Learning on the Margins

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Learning on the Margins

Alternative Provision, Capital and Youth Justice

Crime and criminology Educational strategies and policy Educational strategies and policy: inclusion

Author: Craig Johnston

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Collection: Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society

Language: English

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Published on: 11th August 2026

Format: LCP-protected ePub

ISBN: 9783032259899


Introduction

This book examines the role and significance of Alternative (Education) Provision (AP) in England, with a central focus on the inclusion and well-being of disadvantaged young people who are increasingly educated outside mainstream settings.

Drawing on the author’s 35-year involvement as an AP student, practitioner, leader and researcher, it offers a rare insider-informed perspective combined with a critical application of Bourdieu’s capital theory.

Critical Reframing of AP

The distinctiveness of this title lies in its critical reframing of AP through the lens of capital theory, showing how social, cultural, human, and material resources are mobilized in ways that may sustain inequality while also opening spaces for agency and transformation.

It situates AP within its historical, political, and policy contexts, exposing the hidden mechanisms that shape children and young people’s experiences and unfolding futures.

International Context

Although rooted in England, the analysis speaks to an international audience. Equivalent forms of AP exist in Australia, the USA, and across Europe, where debates around school exclusion, youth and social justice, and educational inequality share striking similarities.

By maintaining disadvantaged children and young people at the center of analysis, this book contributes to global scholarship on inclusive education and to practical debates on how AP can be reimagined for more just outcomes.

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