Reintegration to secondary education following school exclusion: An exploration of the relationship between home and school from the perspective of parents

Abstract

Aim:This study aimed to investigate the factors in the parent—school1relationship that facilitate reintegration to secondary education after school exclusion, from the perspective of parents.Rationale:Against a background of increased school exclusions and renewed calls for parent—school partnerships, understanding the parental perspective is essential in promoting collaborative approaches to reintegration.Method:Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three parents whose children had undergone the process of exclusion and reintegration within the previous year. A qualitative design was adopted using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as the methodology.Findings:Parents in this study saw exclusion and reintegration as parts of one whole process. Three main themes describing their experience emerged: Parent-child relationship, parent-school relationship and the experience of time, the latter two of which are explored in this article. Within the parent-school relationship, Communication, Collaboration and a perception of the school’s Commitment to reintegration – the three ‘Cs ’ of reintegration – were seen as fundamental to successful reintegration. The parental experience of time in relation to their children’s past and future opportunities also featured prominently.Limitations:In keeping with IPA’s idiographic approach, this study focused on a small sample of participants and cannot claim generalisability. However, by providing an in-depth understanding of the participants’ accounts, the study aimed to capture something of the essence of the parental experience of home-school relationships during exclusion and reintegration.