Dr Craig Johnston C.Johnston@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer - CHSS - DSS
The relationships of young disabled men on the margins of alternative provision
Johnston, Craig
Authors
Abstract
This paper is based on qualitative data gained from young working-class men with disabilities on the margins of Alternative Provisions (APs), located within a medium sized local authority in England. Young males are disproportionately placed into APs intended for students who have been excluded from school and/or who would otherwise not receive suitable education. Research suggests that most of the students enrolled in alternative forms of schooling achieve poor life outcomes with high rates of prolonged unemployment, homelessness and criminal activity. Supporting these young people has also largely focused on the use of professional interventions, with the value of young disabled men’s friendships receiving little research attention (Johnston & Bradford, 2019). This paper contrasts the young men’s experiences of professional service interventions with the complementary functions of social and psychological capital embedded in their own friendship networks. Our data identifies instances of friendship, offering young men the support necessary to endure problems related to school exclusion, poverty and unemployment as well as to collectively develop effective coping strategies which enhance well-being and agency. There are implications here for how young people facing risks associated with different forms of exclusion can best be supported. We suggest that young people themselves are important agents in providing mutuality and solidarity. The paper also emphasises that the value of friendship networks should be acknowledged by academics investigating school exclusion and be a key part of the work undertaken by professionals and agencies working with marginalised young people.
Craig Johnston & Simon Bradford (2019) Alternative spaces of failure. Disabled ‘bad boys’ in alternative further education provision, Disability & Society, 34:9-10, 1548-1572
Citation
Johnston, C. (2023, September). The relationships of young disabled men on the margins of alternative provision. Paper presented at British Educational Research Association, Aston University
Presentation Conference Type | Conference Paper (unpublished) |
---|---|
Conference Name | British Educational Research Association |
Conference Location | Aston University |
Start Date | Sep 14, 2023 |
End Date | Sep 14, 2023 |
Deposit Date | Jan 26, 2024 |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11628382 |
You might also like
Joining the dots? Special education and alternative provision
(2024)
Journal Article
Beyond the beautiful game
(2024)
Book Chapter
Class Action
(2023)
Other
The pupil referral unit to prison pipeline
(2023)
Presentation / Conference
Downloadable Citations
About UWE Bristol Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@uwe.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search