Pushed to the Edge: Inclusion and Behaviour Support in Schools

While debates rage about educational inequality and the best way to tackle attainment gaps, a pervasive form of in-school segregation is going largely unremarked upon. Internal behaviour support units have become common fixtures in British schools. Young people may be removed from mainstream classrooms for weeks, months or even years to undergo rehabilitative programmes that incur little monitoring or oversight.

This original book is the first to provide a detailed insight into the politics and practices of internal school exclusion, highlighted through the experiences of the young people attending the units. Ambitious in its scope, it draws on intensive ethnographic research with pupils, their teachers and parents to address broad questions around social justice, equal opportunities and institutional racism. It will appeal to students, researchers and practitioners in education, social policy, sociology and beyond.

Val Gillies is Professor of Social Policy/Criminology at the University of Westminster. She researches in the area of family, social class, marginalised children and young people, and historical comparative analysis.