In the Space Between: Listening to Young People Who Have Encountered a Managed Move

In this research project, I listen to how young people who have encountered a managed move make sense of their experiences. Managed moves are typically presented as an alternative to permanent exclusion, whereby young people undertake a trial period in a new educational setting while remaining on roll at their original school. These young people could be seen to occupy a liminal space, between belonging and exclusion, and I explore the implications this may have for subjectivity, before considering how findings might inform practice. Research in this area is limited and few studies critically examine notions of subjectivity and power. This project adopts a narrative methodology that privileges the voices of young people and facilitates an exploration of individual sense-making, while highlighting wider social and political factors. I approach the research from a critical realist perspective, drawing on poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory in an attempt to bridge the divide between the political and the psychic. I argue a case for practice that is rooted in an understanding of complex subjectivity, recognising the subject as both agentic and vulnerable. This is considered as an ethical imperative, demanding further reflection on how we engage with marginalised young people.