Absence of value

Johnston, Craig

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore aspects of alternative provision (AP), education settings created to provide short-term support for school-aged young people in England excluded from or unable to be placed in ‘regular’ schools. AP is an element of the English education system ‘where pupils engage in timetabled, educational activities away from school and school staff. We focus on working-class disabled young men, who are invariably framed in terms of corporeal and cognitive deficit, often becoming a peripheral or invisible social category in education discourse. In England, especially, AP has assumed a prominent position in current policy agendas. Whether it is its supposed reformative potential or the flexibility of alternative forms of education, belief in the benefits of APs has apparently never been so strong. However, 80% of 14- to-16-year-old students who enter English APs may not return to mainstream schools. This at a time when access to the resources available in regular school settings
remains an important avenue for young people, particularly young disabled people from disadvantaged backgrounds, to accumulate valuable social, cultural, or human capital that can help to both increase their capacity for social participation and improve their social positioning in a competitive, service-based labour market. The emergence of AP raises important questions about what welfare might mean in relation to young men placed in these provisions.

• Online Publication Date: Dec 2, 2022
• Publication Date: Dec 30, 2022
• Deposit Date: Dec 20, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 3, 2024
• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9781003178811
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10255507
• Publisher URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003178811-13/absence-value-craig-johnston-simon-bradford?context=ubx&refId=9c378bc0-e891-4361-b9db-3f5c75a6a4af
• Related Public URLs: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003178811/men-welfare-anna-tarrant-laura-way-linzi-ladlow?refId=8f47fab0-2f5d-42a6-b604-95ba590e44e5&context=ubx
• Contract Date: Nov 25, 2022