“Love, care and solidarity”: Transforming school exclusion using an abolitionist lens

An abolitionist lens is applied to generate new understandings of school exclusion and to explore possibilities for its transformation. While framed within the literature as an issue of social justice and a driver within the school-to-prison pipeline, a gap remains in what it might mean to dismantle exclusion entirely and prefigure an education system that does not rely on punitive or exclusionary logics. Employing a politically engaged, qualitative methodology, two focus groups were conducted with community activists involved in anti-exclusion organising. The sessions were structured around a dual aim of deconstructing current exclusionary systems and imagining alternative structures through abolitionist world-building. Five overarching themes were developed through reflexive thematic analysis, tracing the historical, ideological, affective, and material conditions of school exclusion as well as the possibilities for resistance and transformation. Analytic interpretation was informed by feminist theory, disability justice, and critical psychology, exploring how exclusionary practices are produced and sustained through intersecting systems of power. Findings situate exclusion within a critical ecological framework, highlighting how resources, recognition, and care are differentially distributed and structurally constrained. Implications for educational psychology are outlined, including a re-politicisation of care and inclusion, and the development of a more justice-oriented and politically attuned way of working.