School exclusion and anti-social behaviour sit at the intersection of children’s rights, educational policy and wider social justice concerns in Scotland. For the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice, these issues are not simply matters of school discipline, they are indicators of how systems respond to children in distress, how inequality is reproduced or challenged, and how far Scotland realises its commitment to inclusion and children’s rights.
Exclusion and anti-social behaviour (ASB) are often linked in policy discourse, including whether exclusion prevents or exacerbates such behaviour, yet the relationship between them remains insufficiently understood and under-researched within the Scottish context (McAra & McVie, 2010). First, this report defines both school exclusion and ASB, before situating this work in the Scottish policy context, bringing together the literature on school exclusion and ASB, supported by a small number of interviews with teachers about their understanding and perception of the relationship between exclusion practices and behaviour.