Mapping folk devils old and new through permanent exclusion from London schools

Abstract

The process of permanent exclusion from school offers a heightened example of the rejections necessary to keep the English neoliberal education treadmill running. This extreme end of education's disciplinary apparatus illuminates trends less immediately legible across the system, namely how securitisation and neoliberal governance heighten inequalities. Unpicking the dynamics at work behind exclusion shows how racialization and marginalisation are not reduced, but reproduced through this educational format. This paper maps how securitisation and neoliberal governance work together through permanent exclusion to reproduce racialised folk devils old and new, drawing on discourses of criminal blackness as well as the radicalised Islamic terrorist. It will also explore how exclusion policy is negotiated and translated into daily practice by exploring parental accounts of their child’s permanent exclusion alongside the narratives of head teachers in London.