Informal education, school bullying and ‘public executions’: Young people’s experiences of the hierarchical nature of relationships in school

The reference to ‘public executions’ in the title of this blog post is a quote from a research participant who was describing his experience of what happens when someone is caught bullying in school. From their perspective, the strategy to prevent bullying is severe punishment and surveillance as a deterrent. This approach, hopefully, feels at odds with the contemporary image of schools and methods for creating safe learning spaces.

Yet, this description was not of a mainstream classroom but rather of an alternative educational space in South Australia (DfE, 2023) designed to offer more support for marginalised students. In this programme, teachers and youth workers work in partnership to create a more flexible learning environment. Perhaps this experience is a result of individual poor practice or could be justified as an outlier. However, for this project, I decided to take the young person at their word and draw inspiration from social theorists such as Foucault and Bourdieu to investigate the social and systemic origins of violence and bullying in schools. In doing so, I wanted to consider the implications for youth workers and informal educators working in school systems and how these systems might work in opposition to their professional goals.