ABSTRACT
My experiences during my own school years and time as a teacher have resulted in my interest in researching excluded pupils’ perceptions of their schooling. My professional interest in the subject of exclusion began in 1990 when I started working in a centre for young people who had been permanently excluded from school. In conversation with these young people it became apparent that the parallels between my own school experiences and theirs were striking. At school I was unjustly blamed for girls four years older than me taking up smoking, I did almost anything ‘for a laugh’, I worked hard for the teachers with whom I had a good relationship, and had little respect for those who could not control the class.
