Read our latest blog from Craig Houston, who recently completed a three month research internship with CYCJ, examining the existing literature on school exclusion and antisocial behaviour. Craig is a PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, where he is currently exploring the meaning of, and how, places impact feelings of social connectivity for care-experienced children and young people in Scotland. The report on the findings from his internship will be published in the coming weeks.
When I applied for a three-month internship with the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), I knew I wanted to know more about the intersection of education and justice. I have experienced, both professionally and personally, how quickly conversations about “behaviour” can become conversations about blame, how rarely we apply the contextual factors which may influence the choices we make and how we address such choices and balance the needs and safety of others. Not to mention in a school context, where it seems everyone has a strong opinion. After all there are very few things we all have experience of!
Over the past three months, I have had the privilege of researching and writing the School Exclusion and Anti-Social Behaviour report. What began as a review of the research evolved into something much more relational, listening to teachers across Scotland, pulling together our research, and wrestling with the complexity of anti-social behaviour and exclusion in a rights-based context. When I look back now the key takeaways for me is this: exclusion is never just about behaviour.
It is about relationships, resources, identity, and how systems respond to distress.
One of the strongest themes emerging from this project is the importance of hearing teachers’ voices. Policy does not and cannot implement itself. Teachers are the frontline enactors of national guidance, translating core inclusion principles into practice – and they are telling us that whilst exclusion is reducing, behaviour challenges in class are on the rise. This is crucial to know, as teachers make real-time decisions about safety, balance and fairness, often in difficult environments. Through interviews, teachers spoke honestly and passionately about the need to balance competing rights within classrooms, protecting learning for the majority while supporting children experiencing challenges in their lives.
What became clear is that teachers were advocates of inclusion policies. However, they are operating within increasingly complex contexts. Rising additional support needs, constrained external services, and stretched staffing levels mean that policy aspirations can be far removed from capacity. If we are serious about understanding behaviour and exclusion, we must centre the professional judgement of those navigating these realities every day. Teachers are not simply those who implement policy, they are the interpreters of it, using their experience and skillset to navigate the relationships within the specific context they teach.
Equally important is hearing from children and families. Although this project primarily focused on teacher perspectives, the research and policy context repeatedly highlights the positive impact of participation. Exclusion is not only procedural, it is an experience. For some young people, it reinforces feelings of rejection or injustice. For others, it may represent a missed opportunity for earlier support or intervention.
Scotland’s incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child places participation at the heart of decision-making. Hearing children’s voices is not optional, it is a legal and ethical priority. But it goes beyond mere compliance, it makes for meaningful change. When young people feel listened to, their engagement improves. When families are included in decision-making, relationships flourish and damages can be repaired. Participation can act as a protective factor in its own right. Future research has an amazing opportunity to move beyond simply analysing outcomes to true co-production, exploring solutions with those with lived experience.
Another clear learning from this work is the need for more context-specific, robust research within Scotland. Much of the research across time, linking exclusion and justice outcomes predates recent Scottish policy reforms. We need updated, Scottish-focused data that captures not only formal exclusions but also internal and informal practices. Reduced timetables, removal from class and part-time attendance remain under-recorded, limiting the ability to appropriately evaluate the reason these occurred and the impact they have.
It is also important to note that exclusion does not operate uniformly across local authorities. Context matters. Socioeconomic patterns, rurality, school leadership, and multi-agency relationships all shape how policy is enacted and how it is felt by pupils. Without capturing the multitude of different lived realities in research, debates risk becoming overly linear and simplistic, focusing solely on “discipline” and “inclusion” narratives. The reality is much, much, more complex. We need research that moves beyond statistics, capturing lived experience, school systems, mediation and implementation of support. Without this, statistics may serve to reinforce simple narratives around behaviour.
Despite the challenges highlighted in the report, what struck me most during interviews was the creativity and commitment within schools. Teachers described nurture bases, breakfast clubs, restorative conversations, mentoring programmes and bespoke timetables, often developed in harsh funding conditions. They spoke about sports partnerships, safe spaces and informal check-ins that transform engagement for individual pupils. These are not small efforts. They are deliberate acts of care and innovation within constrained systems. It would be easy to focus solely on resource gaps. And those gaps are real. But it is equally important to recognise the creativity present in schools. Policy development should build on this creativity, not overlook it. Schools are not waiting for perfect conditions, they are responding now.
Finally, the conversation around school exclusion is often emotionally charged. Yet the findings from this report suggest that simplistic narratives, whether blaming young people, families or teachers, significantly obscures the systemic nature of the issue. Exclusion sits at the intersection of inequality, developmental timing, relational practice and institutional capacity. The findings from this report highlight that improving outcomes is not about eliminating difficult conversations, it is about grounding them in evidence, centring voices, and recognising complexity.
If Scotland is to realise its ambitions around children’s rights and inclusion, we must continue listening – to teachers as policy enactors, children and families as rights-holders, and communities navigating structural disadvantage. We NEED to know more and to do so must invest in robust, context-specific research over time. And we must do so whilst remaining flexible and responsive to the fast moving social and political landscape Scotland’s children and young people exist within.
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Source: Raising Youth Justice – Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice Read More
