ERIC Number: EJ1256033
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Jun
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0141-1926
EISSN: N/A
Painful Invisibilities: Roll Management or 'Off-Rolling' and Professional Identity
Done, Elizabeth J.; Knowler, Helen
British Educational Research Journal, v46 n3 p516-531 Jun 2020
'Off-rolling' is widely defined as the illegal removal of students from a school roll, unlike permanent exclusion, which involves sanctioned formal procedures. It is a practice that brings very different logics, political agendas, governmental imperatives and the associated matter of school leader professional identity into sharp relief. Deviant professional identities have already been discursively constituted, despite the current lack of research into the motivation of senior school leaders who engage in 'off-rolling'. This article draws on Foucault to explore tensions between a political standards and an inclusion agenda, and to consider how the professional identities of senior school leaders are shaped such that 'off-rolling' becomes possible. It is suggested that chronic underfunding of the inclusion agenda has combined with what England's Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) now describes as an over-emphasis on academic performance to create unsustainable pressures on many senior school leaders. The descriptor 'contextual roll management' may therefore be more appropriate. The moral outrage which accompanies public and political discourse around 'off-rolling' is theorised with reference to Apple, Ball and Popkewitz. Such moral indignation distracts attention from the wider socio-political and economic context within which schools are now required to deliver academic progress and inclusion. We conclude the article by outlining key empirical questions that have yet to be addressed.
Descriptors: Professional Identity, Political Attitudes, Instructional Leadership, Educational Philosophy, Standards, Inclusion, Administrator Attitudes, Educational Finance, Academic Achievement, Moral Values, Politics of Education, Economic Factors, Stress Variables, Educational Practices, Admission (School), Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A