ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an understanding of school exclusion within different levels of contexts and explores how these are interconnected. In a major study on school exclusion, Sue Rendall and Morag Stuart demonstrate how a parent’s own experience of education shapes their interactions with their child’s school. The chapter presents case studies to illustrate connections between individual and social narratives. Social constructions are bound within a historical, societal, and cultural framework, and attempts to observe phenomena independently of this context are regarded as highly problematic. The chapter demonstrates some of the complexities that exist across European education communities that are involved in addressing the needs of pupils who challenge mainstream education systems. The experiences of being excluded from school, as reported by pupils, parents, and families, professionals and institutions, will be seen through different lenses and result in different constructions of events—different “truths”.
