Deschooling for outsiders: A critical ethnographic investigation of an alternative learning environment in regional Australia

Young people, who are marginalised from conventional schooling, need equitable access to a full secondary school curriculum. In this study, Critical Discourse Theory identified power relations between such young people, youth workers, teachers, and administrators working with them in a flexible, community-based learning environment. A three-level discourse analysis uncovered the convivial and manipulative features of this environment and the impacts these features had on these young people’s future learning pathways. The research findings from this study have implications for the ways in which alternative learning environments engage young people and prepare them for their transition to life beyond senior secondary schooling.