In 2018, Roger Slee offered the following proposition: Inclusive education isn’t dead, it just smells funny. His urgent message it that, after -and despite- many years of developing inclusive policies and practises, under its veil of benevolence the concept of inclusion in fact runs the risk of masking exclusionary practises, creating barriers to participation. This study explores the experiences of 17 students in upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) in Norway, identified as vulnerable to exclusion, on their participation in the learning community throughout their educational careers. The study builds on a sociocultural framework that understands participation in social practises as learning (Säljö, 2016; Wenger, 1998). Florian, Black-Hawkins, and Rouse (2017) state that students’ opportunities to participate depend on pedagogical responses to diversity. Equitable and inclusive practises therefore aspire to support students’ participation through actively combatting barriers to participation (Florian, Black-Hawkins, and Rouse (2017).

The Nordic countries are strongly committed to socially just education with the aim to create inclusive societies that sustain democracy (Nevøy et al., 2014). In Norway, the inclusive notion of a School for All has been central to educational policies for decades. A main principle is that schools must develop inclusive learning communities that promote health, well-being and learning for all (Ministry of Education, 2017). Historically, the Norwegian educational system has been built on the principles of providing equal access and participation for all, independent of background. This has in the past few years been increasingly challenged by neo-liberal tendencies characterised by standardisation and market-orientated competition, with an emphasis on learning outcomes as a quality indicator (Thuen & Volckmar, 2020). Consequently, inequality in Norwegian society increases (Knudsen, 2021), and after a yearly decrease of young people aged 15-29 not in education, employment, or training, this tendency has been changing since 2015. Norwegian statistics currently show a clear increase within the last few years (Statistics Norway), reflecting overall European statistics (Eurostat, 2023). Since the 1970s, a social policy goal of the European Union has been to implement strategies to break the cycle of disadvantage and inequality (Bruin et al., 2023). Still, following Ainscow (2020), many young people leave upper-secondary education without qualifications, leaving them vulnerable to exclusion from the labour market and citizenship. In this European context, Norway has a comparatively high level of young people without upper-secondary qualification, primarily former students in VET (Ministry of Education, 2019).

Within an educational system based on inclusive values, the question of how did we get here? bears to mind. With reference to Allan (2009), the young people’s experiences embody an expertise that requires to be acknowledged as such. Hence, the study explores the following research question: What are VET-students’ experiences on participation in the learning community throughout their educational careers in Norway? 

17 Students in vocational education and training, aged 16-29, participated in semi-structured, individual interviews (Kvale & Brinkman, 2015) about their experiences from primary, lower-secondary, and upper-secondary education. The students were elected to be interviewed because they were indicated by their teachers as vulnerable to exclusion. They were either in school, in apprenticeships, or had previously dropped out. Following Kvale & Brinkman (2015), the interviews did not follow a strictly predetermined sequence but were instead determined by the local context, as well as “the interviewer’s judgment and tact that decides how closely to stick to the guide and how much to follow up the interviewee’s answers and the new directions they may open up” (p. 130). The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The data will be analysed using narrative inquiry (Bruner, 1990, 1991, 1997; Riessman, 2008), with the aim to explore how the students’ narrative sense-making may influence their identities as a learner, and hence their motivation and participation in the learning community throughout their educational careers. Because of the planned narrative analysis, during the interviews the participants have been given “ample freedom and time to unfold their own stories and follow up with questions to shed light on the main episodes and characters in their narratives” (Kvale & Brinkman, 2015, p. 131). Hence, the interview guide kept a deliberate aim for flexibility to enable the participants to elaborate on what was important to them (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015). Questions asked tapped issues concerning biographical information, learning at school or at the workplace, social and educational support at school and in the workplace, participation at school and in the workplace, thoughts about personal influence on school/work, and thoughts about the future (for a more detailed description, see Bruin et al., 2023). In narrative inquiry, the time aspect is a central issue, as anchored in the writings of Bruner (1990, 1996, 1997) and Riessman (2008); therefore, the interview questions followed a chronological structure of past, present, and future. Considering the research participants’ particularly vulnerable position, continuous research ethical considerations are prevalent in all phases of the research, from planning to reporting (Kvale & Brinkman, 2015). Core principles are informed consent, confidentiality, and the responsibility to do no harm (Guillemin and Gillam, 2004).

Expected outcomes: The students’ accounts can be interpreted as narratives of non-participation. The narratives describe why certain circumstances in upper- or lower secondary education came to pass due to earlier experiences in school. When talking about the past, the students express that due to being different (for instance because of health-related issues, special needs or bullying, or a combination) they experienced very early on in school extensive barriers to participation. These experiences influence later educational experiences, causing feelings of disconnection to teachers, peers, and curriculum. When talking about the present, in VET, the narratives of non-participation have changed into stories of belonging, being part of the learning environment, due to the teacher’s ways of combatting barriers to participation. Students experience to feel safe, acknowledged by teachers and peers. However, in the subsequent transition from school to the workplace a major challenge is that the institutional support that the students experience at school, in some cases seems to lack in the workplace, however not in all. Students working in a pedagogical environment (school/kindergarten) experience the support they need. Students working in non-pedagogical environments report getting too much responsibility, there seems to be little consideration for their needs as a learner and too high expectations of their independence, leading to stress and feelings of failure, and again experiences of disconnectedness and barriers to participation. It seems that the supervisors working in school/kindergarten have pedagogical competences inherent in their profession that supervisors in other professional contexts may lack. The findings will be discussed in light of perspectives on social justice and equity, deliberating how an educational system that is supposed to be inclusive can do better, tackling “the smelly side of schooling” (Slee, 2018, p. 11) instead of covering it with a blanket named inclusion.

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