Making Schools Fitting Places for all: A Creative Approach for Girls Excluded from Mainstream Education

Abstract

Little has been published in relation to girls and SEBD. This chapter examines outcomes from a project between university academic staff and a specialist provision for girls excluded because of behaviour difficulties. Particular focus is upon the development of identity via engagement with creative projects involving prose, poetry and the visual arts. The chapter provides vivid illustrations of the potential of girls labelled with SEBD to be so much more than that. Furthermore, it illustrates how schools can creatively form themselves to be a good fit for their students. As adults working with young people, it is as well to remember that we need to create opportunities within learning communities to review identities in transition and to capture the dynamic sense of self. The authors concur with Carrington (2007) that developing the opportunities and skills ‘with which to participate and transform one's life path’ is central to social inclusion. This applies to all young people particularly those caught up in specialist BESD/SEBD provision.

Citation

Nind, M., Boorman, G. and Clarke, G. (2012), "Making Schools Fitting Places for all: A Creative Approach for Girls Excluded from Mainstream Education", Visser, J., Daniels, H. and Cole, T. (Ed.) Transforming Troubled Lives: Strategies and Interventions for Children with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 289-307. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3636(2012)0000002021