Introduction

This article introduces the concept of Enabling Spaces where students can form respectful relationships and derive a sense of meaning, connection, and control over their lives. Schools can be enabling spaces, and are exactly this, for many students. Alternative programs can also be vital enabling spaces, and as the other articles in this issue demonstrate, they can function this way for many of the students who have been displaced from mainstream education systems.

While recognising that schools can be damaging places for some young people, there is a growing body of thought that suggests dislocating young people from their everyday settings (friends, networks, credentials etc.) can also be counter-productive. For example, Keating (2010) has argued that keeping young people at school is paramount to positive personal and social outcomes. While many individuals need time out, it is also important to keep open the options and pathways re-enter ‘mainstream’ work and learning institutions.

In countering the current misconception that enabling spaces for disengaging students can only exist outside of mainstream schools, we provide a practice-based example of how schools in Victoria, Australia, have created such enabling spaces on their own grounds that are integrated into their normal education provision. We draw on this example to interrogate the binary frame used to describe options for young people in terms of either inclusion/exclusion in the realm of their educational choices. In particular, we argue that this false dichotomy ignores the existence of other options for students at risk of being excluded from school, and explore implications this may have for Australian education systems.