A lack of sense of school belonging can be a destabilising aspect in disaffected students' lives, so much so that they will often seek an alternative sense of belonging outside of the school arena. Gaining out-of-school acceptance within the non-conforming, graffiti subculture is dependent upon proving one's worth through willing engagement in…

Recent concerns in the UK about youth disaffection, anti-social behaviour and gang culture have led to an increase in pre-emptive intervention strategies focused on the policing of groups of young people. This article explores the literature on youth/police relationships and the evidence that suggests that preventive police strategies may have…

This article reports a research that is based on a European Safer Schools Partnership that included ten countries and specifically the UK case study which was located in London. The initiators of this partnership had been involved in early SSPs in the UK and the educationalists were very much focussed on work that would address problematic…

Suspension increases the likelihood of a student being expelled, dropping out, and being incarcerated, a phenomenon dubbed the "school to prison pipeline". One less punitive model of discipline that is gaining popularity worldwide is "restorative justice". Though restorative justice is now being used in the US to address racial disproportionality…

In this article the author presents results from an ongoing study about a special education programme in Switzerland for students with behavior disorders. The study explores careers and identities of adolescent students, who were referred to so-called "Timeout-classes" because of behavior disorders (e.g disengagement, disruptive and aggressive…

This article presents second year evaluation results from a unique collaboration between a global corporation and a community school system in the southeastern United States. The purpose of the program was to help-at-risk students graduate from high school and develop responsible citizenship while increasing corporate employee retention. This…

In Hong Kong, students with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are generally shunned by teachers in mainstream schools both because of their misconduct and as a result of their disaffected attitude towards learning. Consequently, these students are generally placed in special schools. This paper is the first of its kind to report…

This study attempts to answer the following research question: What are the factors that prevent students from completing high school? The participants in this study included 228 current and recent students from General Educational Development (GED) programs across the state of Texas. In an effort to gain a clearer picture of circumstances faced…

This paper describes a research project that has its origins in a broader research programme in Citizenship Education that is being undertaken by the intercultural education research group (GREDI) at the University of Barcelona. The programme, "From school to community," is intended to serve as a framework for teaching the process of active…

How welcome parents and carers feel at their children's school seems likely to have a significant influence on the degree to which they and their children engage with its educational programme. The ethos of the school and the nature of the classroom environment as determined by teachers are therefore significant and continuing features of its…

The UK-I-Can Program is an adaptation of the Amer-I-Can Program, introduced in 1988 to help individuals meet their full potential and improve the quality of their lives. The focus of the program is equipping young people with life management skills necessary to lead fulfilling and productive lives, based on the belief that individuals' self-esteem…

The work the authors are going to describe in this paper is an account of the attempt to re-establish an educational relationship with adolescent drop-outs, for whom school often represented a cage from which they either escaped or were expelled. An experimental school scheme named the Chance Project has been operating in Naples for the past three…

The crammer school is a very widespread yet controversial phenomenon in Taiwan, carrying with it negative connotations. Based on a qualitative enquiry, this paper explores the views of teachers, parents and students on issues around cramming and disaffection. The conclusions drawn are only exploratory and indicate two contradictory possibilities:…

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program has become a valuable resource in the implementation of the Puerto Rico Department of Education's educational reform process. To support the process, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico granted computerized equipment, reading and mathematics software and training designed for schools. This included reading…

An examination of the literature on the characteristics of at-risk students largely cites demographics, socio-economic factors and minority status as identifying factors (DeRidder, 1988; Green and Scott, 1995; Peng, Lee, and Walberg, 1992; Rodriguez, 1997). According to the National Center for Education Statistics (1994), minority students of low…