Schools use a variety of disciplinary practices to manage student behaviour. In some countries, school suspensions and exclusions are promoted as ways of responding to unwanted student behaviours. However, data continually shows that such exclusionary practices are disproportionately used among particular groups, including boys, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, students with a disability and indigenous and ethnic minority students (eg Sullivan, et al., 2020; Timpson 2019). The heavy overrepresentation of vulnerable populations within the exclusionary statistics has raised concerns over their impact on the families of children and young people who are already educationally disadvantaged. Yet, very little research has examined the impact school exclusionary practices have on families.

Exclusionary school practices that impact on families of vulnerable groups of students in disproportionate ways are likely to contribute to ‘deep exclusion’ (Levitas et al., 2007), which refers to ‘exclusion across more than one domain or dimension of disadvantage, resulting in severe negative consequences for quality of life, well-being and future life chances’ (p. 29). In addition, the lens of intersectionality (e.g., age, class, gender, and race) reveals the layering effects produced by patterns of power, discrimination, and inequality, and illuminates how social categories interact to shape one’s experience of the world (Hill Collins & Bilge, 2020) and barriers to schooling (Townsend et al., 2020).

This symposium brings together research from three countries, Australia, England and Scotland, that investigated the impact that school suspensions and exclusions have on families of students who are excluded. A study conducted in England uses the concept of symbiotic harms, drawn from criminology and punishment theory, to examine the effects of school exclusion on families. A second study conducted in Scotland, draws on the Lundy Model of Participation to analyse parents’ views of the extent to which they felt informed about and understood what was happening when their children were excluded, and as to whether they were treated fairly. The third study conducted in Australia, examined families as policy receivers to understand the ways in which school suspension and exclusion policies are enacted and received and with what effects.

A key focus of this symposium is to apply a social justice perspective to school discipline and contribute to the dearth of knowledge on the logics and impact of school exclusionary practices across national jurisdictions. It will consider ways in which systems can provide a fairer education experience for all students, including the least advantaged (Connell, 1993).

Connell, R. (1993). Schools and social justice. Toronto: Our Schools/Our Selves Education Foundation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Hill Collins, P., & Bilge, S. (2020). Intersectionality (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Levitas, R., Pantazis, C., Fahmy, E., Gordon, D., Lloyd, E., & Patsios, D. (2007). The multi‐dimensional analysis of social exclusion. Bristol, UK: University of Bristol. Timpson, E. (2019). Timpson review of school exclusion. London: Department for Education. Townsend, I. M., Berger, E. P., & Reupert, A. E. (2020). Systematic review of the educational experiences of children in care: Children’s perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 111, 104835.