Off-rolling' is widely defined as the illegal removal of students from a school roll, unlike permanent exclusion, which involves sanctioned formal procedures. It is a practice that brings very different logics, political agendas, governmental imperatives and the associated matter of school leader professional identity into sharp relief. Deviant professional identities have already been discursively constituted, despite the current lack of research into the motivation of senior school leaders who engage in 'off-rolling'. This article draws on Foucault to explore tensions between a political standards and an inclusion agenda, and to consider how the professional identities of senior school leaders are shaped such that 'off-rolling' becomes possible. It is suggested that chronic underfunding of the inclusion agenda has combined with what England's Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) now describes as an over-emphasis on academic performance to create unsustainable pressures on many senior school leaders. The descriptor 'contextual roll management' may therefore be more appropriate. The moral outrage which accompanies public and political discourse around 'off-rolling' is theorised with reference to Apple, Ball and Popkewitz. Such moral indignation distracts attention from the wider socio-political and economic context within which schools are now required to deliver academic progress and inclusion. We conclude the article by outlining key empirical questions that have yet to be addressed.
This think piece argues for a novel qualitative methodology that permits social justice researchers, including National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination students, to highlight the profound affects of exclusionary school practices for parents of children with SEN and/or disabilities (SEND). Such children are proportionately effected by these practices. The piece was prompted by multi-strand research into 'off rolling' (illegal exclusionary practices), in which 53 parents described the process through which their child was removed from roll and their relationship with the school's SEN coordinator (SENCo). A preview of the latter is given, which suggests that SENCos' capacity to influence senior leader decision making around exclusion can be limited. A 'wavelength methodology' permits the highlighting of moral injury and provokes difficult questions around school policy, discriminatory practices and SENCo efficacy in minimising exclusion of students with SEND.
This paper critically examines competing demands placed on teachers, with reference to recent inclusion policy in England and Australia. The authors draw on Michael Foucault's analysis of power, neoliberalism(s) and biopolitics to explore the ways in which teachers are 'responsibilised' into negotiating and fulfilling demands related to both state-imposed accountability practices and social justice agendas. The economic context and associated 'politics of austerity' are taken into account in a critical exploration of how the (biopolitical) management of inclusion in the neoliberal present coincides with diminishing funding for social and educational expertise, with ever-increasing responsibilities being placed on teachers to fill this void. The responsibilisation of teachers in recent legislation and statutory guidance discursively constructs the teacher as a professional who takes responsibility for student and school performance, pastoral care, inclusion and social change. Responsibilisation relies on 'dividing practices', obliging some teachers to assess the conformity of colleagues to inclusion policy.
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