Teaching within the ‘margins’: capturing the challenges, tensions, and rewards of alternative education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Alternative education provides an educational alternative for students verging on educational disengagement, disconnection, marginalisation or premature school leaving. Much research has focussed on the perceptions, experiences and outcomes of students involved with alternative education, with less attention directed toward the perspectives of educators who work in such settings. Presenting an in-depth case study to capture the lived experiences of a teacher working in an alternative education placement, this study highlights the complex, challenging and multifaceted nature of an educator’s role in working with some of the most disenfranchised students in the education system. Importantly, this study captures the often untold and unacknowledged challenges, tensions, and rewards of teaching within the ‘margins’.