They just want the perfect kids on show’
The illegal exclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities from primary schools
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11160459 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Megan Whitehouse (0000-0002-6823-8459, School of Education University of Birmingham Birmingham UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1358-1374 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-1926 • E-ISSN: 1469-3518 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/berj.70070 |
| OpenAlex | W4416982693 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
Guidance from the Department for Education stipulates that permanent exclusions should only be used as a last resort and where there is potential for harm to come to anyone in the school setting. Suspensions are positioned as a tool to communicate to a pupil that their behaviour is in breach of the school's behaviour policy. However, some children are excluded for reasons that do not meet such conditions. One such example can be found in cases of illegal exclusion or ‘off‐rolling’. While academic knowledge of illegal exclusion is limited, research shows that it is unlikely to be a small‐scale problem; evidence also indicates that Black children and children with social, emotional and mental health problems are disproportionately impacted. This paper draws upon interviews with education professionals working in and with primary schools in the West Midlands, and parents of children excluded from primary schools, to demonstrate the mechanisms through which illegal exclusions take place. The interview data were analysed through the lenses of childism and an ethics of care. Using these lenses, this paper discusses how care is co‐opted to justify the further marginalisation of SEND children and serve the needs of an education market whereby performance and Ofsted outcomes must take priority, whatever the human cost. As such, illegal exclusionary practices are positioned as a systemic issue encouraged by a school system that promotes the valuing of competition, academic attainment and high‐stakes accountability above genuine inclusion
Academic achievement · Accountability · Educational attainment · Harm · Inclusion (mineral) · School choice · Social exclusion · Special education · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Education Discipline and Inequality · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
Childism, Intersectionality and the Rights of the Child
The caring relation in teaching
The Ethics of Care
A tension between rationalities
Thematic Analysis
Performative pedagogies of care and the emerging geographies of school exclusion for students with disability
Inclusive education in the (new) era of anti-immigration policy
An Ethic of Caring and Its Implications for Instructional Arrangements
Off‐rolling’ and Foucault’s art of visibility/invisibility
Identity Processes, Threat, and Interpersonal Relations
Pedagogies of care in performative schools
| Highly cited | No |
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