School Expulsion Research Articles

Pretty in Punk: Girls' Gender Resistance in a Boys' Subculture

Pretty in Punk takes readers into the lives of girls living on the margins of contemporary culture. Drawing on interviews with 40 girls and women between the ages of 14-37, Leblanc examines the lives of her subjects, illuminating their forms of rebellion and survival. Pretty in Punk lets readers hear the voices of these women as they describe the ways their constructions of femininity-from black lipstick to slamdancing-allow them to reject damaging cultural messages and build strong identities. The price they pay for resisting femininity can be steep-girls tell of parental rejection, school expulsion, institutionalization, and harassment. Leblanc illuminates punk girls' resistance to adversity, their triumphs over tough challenges, and their work to create individual identities in a masculine world.

Contemporary patterns of adolescent sexuality in urban Botswana.

In Botswana, as in other areas in southern Africa, there is a growing concern about the risks associated with adolescent sexuality. To facilitate the design of policies that can address these problems, it is necessary to gain a thorough understanding of contemporary patterns of adolescent sexual behaviour, and the factors that affect them. This paper examines these issues using data from the 1995 Botswana Adolescent Reproductive Health Survey in conjunction with data from focus group discussions. The results suggest that adolescents become sexually active at an early age, and that many of them, males and females alike, have multiple sex partners. This early sexual initiation implies that adolescent reproductive health programmes should target youths aged 13 or younger. For school-based programmes this implies starting no later than Grade 6 or Standard 1, and preferably earlier. Young males appear to be a particularly vulnerable group that needs further attention. Adolescents perceive that teachers, peers and parents have the largest influence on their reproductive health attitudes. Schools appear to have the most potential for providing reproductive health information, because they reach youths both directly and indirectly by educating their peers. The results also show that male and female sexual behaviour is affected by different factors. Among males, having secondary education strongly increases the odds of being sexually active, presumably because such males make attractive partners. Among females, on the other hand, being in school significantly reduces the odds of being sexually active. This finding is consistent with the policy imposing a one-year school expulsion for pregnant schoolgirls, which was implemented as a deterrent to schoolgirl pregnancy.

The Status of School Discipline and Violence

This article examines school discipline and violence. First, a distinction is made between different notions of violence. Clarity is brought to the concept of discipline, and an attempt is also made to demonstrate how these concepts of violence and discipline are wed. Second, the article traces approximately four decades of school disciplinary techniques and attempts to explain their growth and decline. The techniques range from corporal punishment of the past to the medicalization of disruptive youths in the present. Third, the conflict resolution and peaceable school movements are surveyed. Fourth, the findings from a number of studies are reviewed to provide a synthesis of the current research and lay the basis for a set of recommendations for constructing orderly school environments and reducing violence. (Abstract Adapted from Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by SAGE Publications) School Violence Juvenile Violence Juvenile Offender School Discipline School Punishment Corporal Punishment School Expulsion School Suspension Conflict Resolution 04-00

School Expulsion: The Interface of Disabilities and Discipline

Since the implementation of a “zero tolerance” policy for possession of controlled substances and weapons on school campuses in California, a tenfold increase in the number of expulsions has been noted in some school districts. In the past five years, articles have appeared in the journals of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand documenting the rise in use of expulsion as a disciplinary measure, but there have been few domestic publications addressing this pressing issue. The present study describes the characteristics of 38 special education students from among a larger sample of 158 expulsion referrals that occurred between school years 1992–93 and 1994–95 in one California school district. Students with more severe handicapping conditions who were served in more restrictive educational settings enjoyed greater protection from expulsion, whereas students with mild handicaps were at greater risk of exclusion. The use of non-special education interventions, a tendency to emphasize academic behaviors over more global functioning, and the developmental vulnerability of middle school students to expulsion proceedings are discussed. Recommendations for the practice of school psychology include assessment, consultation, and intervention strategies to assist these troubled and troubling students.

Coping, competence, and aggression prevention: Part 1. Developmental model

According to coping-competence theory, current challenge encounters determine future life outcomes and competence. This theory provides a testable causal model of the development of persistent aggression. The model suggests that protective circumstances enable resilient youth to cope prosocially (helping self without harming others) even with uncontrollable challenges. Unprepared for language-based prosocial coping, high-risk youths' antisocial coping yields adverse life outcomes (e.g., school expulsion, teen pregnancy, police arrest). Each adverse outcome increases future antisocial coping, threatens future competence (i.e., self-definition, social reputation, dominant coping strategy), and aggravates status on risk-protection variables (i.e., parent warmth and skill, child temperament and intelligence). The same structural model may apply across the lifespan with changes in indicators and weighting of constructs during key developmental transitions. Part 2 presents the model's prevention implications.

Preparing adolescents for adulthood

Pregnancy-related school dropouts have become a matter of public concern throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In most cases, schoolgirls who become pregnant either have to resort to unsafe illegal abortions, or they face official school expulsion. Because girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy usually do not return to school to complete their education after the birth of their child, their opportunities for socioeconomic advancement are limited. Many African governments have included family life education programs in the school curriculum in an attempt to educate adolescents about the consequences and responsibilities associated with sexual activity. The high rates of schoolgirl pregnancies suggest that these programs have their shortcomings, and indicate that educational policies should attempt not only to reduce the incidence of schoolgirl pregnancies, but also to assist pregnant schoolgirls to complete their education. In this paper, we use data from a sample of 154 Kenyan primary and secondary schools to study differentials in the extent to which various types of schools are affected by pregnancy-related school dropouts, and to examine the opinions of the head teachers regarding teaching about contraceptive methods and readmittance of pregnancy-related dropouts.

PREDICTING NAVY EFFECTIVENESS: EXPECTATIONS, MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY, APTITUDE, AND BACKGROUND VARIABLES

The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of performance within seven Navy occupational groups. Life history, expectations, motivation, personality, and aptitude variables were used as predictors of a 2‐year effectiveness criterion for 7,923 enlisted Navy men and women. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that the most powerful predictors included: years of schooling, school expulsions and suspensions, the two Comrey Personality Scales of Social Conformity and Orderliness, arrests, age, General Classification Test (aptitude), and Peer Cohesion (expectations). Comparisons across groups indicated that the development of separate equations for each occupation was not supported. Recommendations were made to improve selection procedures and to change several aspects of the organization, suggestions which would be expected to increase rates of effective performance.

HAIRCUTS AND SCHOOL EXPULSIONS

HAIRCUTS AND SCHOOL EXPULSIONS