Nicklin, Lydia Grace;
(2023)
“I deal with everything on my own”: Exploring children and young people who are looked after’s experiences of secondary school suspensions and relationships with school staff.
Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Children and young people who are looked after (CYPLA) are five times more likely to have a fixed-term exclusion than their non-LA peers (Department for Education [DfE], 2020a). At present, there is no consensus around individual or systemic factors which may lead to CYPLA’s school suspensions and as such there is little sense of what interventions may serve to reduce them. Consequently, their suspension rates continue to rise year after year (DfE, 2020a). Using Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) bio-ecological theory, the research aimed to give much-needed agency to CYPLA and school staff which appears to be lacking in previous research. This research utilised individual semi-structured interviews and a personal construct psychology tool, to gain four adolescent CYPLA’s (aged 11-15 years) and seven school staff’s perspectives of CYPLA’s secondary school suspensions in one local authority in England. The study also explored the factors which promote and hinder the development of staff-student relationships, which could serve to promote CYPLA’s inclusion (Parker, Rose, & Gilbert, 2016). A pilot interview with two care leavers, enabled the young people to inform the nature of the individual interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify interview themes which further our understanding of adolescent CYPLA and school staff’s experiences of suspensions and staff-student relationships. Key themes included: Systems do not support CYPLA’s cognitive, social and emotional developmental needs, foundations of positive school staff-student relationships and discrepancies between supportive school systems and staff intentions. There was a strong narrative around unsupportive school cultures and external services, which contributed to the participants’ unmet needs and negatively impacted staff-student relationships. This information will hopefully enhance our understanding of CYPLA’s school and life experiences and inform interventions, practice and policy at the school level, in addition to local authority and national levels.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Ed.Psy |
| Title: | “I deal with everything on my own”: Exploring children and young people who are looked after’s experiences of secondary school suspensions and relationships with school staff |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10174934 |
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