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This paper explores definitions and understandings of Restorative Practices in education. It offers a critique of current theoretical models of Restorative Justice originally derived from the criminal justice system, and now becoming popular in educational settings. It questions the appropriateness of these concepts as they are being introduced to schools in parts of the UK and refers to a recent Scottish Executive funded pilot initiative to implement Restorative Practices in schools. The paper then reflects on some findings from the evaluation of this pilot project, outlines a new notion of Restorative Approaches and suggests that this broader conceptualisation may offer an important way in which to promote social justice in education and to reassess the importance and inevitability of conflicting social interaction and structures inherent in schools as complex social institutions.

In this paper attention will be paid to issues arising from school-based research into the experience of working-class boys who are excluded. National and local school exclusion statistics indicate an overall gender imbalance: in the secondary school sector, for every four boys who are excluded only one girl is excluded. Furthermore, statistics show that other groups such as pupils living in poverty (as indicated by receipt of free school meals) have an increased likelihood of being excluded from school. Explanations for the disproportionate exclusion of working-class boys are considered here in relation to three pupil case studies drawn from a group of 20 case studies gathered in four secondary schools. There are indications that the processes by which some working-class boys actively negotiate their masculinities are the same processes that lead to their exclusion from school. This paper uses empirical data from interviews and classroom observation to analyse these twin processes, considering how and why certain masculine identities are marginalized in school settings.

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This review was undertaken as part of a research project commissioned by the Scottish Executive and carried out by a team from Glasgow and Newcastle Universities between January 2000 and January 2001 when the report was published (Banks et al., 2001). The research study, entitled ‘Raising the Attainment of Pupils with Special Educational Needs’, followed the issuing of new guidelines (SOEID, 1998a; SEED, 1999) which linked the use of individualised educational programmes (IEPs) to the wider political enterprise of raising standards through target‐setting.