‘Inclusion’ as an approach is founded on a morally infused stand against discrimination. Commitment to support all learners as being equally entitled and valued carries the implicit recognition that pupils may be treated differently because of the social and structural classifications they occupy. Yet ‘inclusion’ policies tend to be characterised by a one-sided preoccupation with celebrating diversity and promoting equality, with this positive message all but drowning out more critical assessment of the day-to-day practices that lead to the very clear patterns of disadvantage I noted in Chapter 2. As I will outline in more detail, discourses of inclusion in schools operate within the interstices of ingrained and unreflected-upon categories of difference, with enduring disparities concealed beneath the feel good gloss of diversity.

I begin with a focus on race as a key site of discrimination in the schools. I take a closer look at the racial dynamics driving encounters at Gravensdale, highlighting and exploring how systematised prejudice was routinely justified and defended by school staff. Broadening the analysis out to include the other schools I show how race issues operate under the surface, silently shaping encounters and making certain outcomes more likely than others. I then move on to explore how race intersects with gender to produce differently inflected risks and solutions. I also take a closer look at interactions between boys and girls and expose the ugly but normalised culture of sexual violence governing relations in the co-ed schools. The chapter concludes with an explicit consideration of class, drawing on the example of the only middle-class boy participating in the research.

Gravensdale: Not racist but…

As I’ve outlined, race was a particularly fraught issue at Gravensdale. Allegations of racism were common alongside a curious tolerance of racial abuse that set it apart from the other institutions. All three schools were similar in terms of their ethnically diverse intake. At Gravensdale and Hailingbrooke the main ethnic groups were white, black African, black Caribbean and Turkish alongside a very wide variety of other ethnicities. Meedham was similar but lacking any sizable Turkish population and with more black African and Caribbean pupils. All three schools proudly acclaimed this multicultural array, but as I’ll demonstrate, a fundamental unease penetrated the celebratory veneer of diversity at Gravensdale. Racial tensions were high among pupils and staff, yet there appeared to be no outlet to discuss or address this in any meaningful way.