A tension between rationalities: “off-rolling” as gaming and the implications for head teachers and the inclusion agenda

Abstract

A tension between rationalities: "off-rolling" as gaming and the implications for head teachers and the inclusion agenda

‘Off‐rolling’ and Foucault’s art of visibility/invisibility: An exploratory study of senior leaders’ views of ‘strategic’ school exclusion in southwest England

“…The ‘discourses of truth’ (Foucault, 1978, p. 97) generated by Ofsted (2018, 2019a,c) individualise a systemic failure to address tensions between policy agendas (raising educational standards and inclusion) and such tension was apparent in senior leader responses. Prior to the Covid‐19 pandemic, a ‘discursive ferment’ (Foucault, 1978, p. 17) around ‘off‐rolling’ was evidenced in England (Done & Knowler, 2020a,b) which would, undoubtedly, have continued had governmental and media priorities not shifted. Scrutiny of legal and illegal exclusionary practices (DfE, 2019b; Ofsted, 2019c) culminated in the latter’s ‘name and shame’ policy and negative media coverage.…”

“…The ‘machinery of power that focused on this whole alien strain [of aberrations] did not aim to suppress it, but rather to give it an analytical, visible, and permanent reality’ (Foucault, 1978, p. 44). It is tempting to identify this same process in Ofsted’s efforts to identify, scrutinise, quantify and police a practice and object of knowledge (‘off‐rolling’ as gaming) that Ofsted itself is largely responsible for fabricating (Done & Knowler, 2020b). The fabrication of ‘off‐rolling’ as a hidden practice that violates the rules of the market order (free and fair competition) is a similar incitement to see as Ofsted sets about its task of investigating disparities between what it sees and what is said in England’s schools.…”

“…A ‘polyhedron’ of intelligibility (Foucault, 2003, p. 249) was later mobilised as a heuristic device entailing the identification and infinite multiplication of explanatory factors that included nascent epistemological orthodoxies. In relation to ‘off‐rolling’, a ‘culture of performativity’ (Ball, 2003) characterises the prevailing socio‐political context, where it appears that improvement in one remit of a head teacher (academic attainment) may only be achieved at the expense of another (inclusion) (Done & Knowler, 2020b).…”

Twice exceptionality in neoliberal education cultures: Implications for special educational needs co‐ordinators

“…The quasi‐marketisation of education, through which schools compete for students that may enhance their position in academic performance league tables (Keddie and Holloway, 2020) and tend to exclude students that risk dilution of that performance (Done and Knowler, 2020a), has exacerbated tensions between the education policy agendas of raising academic ‘standards’ and inclusion (Done, 2019; Done and Knowler, 2020b). The risk for ‘twice‐exceptional’ students here is that, far from viewing such students as a homogeneous group, schools will select and support those that promise to contribute to valued school rankings.…”

Exclusion and the strategic leadership role of SENCos in England: planning for Covid‐19 and future crises

“…The reported study is one of an ongoing series of small‐scale collaborative research projects undertaken by researchers at the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter that focus on exclusionary practices in schools in England and the perspectives of varied stakeholders on illegal exclusionary practices (Done & Knowler, 2020a , 2020b , 2020c , 2021 ; Done et al, 2021 ). It was anticipated that the unique conditions presented by the closure of schools nationally in response to the Covid‐19 pandemic, accompanied by partial re‐opening for children classified as ‘vulnerable’ (DfE & Williamson, 2020a , 2020b ), might lead to increased levels of exclusion (Daniels et al, 2020 ).…”