What is in a form? the variation between English local authorities' exclusion rates and their organizational artifacts

Thesis

School exclusion, which is the practice of removing a student from school for a fixed or indefinite period of time, has become an increasingly researched and analyzed topic. This is unsurprising given the significant rise in its use in certain countries. There are increased efforts to understand the phenomenon more comprehensively, and in particular, what drives some areas to exclude more than others. The following thesis is a comparative paper that examined school exclusion variation in England, specifically at the local authority level. The research included two phases of data collection—1) Document Review and 2) Secondary Data Review—on 10 different local authorities. Phase 1 was driven by the document review. Local authority documents—specifically, exclusion forms and exclusion parent notification letters—were evaluated to determine how authorities vary in the way they interpret and present information about school exclusion. Additionally, local authority documents were analyzed to determine how closely they aligned with national exclusion guidance and what, if anything, they could reveal about the local authority’s ethos regarding exclusion. Phase 2 was driven by the secondary data review. The exclusion rates of the 10 local authorities were analyzed to determine what relationship, if any, exists between the way a local authority presents information about school exclusion in documents and the actual rate of exclusion in that authority. Specifically, do authorities with more punitive language in documents have higher rates of exclusion, and vice versa if the language appears less punitive? The findings from Phase 1 demonstrated that there was significant variation in the way local authorities presented and interpreted exclusion information and the degree to which documents aligned with national guidance. However, detecting ethos was complex. Documents are one element of an organization’s culture, and thus need to be further contextualized. The findings from Phase 2 showed that local authorities at extreme ends of the spectrum—i.e., with incredibly high or incredibly low rates of exclusion—did seem to demonstrate significantly more punitive and less punitive language in documents respectively. However, there is no apparent pattern if one moves away from the extremes and evaluates authorities in the middle of the spectrum. This suggests the need for continued investigation into the multitude of factors that drive local variation in exclusion rates.

Authors: Isaacs, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zonvd6p80
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: CIE2022; CIE; document review; exclusion rates; secondary data review
• Subjects: Education; City councils; Schools, British