"Race," Class and Gender in Exclusion from School

Abstract

Race, Class and Gender in Exclusion from School, by Cecile Wright, Debbie Weekes, and Alex McGlaughlin. London: Falmer Press, 2000. 160 pp. $90.00, cloth. $29.95, paper. This book examines the confluent impact of race, class, and gender on school in the British educational system. The study on which this book is based took place in the wake of zero tolerance policies both in Britain and in the United States. Zero tolerance policies have led to growing numbers of student expulsions-in Britain these are now referred to as exclusions-in particular, the expulsion of Black students. The Black students in Britain are of African and African Caribbean descent. The authors study five schools in the same county educational authority and found that Black students were disproportionately (to their numbers in the school population) excluded for disciplinary infractions. These results are similar to the findings in recent studies of zero tolerance policies in American schools (Barton, Coley, & Wenlinksy, 1998; Burke & Herbert, 1996; National Coalition of Advocates for Students, 1998; Noguera, 1995). In previous years the authors had conducted research in the same education authority which showed alarming disparities between the rates of Black and White students. However, the strength of this study is the explication of the elements that undergird these results. This study is critical in light of the high expulsion rates of Black students, and, Black males in particular. Why are minority students expelled? The authors state clearly that is the main reason leading to (p. 126). However, the constructs of students' and their subsequent are interrogated through several empirical lenses. These lens include: (a) the Headmasters' beliefs about student exclusions in relation to school management and marketing (which I will discuss in more detail later); (b) racial and cultural incongruence underlying teacher-student relationships, which, in turn, leads to the of more students who are from different races and cultures than the teacher; (c) student resistance reified as disobedience due to the powerlessness of students' positionality within the educational structure; and, (d) racialized masculine identities that disallow Black males from taking advantage of the intrinsic rewards attributed to masculine identity within the educational sphere. In effect, this work demonstrates why exclusions are not simply a matter of students' inability to obey school rules. The authors analyze these lenses within a framework of each school's organizational ethos, which, they assert, is created under a range of complex influences. On the one hand, internal policies, structures and attitudes of senior staff are involved. On the other, there is also a range of external pressures and factors (p. 125). In effect, the authors critically examine each school's organizational culture-the shared meanings and beliefs about the ways that the schools operate-and the nuances of myriad school processes that contribute to student exclusion. In terms of external pressures, the authors connect student to changes in demands on schools to become more marketable in the new world of educational choice. Similar to the school choice polices implemented in the United States in recent years, the British educational system has also begun to place greater emphasis on competitiveness. Polices of open enrollment for example, allow parents to have more choice in which schools their children attend. However, these authors argue that such policies have given rise to new perceptions of students and managing schools as learning environments. Within a competitive school climate, the authors found that minority and low-income students were more frequently perceived as undesirable and thus, more frequently excluded. They note that within an educational system that is influenced by market system rhetoric, exclusion has been implemented as a form of regulation and selection [emphasis added] (p. …

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