CES is excited to announce the winner of the SAE/CES Pre-Dissertation Fellowship. Congratulations to Marika Krishnan!
Marika is a PhD student in the School of Education and Information Studies. Their project is entitled, “Negotiating School Exclusions: Discourse, Ideology, & Social Action in East London’s Education Coalitions.”
Abstract:
This project examines the rising use of exclusionary educational practices in post-pandemic Europe, focusing on grassroots efforts within East London activist coalitions that critique and challenge these exclusionary practices. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated concerns about youth mental health and learning, but the current educational landscape – particularly in the UK – is marked by a staggering rise in punitive disciplinary measures. Across Europe, these policies are increasingly justified as solutions to managing student behavior, and yet the well-documented social harms of excluding children from schools are linked to educational disenfranchisement and alienation, disproportionately affecting marginalized urban youth. These trends may have long-term social consequences, including disengagement, economic exclusion, and heightened susceptibility to extremist ideologies. In a political climate characterized by a far-right shift, educational exclusion is exacerbated by austerity measures and aligned with increasingly securitized and punitive governance strategies. Critically engaging with this issue requires an examination of the competing discourses shaping the debate on exclusionary discipline, drawing insights from multiple stakeholders – particularly at the grassroots level – who are directly engaged in mitigating its harms.
Within this contested discursive terrain, I examine several anti-exclusion initiatives in East London which facilitate spaces for youth, families, and educators to collectively make sense of and contest the dramatic rise of suspensions and expulsions (known in the UK as ‘school exclusions’). Using participatory linguistic ethnographic methods, I explore how grassroots community coalitions challenge school exclusion) by examining the ways participants understand exclusion and respond to dominant discourses. The project situates community-generated discourses of exclusion within superdiverse and translocal contexts, foregrounding mobilities, identities, and multiple forms of spatial connectedness. It contributes to the field by exploring how the structures for grassroots activist spaces are built and how they respond to institutionalized ‘law and order’ narratives in a European metropole.
As a scholar with a background in urban education, grassroots social movements, and participatory methods, this project builds on my prior work, leverages existing relationships, and lays the foundation for my dissertation on youth exclusion and disengagement in East London, examining heterodox youth interpretations of schooling.
CES thanks the Society for the Anthropology of Europe for its generous support for this award.