Rights, rules and remedies: interrogating the policy discourse of school exclusion in Wales

Wales is often compared favourably to other countries because of its commitment the UN Convention on Rights Child and lower levels school exclusions. Systematic analysis policy documents reveals dominance a rights-based discourse in approaching challenge exclusions, which are explained terms socio-economic circumstances rather than individual pathologies. However, also silences tensions within suggest that approach may not provide useful framework for reducing There challenges balancing competing rights reconciling children as rights-holders with rules regimes schools. significant mismatch between causes exclusions proposed remedies. The paper concludes by arguing until these incongruities addressed, it hard see how relating exclusion can be effective.