Editorial [International Journal of Emotional Education, 2(2)]

Abstract

One of the objectives of our journal is to promote critical discussions on key issues in emotional education amongst researchers and practitioners working in the area. One way we are encouraging our readers to enter into this discussion is by including critical commentaries on a focus paper in particular editions of the journal. We are starting this feature by focusing on a highly pertinent issue in education, namely the suspension and exclusion of students from school. A report just published by Civitas suggests that school exclusion statistics in the UK may be misleading, as misbehaving students were just being removed to ‘alternative provisions’ or ‘new secret gardens’ such as Pupil Referral Units (Ogg with Kaill 2010). The decrease in official exclusion statistics in recent years has been simultaneously accompanied by an increase in the number of students with challenging behaviour being referred for alternative provision.