By Sheila Mckenzie-
A research team led by top Uk University of Oxford has been granted £2.55m to analyse the impact of school exclusions across the UK, The Eye Of Media.Com has learnt.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, it aims to develop a “multi-disciplinary understanding of the political, economic, and consequences of school exclusion”. It will also look at the costs for individuals, institutions and the system at large as well as the rights and entitlements of pupils. The announcement comes as a recent survey revealed that an overwhelming number of teachers in the Uk prefer the option of excluding nuisance pupils than managing them.
The four-year project, commencing today, will be led by the University of Oxford’s department of education, and also include researchers across Reading, the London School of Economics, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.Rising exclusion rates have been under the spotlight recently.
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This project aims to highlight fairer and more productive outcomes for pupils. In May, the long-awaited Timpson exclusions review published its findings, with recommendations including making schools responsible for the results of pupils they exclude, giving councils more power to review pupil movement, and revising the 45-day suspension limit. The Department for Education agreed to the proposals “in principle”.
PERSPECTIVES
Harry Daniels, professor of education at Oxford and consultant principal investigator for the research, described exclusion “as a process” which can only be understood “when examined from multiple professional and disciplinary perspectives”.
“Education policy has also largely ignored the work conducted by school and welfare professionals that attempts to address disruptive behaviour to prevent more serious incidents, the very bright professor said.
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“Exclusion is a process, rather than a single incident, that can only be fully understood when examined from multiple professional and disciplinary perspectives “Education policy has also largely ignored the work conducted by school and welfare professionals that attempts to address disruptive behaviour to prevent more serious incidents.
This project therefore aims to highlight ways in which fairer and more productive outcomes can be achieved for pupils, their families, and professionals by comparing the ways in which policy and practice around exclusions differ in the four jurisdictions.
“This project therefore aims to highlight ways in which fairer and more productive outcomes can be achieved for pupils, their families and professionals by comparing the ways in which policy and practice around exclusions differ in the four jurisdictions.”
SPLIT
The research is to be split into three. Landscapes of exclusion will examine the ways in which policies and legal framework shapes interventions are designed to prevent exclusion, the financial costs and patterns and characteristics in exclusion. The impact of exclusions itself will focus on the experiences of families, pupils and professionals. This will assess the risks and consequences of exclusion. The integration aspect will aim to develop a coherent multi-disciplinary understanding of the findings.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Themes will include children’s rights, youth crime, values and religion, geographical context, gender and ethnicity, social class, special needs and disability and mental health. The research is to cover the whole of UK. The University of Oxford department of education said exclusions in England have risen rapidly, but remain low or have fallen in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
PRESSURE
Initial research carried out by the team, first established in 2014, revealed instances in which the pressures on schools to perform well in examination league tables can lead to the exclusion of pupils whose predicted attainment would reflect badly on the schools. Exclusion of pupils based on bad performance is illegal, but a number of schools have used such stringent approaches to make students serious.
Ian Thompson, Associate Professor of English Education at Oxford’s Department of Education and Co-Principal Investigator for the research commented: “Exclusions have long and short-term consequences in terms of academic achievement, well-being, mental health, and future prospects. Previous research and official statistics show that school exclusions are also far more likely to affect pupils with special needs, from low income families, and some ethnic backgrounds.”
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