In neo-liberal times educational policy and practice is being realigned more closely to the shifting imperatives of the market with damaging effects on the lives of young people. Whilst the rhetoric suggests that schools are safe, welcoming and caring environments for the benefit of all, the veracity is very different for significant numbers of…

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…

Focus groups were conducted with middle and high school students (N = 78) in nine urban, suburban and rural schools to examine students' perceptions regarding school-based respect. Students defined school-based respect as treating others as you would like to be treated, listening to others, honoring others' property/personal space, and refraining…

This article focuses upon recent initiatives aimed at improving the management of disaffected students in Wales. Historically, schools in Wales over the last hundred years have consistently had to manage larger numbers of disaffected students, especially truants and school absentees, than in other parts of the United Kingdom. In her annual report…

In this article, the author explores some particularly "luminous" paradoxes that have emerged from qualitative material gathered as part of an ethnographic study carried out over the last five years. The research, now a doctoral study, grew initially out of the author's own contradictory experiences of running learning provision in the English…

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…

The establishment of positive relationships between home and school has long been recognised as a desirable state which can have a significant bearing upon the success of students both academically and socially. By contrast, when relationships between schools and parents or carers falter, the consequences can be detrimental to all parties and in…

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…

What causes students to leave school? According to Azzam (2007), over 47% of students in the United States who drop out of school reported they did so because school was boring and irrelevant to their life situation. What can schools and teachers do to encourage students to stay in school? One possible solution may be to look at experiential…

Social exclusion is a serious social problem. Not "fitting in" at school may be an experience that can scar children psychologically for life. This is unsurprising since being part of the "in crowd" (i.e. accepted in-group members) is extremely important to children and adolescents. Being rejected by one's peers can cause an increase in antisocial…

Alternative education programmes, in the form of vocational education and flexible or personalised curricula, are rapidly becoming established as a main plank in both mainstream and special schools' responses to pupil disaffection. In this paper, "alternative curriculum" will be used as an umbrella term to include all forms of curricula which are…

The establishment of the UK government's OFSTED (school inspection service), published league tables, standardised testing, the literacy and numeracy strategy, imposed external targets for improvement, performance related pay and the gifted and talented programme, show the present government's concerns with educational improvement. Schools have…

Ideally, school would be a place where all students feel that they belong. However, the reality is that many students feel as though they do not belong to their school community. Alienated or disaffected students are an endemic problem in schools in Australia, as elsewhere, affecting the whole school community along with the life chances for the…

In the United Kingdom the educational phase that exists between compulsory school (for ages 5-16) and universities is dominated and controlled by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). This body was established in late 2000 as a state funded quasi-governmental educational agency. This small scale qualitative study of educational provision in the…