Educational Pathways of Young people in Youth Justice System

Main Contact: Caroline Lanskey

The aim of this case study was to understand the factors that shaped young people’s educational experiences during their time in youth justice system. Its first objective was to develop an explanatory framework for the educational experiences of young people in the youth justice system. Its second and related objective was to identify practices (pedagogic, strategic and administrative) which support young people’s engagement with learning. At the core of the research were 32 young people who were serving either a community or a custodial sentence under the supervision of one youth offending team in England and Wales. The study found exclusionary and inclusionary interests operating within and between the agencies of education and youth justice and identified the extent to which these competing interests played a role in sustaining young people’s involvement in education or compounding their educational and social marginalisation. The final research report is available here.