Beyond ’Bad Behavior’

A Critical-Psychological Exploration of the Necessity of School Exclusions

Abstract

School exclusions – including expulsions, suspensions, and classroom expulsions – are often articulated as necessary reactions to the students’ ‘bad behavior’. In my PhD, from which I will present points in this article, I challenge this understanding. I show how exclusions are rather the result of complex practice dynamics. The analysis is based on a critical-psychological, practice epistemological approach with three perspectives: An intersubjective (relations between participants), an intrapractical (negotiation of the common matter of the practice), and an interpractical (connections among practices). This dialectical approach is chosen not only on the basis of ontological considerations, but also due to an ambition to produce politically relevant research. On the basis of this approach, and a document analysis, case studies, fieldwork, and experiments, this article focuses on two exemplary episodes: a temporary suspension and a classroom expulsion. The first episode shows how the school manager articulates the exclusion through a juridical logic, which makes it sound as if the exclusion happened by itself, based on a student’s ‘bad behavior’. This ideological articulation stands in opposition to the reality that appears in the case, where other practical circumstances play a role. The second episode shows how the necessity of classroom expulsions develops in a conflictual chaos, where the students are occupied with internal conflicts, and the teacher with the teaching plan due to political pressure. When the teacher excludes a student in this context, it contributes to the chaos despite opposite intentions, because the students become afraid of being excluded and thereby even more occupied with internal conflicts. My research thus points towards exclusions as a means of chaos rather than a means of order.

Keywords:

school exclusion, critical-psychological analysis, inclusion, conflict, practice epistemology, chaos, sanctions