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This ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog special issue responds to increasing concerns around school exclusions that have risen to almost and a in 2024 to phase out ‘cruel behaviour’ regimes in schools. The focus is shifting towards including the most vulnerable pupils while teachers face mounting stress and increasingly consider leaving the profession due to poor pupil behaviour.

Extensive research, however, including the and , shows no single root cause for exclusions. Broader factors such as home circumstances, school ethos and transitions from primary to secondary school, as well as teacher–student and peer relationships, have been found to impact behaviours leading to exclusions.

Addressing high exclusion rates is challenging due to limited resources for pastoral and special educational needs (SEND) concerns in mainstream schools, which are focused on narrow performance targets. Teacher-centred pedagogies and rising mental health issues among students exacerbate the problem. However, while guide pedagogical approaches that focus on high expectations, well-structured lessons and adapting to pupil needs, schools are not restricted to rote learning models – pedagogy is not prescribed. Rather, teachers are encouraged to adopt evidence-informed strategies, promote skills such as critical thinking alongside subject knowledge, and personalise learning experiences. Hence, schools do have autonomy to develop their own pedagogies for which recent efforts include academic and peer mentoring and tutoring.

‘Addressing high exclusion rates is challenging due to limited resources for pastoral and SEND concerns in mainstream schools, which are focused on narrow performance targets.’

The (NTP), embedded in education policy until September 2024, aimed to support students most impacted by the pandemic, many from disadvantaged backgrounds. Yet, the primary focus in such programmes on supporting cognitive outputs arguably come at the expense of supporting students’ holistic self-narratives. This is because education policy and classroom practices often legitimise certain cultural, social and knowledge capitals while illegitimating others (Edwards, 2023).

Hence, although mentoring programmes such as the NTP implemented post-Covid-19 aimed to create accessible knowledge pathways, they also maintained their discursive power by legitimising the self-narrative as a duality. This special issue offers a more holistic approach.

Situated in emerging international movements and broader education debates, our proposed pedagogic relations are underpinned by Freire’s (1972) liberatory education and Buber’s (1961) notions of encounter as a mutually beneficial educative process. Here, emphasis is placed on the quality of the relationship from which broader ethical goods such as mutual understanding and collaboration can emerge alongside end goods such as curricular-based knowledge outputs. As the authors of the seven posts in this special issue demonstrate, student behaviour and academic progress can improve, and exclusions can be reduced through these processes.

To frame these ideals, I open this special issue by introducing Freire’s (1972) liberatory education and processes of ‘conscientisation’ alongside Buber’s (1961) notions of ‘encounter’. Centrally, educator–student relationships are understood as a reciprocal and dialogic process. Emphasising becoming-in-relation, the student is seen as a subject to be acted with, not upon. Such emphasis enables negotiated interventions and pedagogic practices. The remaining contributions are intentionally chosen from commentators in the field, many of whom are not academics. Yet, their expertise, research and lived experiences bring deeply meaningful contexts to the debates being aired.

Shaalan Farouk, educational psychologist and academic researcher, builds on this discussion to consider links between exclusions and teacher–pupil relationships. He highlights the value of conversations outside the classroom that help teachers understand broader issues and implement interventions before problems escalate to exclusions.

Zenna Atkins, former Ofsted chair and current CEO of Delaglio Rugby Works, then highlights the lack of support for parents of children with SEND or behaviour issues. She posits that teachers are under pressure to address holistic needs without proper training and that teacher-centred pedagogies focus on academic development but neglect relational aspects. Zenna calls for a revised Ofsted framework that addresses these concerns.

In her contribution, Sophie King draws on her own youth work practices and student reflections to demonstrate how positive adult connections can be supported to reduce exclusions and increase motivation, self-esteem and prosocial behaviour. Sophie draws on the experiences of Mackenzie, a young member of a peer advisory group of excluded students at Motiv8 (Portsmouth), who explores what positive educational relationships could look like in secondary schools. Specifically, she considers how inclusive, supportive environments can be created through positive teacher–student relations.

Kevin Jones, accreditation lead at the National Youth Agency, then considers the benefits of youth work relationships for young people, allied services and communities. He also examines how these relationships shape youth work’s nature, practice and values, and synergies and tensions with formal education.

Philip Brunton, an NPQ (National Professional Qualification) teacher with 20 years of teaching experience, builds on Kevin’s considerations to demonstrate that students’ successful academic and social development revolves around building positive teacher–pupil relationships. This shapes school culture, quality teaching and high expectations, especially for disadvantaged students.

Richard Evea, former headteacher and secondary school governor, concludes this special issue by fielding the concept of covenantal relationships. Specifically, he focuses on identity and belonging within community spaces that extend to schools. These broader relations, he asserts, support integration and more holistic learning.

Critically, this ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog special issue extends the teacher–student relationship to include parents and community members as pedagogic partners in holistic knowledge development. The seven blog posts also align with broader movements and education debates that critique the purpose of schooling and education, and address pedagogic practices and underlying conceptualisations of freedom and the self-in-relation – that is, with others and the environment as a reciprocal intellectual, social and existential process.

As the authors demonstrate, evidence shows that student behaviour and academic progress can improve – and exclusions be reduced – through positive relational and more holistic approaches.

References

Buber, M. (1961). I and thou (2nd ed.) (R. G. Smith, Trans.). Scribner.

Edwards, S. (2023). Freire for twenty-first-century, austerity-driven schools: Creating positive educational relations with and among students at the margins. International Journal of Social Pedagogy, 12(1), 6.

Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin Books.