Girls and Exclusion: Rethinking the Agenda

220 Pages·2003·0.97 MB·English

by  Audrey Osler

Girls and Exclusion
The widespread view that girls are succeeding in education and are
therefore ‘not a problem’ is a myth. By drawing directly on girls’
own accounts and experiences of school life and those of profes-
sionals working with disaffected youth, this book offers startling
new perspectives on the issue of exclusion and underachievement
amongst girls.
The book demonstrates how the social and educational needs of
girls and young women have slipped down the policy agenda in the
UK and internationally. The authors argue for a re-definition of
school exclusion which covers the types of exclusion commonly
experienced by girls, such as truancy, self-exclusion, or school drop-
out as a result of pregnancy. Drawing on girls’ own ideas, the authors
make recommendations as to how schools might develop as more
inclusive communities where the needs of both boys and girls are
addressed equally.
This book is essential reading for postgraduate students, teachers,
policy-makers and LEA staff dedicated to genuine social and
educational inclusion.
Audrey Osler is Professor of Education and Director of the Centre
for Citizenship Studies in Education at the University of Leicester.
Kerry Vincent was employed as a Research Fellow at the Centre
for Citizenship Studies in Education before taking the position of
Educational Psychologist with Cheshire LEA.

Girls and Exclusion
Rethinking the agenda
Audrey Osler and Kerry Vincent
First published 2003 by RoutledgeFalmer
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeFalmer
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2003 Audrey Osler and Kerry Vincent
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Osler, Audrey.
Girls and exclusion : rethinking the agenda / Audrey Osler and
Kerry Vincent.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–415–30315–X – ISBN 0–415–30316–8 (pbk.)
1. Student suspension – Great Britain. 2. Student expulsion –
Great Britain. 3. Girls – Education – Great Britain. I. Vincent,
Kerry, 1961– . II. Title.
LB3089.4.G7 O84 2003
371.5′43 – dc21 2002036707
ISBN 0-203-46520-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-47229-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–30315–X (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–30316–8 (pbk)
Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgements xv
Acronyms and abbreviations xvii
Introduction: rethinking exclusion and inclusion 1
PART 1
The policy context 9
1 Girls: not a problem? 11
2 Re-defining inclusion and exclusion 33
PART II
Girls in and out of school 59
3 Sanctions and support 61
4 Success and survival 81
5 Experiences of exclusion and inclusion 112
6 Barriers to achievement 135
PART III
Including girls 167
7 Lessons for schools and policy-makers 169
vi Contents
Notes 177
References 180
Index 191
Foreword
In contemporary Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland,
Northern Ireland, Scandinavia, Europe, Canada and the USA,
popular and policy discussions about the relationships between
gender and schooling are dominated by concerns about the educa-
tion of boys (Hayes, 1998). Issues associated with girls’ education
have all but disappeared from public debate and policy (see, however,
Social Exclusion Unit, 1999; Bullen, Kenway and Hey, 2000).
Indeed, the debate is couched in such a way as to give the impression
that no issues remain about girls’ education. All girls are implicitly
portrayed as winners and all boys as losers. Indeed, the insinuation
is that girls’ success has been at the expense of boys’ failure. The
situation is different in research circles. While articles and books
about boys dominate the literature, only some treat boys as a unified
group and implicitly blame females for boys’ alleged failure (e.g.
West, 1995; Biddulph, 1997). However, most such literature focuses
on the differences between boys and the implications of such differ-
ences for their educational experiences and outcomes (e.g. Mac an
Ghaill, 1996; Gilbert and Gilbert, 1998). Although articles on girls
and more broadly on education and gender relations continue to be
published, scholarly books on girls and schooling are relatively rare
(see, however, Walkerdine, Lucey and Melody, 2001). For this reason
alone this book is welcome but of course it is also welcome for
important other reasons as I will go on to explain.
The concern about boys has led to numerous government inquir-
ies and reports. In 1999 Cherry Collins, Julie McLeod and I were
commissioned by the Australian government to undertake an over-
view and analysis of the existing databases and research findings in
this country. We were required to identify and explain the ways in
which gender is connected to school retention, participation,
viii Foreword
performance and post-school destinations. We were also asked to
assess the relative impact of such other variables as geographical
location, ethnicity and socio-economic status. The implicit aim in
the latter case was to move the current public and policy debates
about gender beyond the simplistic binary logic that had character-
ised them to date. The aim was to move it beyond what we called the
‘gender see-saw’ approach to one that recognised complexity; we
called it the ‘gender jig saw’ approach. Such recognition of complex-
ity is evident in this book. Although its focus is on girls, it attends to
what we have called elsewhere ‘geometries of multiple differences’
(Kraack and Kenway, 2002). This is a hybrid term that blends Hara-
way’s (1991) notion of a ‘geometry of difference’ and Massey’s
(1993) ‘power-geometry’. As we argue:
This concept allows the different vectors of identity (including
class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and age) to be considered
within the dynamics of contemporary circumstances. Different
strands of identity are examined as they move across time and
space. The notion ‘geometries of multiple differences’ does not
prioritize any one identity vector, but views each in relation to
the others within constantly changing contexts.
(Kraack and Kenway, 2002: 147)
Our report (Collins, Kenway and McLeod, 2000b) points to the
many nuances and complexities of the connections between gender
and education across time and space and in particular it clarifies
‘which girls and which boys’ can be understood as educationally
disadvantaged. The Report demonstrates that girls and boys from
backgrounds that are of ‘low socio-economic status’ (SES) are the
most disadvantaged students. We argue that
girls and boys from low SES groups tend to be disadvantaged in
the following ways:
(cid:127) Many more of them face the risks associated with leaving
school early.
(cid:127) Many more select school subjects, subject clusters and post
school education and training that largely lead them
towards low SES employment.
(cid:127) Many more of them have lower school achievement which
severely restricts their educational and career choices and
Foreword ix
thus increases the chance of their social exclusion and of
cumulative social disadvantage.
(Collins, Kenway and McLeod, 2000b: 7–8)
Our report also suggests that their particular disadvantages may be
manifest differently according to gender, race and locality and that
more research needs to be conducted into such differences (Collins,
Kenway and McLeod, 2000b: 7–8).
At the time of writing the report we were unable to locate any
studies that looked at the question of school exclusion (or ‘suspen-
sion and expulsion’ as we call it in Australia), let alone any that
considered girls and exclusion as this book does. The related focus
then was on school retention – that is, on staying on at or leaving
school. Indeed, many major government policies around the world
have been directed towards ensuring that students stay at school for
as long as possible and certainly beyond the compulsory years. Such
policies in Australia include curriculum reform, vocational educa-
tion in schools, and various youth and family allowances schemes.
Remaining at school through Years 11 and 12 has thus become the
norm and leaving early is considered a problem, particularly if stu-
dents leave during or before Year 10 (under-age school leavers). As
we demonstrated, there are links between gender and retention, but
to best understand the links, a nuanced reading of the figures related
to school and post-school life is required.
The data we considered showed that girls’ rates of retention in
Australia have steadily increased, and boys’ rates have ebbed and
flowed in accordance with ups and downs in the economy. Currently
boys are leaving school earlier than girls and many read this as a
further disadvantage experienced by boys in comparison with girls.
However, we showed that leaving school early is not always prob-
lematic for all boys since boys who leave school early are better able
to access work and training than are girls. But of course leaving early
is particularly problematic for some boys who are more likely to be
‘unemployed’ than the girls who leave early. That said, it is vital to
note that leaving school early is almost always problematic for girls.
Girls find it far more difficult to access paid work than their male
peers and they tend to be significantly over-represented in the ‘out
of the labour market’ figures as we explain further in Collins,
Kenway and McLeod (2000a). Under-age school leavers of both
sexes face particular problems. Drawing on Australian data which
are unfortunately not broken down by gender, Brooks et al. (1997)