Theorizing school exclusion as an ongoing process of maintenance and repair

This paper will draw upon data from a UK-wide ESRC funded project - Political Economies of School Exclusion and their Consequences (POLESE 2019-2024), more informally known as the Excluded Lives Study. Key elements of the paper will apply a conceptual framework by Graham and Thrift (2007) that argues that various types of systems are sustained because they constantly being repaired and maintained often by processes and infrastructures that are often hidden. The paper this idea and applies to school context. We examine leader and teacher perspectives on official and unofficial approaches to school exclusion demonstrating that in all four countries of the UK, schools leaders were generally reluctant to officially exclude but unofficial exclusionary practice was prevalent; school leaders often used discretion in deciding whether to exclude or not and there is evidence unofficial exclusions were often reframed as being legitimate and even beneficial. The paper critically interrogates these findings.