Hugs and behaviour points: alternative education and the regulation of ‘excluded’ youth

Thomson, Pat; Pennacchia, Jodie

Abstract

In England, alternative education (AE) is offered to young people formally excluded from school, close to formal exclusion or who have been informally pushed to the educational edges of their local school. Their behaviour is seen as needing to change. In this paper, we examine the behavioural regimes at work in 11 AE programmes. Contrary to previous studies and the extensive ‘best practice’ literature, we found a return to highly behaviourist routines, with talking therapeutic approaches largely operating within this Skinnerian frame. We also saw young people offered a curriculum largely devoid of languages, humanities and social sciences. What was crucial to AE providers, we argue, was that they could demonstrate ‘progress’ in both learning and behaviour to inspectors and systems. Mobilising insights from Foucault, we note the congruence between the external regimes of reward and punishment used in AE and the kinds of insecure work and carceral futures that might be on offer to this group of young people.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Oct 30, 2015
• Journal: International Journal of Inclusive Education
• Print ISSN: 1360-3116
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-5173
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• APA6 Citation: Thomson, P., & Pennacchia, J. (2015). Hugs and behaviour points: alternative education and the regulation of ‘excluded’ youth. International Journal of Inclusive Education, doi:10.1080/13603116.2015.1102340
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1102340
• Keywords: inclusion, alternative education, behaviourism, therapeutic approach, Foucault
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603116.2015.1102340
• Copyright Statement: Copyright information regarding this work can be found at the following address: http://eprints.nottingh.../end_user_agreement.pdf
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Inclusive Education on 30/10/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline..../13603116.2015.1102340.