Exploring the causes and consequences of school exclusion and the experiences of young people involved

About

Excluded Lives

Excluded Lives is a multi-disciplinary project across the four jurisdictions of the UK based in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. 

The overarching aim of this project is to provide a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary view of the different policies, practices and costs of formal, informal and illegal school exclusions across the UK.

The project will explore the different landscapes of exclusion and the experiences of the young people involved.

This research will provide the basis on which the consequences of different political economies may be understood, decisions of policy makers and professionals may be improved, and experiences of pupils’ and their families enhanced.

EVENT

Understanding School Exclusion

You are warmly invited to the David Raffe Memorial Lecture 2024, ‘Understanding school exclusion: what can we learn from a home international comparison?’, presented by Professor Gillean McCluskey.

What we do

Our research

The research is organised into three work strands: 

Strand A:

Landscapes of exclusion

Strand A work packages examine the ways in which policies and legal frameworks shape interventions designed to prevent exclusions; the financial costs associated with exclusion; and patterns and characteristics of exclusion

A1. School exclusion policy levers, drivers and legal frameworks across the UK jurisdictions

A2a. Explorations of school exclusions and their social origins

A2b. The social costs of exclusion: Medium- and long-term socio-economic and behavioural consequences of school exclusion

A3. The landscape of public, private and third sector provision

Strand B:

Experiences of exclusion

Strand B work packages will focus on families’, pupils’ and professionals’ experiences of the risks and consequences of exclusion.

B1: Professionals’ conceptualisations of risk and vulnerabilities

B2: The perspectives of school leaders and teachers on the exclusion process 

B3: Students’ and families’ experiences of formal, informal and illegal exclusion in the political economies of the four UK jurisdictions

Strand C:

Costs & Findings

Strand C will evaluate the costs of school exclusions at individual, institutional and system levels; carry out within and cross-jurisdiction analyses; and conduct full multi-disciplinary integration of these findings.

C1: Economic costs of exclusion

C2: Cross-jurisdiction analysis

C3: Full multi-disciplinary integration

Publications

Featured publications

Seeking a balance: Conversations with policy makers and influencers about intervening upstream to prevent school exclusions in the context of Covid-19 and beyond

As schools get underway with the COVID-19 recovery phase in England, there is growing consensus among practitioners and policy professionals that rebuilding based on pre-COVID specifications will lead to the re-establishment of a previously broken system; a system which saw the most vulnerable children and young people in society slipping through the cracks. Read more

Restoring the balance: Policy recommendation justifications for collective responsibility in the post Covid-19 era

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed stark inequalities in our society, not least in school education. Read more

Getting the balance right: Policy recommendations for intervening upstream to prevent school exclusion in the context of Covid-19

Recommendations for policy makers that will support the successful reintegration of children and young people as they return to education in schools, sixth form colleges, further education colleges, special schools and pupil referral units and mitigate the risks of exclusion. Read more

News & Social Media

Latest posts

The need for better understanding on the effectiveness of measures to address school exclusion
The need for better understanding on the effectiveness of measures to address school exclusion

by Kyann Zhang, LSE School exclusion has been a topic of rising interest over the past few decades, and with this there is ... Read more

The Importance of Youth Voice in Alternative Provision Research

Dr Craig Johnston, The University of the West of England, Bristol. Dr Simon Bradford, Brunel University, London. Research with ... Read more