial teacher education and community education degrees in a Scottish university. The survey focused in particular on decisions around disclosure of disability and experiences on ‘placements’ in schools or community work settings. Findings indicated that many students chose not to disclose their disability, and for those who did this was a very individual process that was made up of a series of negotiations, rather than being a one‐off decision. Those students who did choose to discuss their disability during placements reported positive responses on the whole, although for a few students the demands of placement proved problematic. Implications are discussed in the context of the current disability legislation. In particular, the notion of attendance on placement as a required competence standard is considered.

Take More time to Actually Listen: Students' Reflections on Participation and Negotiation in School.

Behaviour in schools is an emotive topic and one of enduring political interest and sensitivity. The media often portrays schools as violent and dangerous places and young people as ever more unruly. This paper explores findings from a recent large-scale national study on behaviour and focuses on the data from primary and secondary school students within this study. The comments and suggestions offered by students move beyond a discussion of behaviour to focus on the broader questions of participation, engagement and meanings of active citizenship in school.

Tripping, slipping and losing the way: moving beyond methodological difficulties in social research

This article is intended as a contribution to the debate on the epistemology of educational research. It is as much concerned with research as a social process as it is with the process of social research. The authors draw upon ways of walking, discussions of embodiment, place and materiality, and their analogues in relation to the processes of social research in order to explore alternative ways of knowing, and to explore what happens when accounts of the difficulties in conducting research are generally suppressed in sanitised reports of research findings. The distinctions between ‘occupant’ and ‘inhabitant’ knowledge, and between wayfaring and travelling betoken radically different conceptions of applied research in the social sciences. The authors explore the potential of anthropological and literary metaphors to explain the methodological challenges encountered during a specific research project: a three‐year study of ‘routes, destinations and outcomes’ for a group of young people excluded from speci...

Locked Out: Researching Destinations and Outcomes for Pupils Excluded from Special Schools and Pupil Referral Units.

This article explores the methodological challenges encountered during a study of destinations and outcomes for pupils permanently excluded from Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and special schools in England. It outlines the manner in which the key phrases and assumptions embedded within the specification, terms such as routes and trajectories, destinations and outcomes, framed the study – and to some extent the researchers. The article is located within a growing body of scholarly activity that has raised important questions about the epistemological bases of educational research, the representation of complex social realities and methodological issues relating to the identification and tracking of ‘hard to find’ young people. The authors conclude that their apparent inability to find the answers to some rather straightforward questions is in fact data rather than lack of data.

Identifying obstacles to a multidisciplinary understanding of ‘disruptive’ behaviour

This paper examines the possibilities and challenges presented by an interdisciplinary approach to the study of disruptive behaviour. It is argued that whilst such an approach is to be welcomed, work needs to be done in order to ensure that educational research joins the discussion as an equal partner. The paper begins with a demonstration of how big the gap is between different approaches through a consideration of studies in educational sociology that take a ‘soft’ qualitative approach to research, and in neuropsychology, a ‘hard science’. The degree of divergence between these two approaches is then highlighted through a discussion of the ‘medicalisation’ of disruptive behaviour. The suggestion that educational research may be treated as a ‘poor relation’, with a focus on the underlying epistemological issues, is then examined.

A comparison of staff perceptions of behaviour in Scottish schools in 2009 and 2006

Behaviour in schools is an enduring public policy concern not only within the UK, but internationally also. Current concern should come as no surprise as behaviour is intimately connected with policy priorities for schools, namely raising standards of attainment and promoting social cohesion. Clearly, standards are threatened where disruptive behaviour takes place and teacher time is spent on maintaining an orderly classroom rather than on the formal curriculum. This article reports findings from two major surveys of perceptions of behaviour commissioned by the Scottish Government. It locates the work in the Scottish policy context and describes the contextual framework used to guide the collection and analysis of data. It highlights a positive move in perceptions particularly amongst secondary school teachers and suggests why this may be so.

Taking flight: trust, ethics and the comfort of strangers

This article explores the themes of trust and ethical conduct in social research, with particular attention to the trust that can develop between the members of a research team as well as between researchers and the researched. The authors draw upon a three-year empirical study of destinations and outcomes for young people excluded from alternative educational provision. They also make reference to a contemporary exposition of Aristotles writing on friendship in order to explore two sets of relevant distinctions that have a bearing upon our understanding of relationships that emerge in the context of social research projects. These distinctions are between impartiality and selectivity on the one hand, and between universality and particularity on the other. The authors attempt to demonstrate that these distinctions influence the development of trust and the conduct of ethical research, arguing that the latter is not synonymous with compliance to ethical guidelines.

Searching for excellence in education: knowledge, virtue and presence?

This article addresses two main questions: (1) what is excellence and (2) should epistemic excellence be the main purpose of education? Though references to excellence have become increasingly frequent in the UK education policy, these questions are perhaps especially important in Scotland where the curriculum is explicitly for excellence. Following Hirst and Peters, it is hypothesised that if the term ‘education’ implies possession of a certain breadth of general knowledge and understanding, then the term ‘excellence’ may imply a deep grasp of a specific body of knowledge. However, after consideration of Deweys suggestion that being present in the moment is an excellence of childhood, it is concluded that (1) the development of epistemic excellence (having a deep grasp of valuable knowledge) should be regarded as an educational purpose rather than the only educational purpose and (2) pupil engagement with public traditions of knowledge provides necessary but not sufficient conditions for education.

Caught in the net? Interdisciplinary perspectives on a longitudinal view of emotional and behavioural difficulties

This article explores some of the challenges of conducting longitudinal studies relating to emotional and behavioural difficulties, with reference to the small number of studies that exist in this area. The authors distinguish between longitudinal and follow up studies, drawing on examples from a range of disciplines. They then begin to explore the new avenues for researching the lives of young people presented by the growth in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook. The article also breaks new ground by drawing on the disciplines of philosophy and neuroscience in order to begin to theorise the notion of time. This is a fundamental element of the longitudinal view, but one that is not generally addressed in studies that invite people to look back over their lives.