Reconciling Educationally Displaced Young People and Education Nicoli Humphry University of Wollongong
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University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2014 Reconciling educationally displaced young people and education Nicoli Humphry University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Humphry, Nicoli, Reconciling educationally displaced young people and education, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Education, University of Wollongong, 2014. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4022 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Reconciling educationally displaced young people and education. This thesis is presented in fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from University of Wollongong by Nicoli Humphry BEd (Home Economics), MEd (Computer Education) Faculty of Social Sciences – School of Education 2014 ii Certification I, Nicoli Humphry, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Nicoli Humphry 28th August, 2013 iii iv Acknowledgments Thank you…. For funding that supported the completion of this thesis from Australian Postgraduate Award, Interdisciplinary Educational Research Institute and School of Education. To my amazing and enduring supervisors – the most intelligent and inspiring women I have had the privilege to work with. Associate Professor Valerie Harwood as my teacher, you opened up a world I never knew existed and then very patiently walked me through it. Professor Jan Wright as the example I can only aspire to be. Thank you both for knowing when to push, when to back off and for trusting that I could do this, even when I didn’t. But mostly thank you for the depth of your expertise and your willingness to share it, your wisdom, flexibility, encouragement, and the long hours you brought to this study ……. and the tissues. To my long (long, long, long) suffering family – Jay and Bree; Tarran, Ruth and Nicholas; Jessica and Chris; who were all present for parts of the whole and who made life oh so interesting along the way. To my mum and dad, Barbara and Kevin, for their whole-hearted support. And especially to Wayne and Nardos – who have endured every second. You have made do, gone without, and been encouraging of this nebulous thing as it consumed our lives – “Weren’t you s’pose to finish it last year?” To my uni buddies – what can I say? Catherine, Jonnell, Kathryn, Rosie, Sam (and Zach), and Sharon; thank you for so richly blessing this journey and for allowing me to share yours. I have valued you insights, your intelligence, your inspiration, your fun and your support. And to Dan, my amazing physio, who held me and my ‘spondy’ (and various other bits) together physically while I wrote. I wouldn’t have made it without all of you. To Uncle Max and Anthony for teaching me the preciousness of knowledge and the care and respect with which it should be released into the world. Thank you for allowing me to share your understandings and to share these with others. v To Father Riley and the wonderful staff and volunteers at the YOTS schools. Your dedication and commitment was, and remains, ever inspiring. Thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your worlds and for being so unapologetic in showing me how differently education can be done. And finally, to the incredible young people of this study who touched my life in such unexpected ways and who have made my ignorance both impossible and selfish. Your courage, your resilience, your determination and your brutal honesty have provoked this work in ways I never expected. I hope I have done you justice. Nici vi Table of Contents Section 1 – Setting the Scene .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 – Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 Identifying the Challenge ..................................................................................................................... 3 Young People, Educational Exclusion and ‘Disengagement’ ........................................................ 6 ‘Alternative Education’ Research and Directions ........................................................................ 13 Using a Foucaultian Analytical Framework .................................................................................... 17 The Importance of Terminology ..................................................................................................... 19 Reading this Thesis .............................................................................................................................. 24 Chapter 2 – Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 27 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 27 What is the Problem? ......................................................................................................................... 27 Taking a Stance .................................................................................................................................... 30 Using a Discourse Analysis ............................................................................................................... 36 Phase 1: A Document Analysis of the Discourses Framing Disengaged Young People. ................ 37 Phase 2: Using Ethnographic Principles and Techniques in Atypical Schools ................................... 40 Choosing a Research Approach ...................................................................................................... 44 Ethnographic Data Generation ........................................................................................................ 46 Participants and Gaining Consent .............................................................................................................. 46 Immersion ........................................................................................................................................................ 48 The Problem of the ‘Participant Observer’ .............................................................................................. 50 Building Relationships and Trust ................................................................................................................. 52 Flexibility .......................................................................................................................................................... 55 Interviews and Fieldnotes ............................................................................................................................. 56 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 57 Theorising the Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 59 Power Relations ............................................................................................................................................. 60 Foucault and Goffman ................................................................................................................................... 66 Presenting the Research .................................................................................................................... 68 Naming YOTS ................................................................................................................................................. 68 Captured Voices ............................................................................................................................................. 70 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 71 Section 2 – The Conditions of ‘Educational Displacement’ ........................................ 73 Chapter 3 – The ‘Educational Displacement’ of Young People .............................................. 75 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 75 vii Moments in the Construction of ‘Disengaged’ Young People in Australian Education ...... 76 Foucault, Discourse and Initial Connections Between Deficit Understandings and Education ... 76 ‘Free, compulsory and secular’ Education and the Legalisation of a ‘Criminal’, ‘Deviant’ and ‘Delinquent’ Student. ..................................................................................................................................... 78 The Contributions of Developmental and Educational Psychology to ‘Deficit’ Understandings . 81 The Consequences of Neoliberalism for Education .............................................................................. 85 Deficit Discourses of the 1990’s-2000s ...................................................................................................