Alternative education sites and marginalised young people: ‘I wish there were more schools like this one’

This paper reports on research conducted in alternative schools/flexible learning centres 1 There was debate amongst participants as to the preferred term ‘school’ or ‘centre’. For the purpose of this paper, we have chosen to refer to these sites as alternative schools in order to foreground viability as equal pathways of choice within current educational offerings. designed to support young people marginalised from mainstream schooling in Australia. Many of the young people attending these centres had left school due to difficult personal circumstances and/or significant conflicts with schooling authorities. We argue that the ways in which these schools construct their learning environments, teaching programmes and pedagogical relationships are conducive to encouraging such young people to re-engage with educational processes and thus should be supported as viable alternatives within schooling sectors. Moreover, we contend that data gathered from these sites should be used to inform many of the practices within mainstream schools that currently contribute to the marginalisation of certain categories of youth.