‘Dumping grounds’ and ‘rubbish tips’

In this chapter, the authors explore an alternative education site, Grant&s;s Farm, in a depressed rural area in the Australian state of Queensland to document the way it works to counter the construction of students as waste and collateral damage produced by a competitive system of schooling. They draw upon interview data obtained from the school Principal, Grant, young people attending the school and teachers and workers in the school, as well as teachers and administrators in schools that refer students to Grant&s;s Farm. Alternative education provision is often constructed as &s;dumping ground&s; for those students deemed unsatisfactory for the mainstream, especially when audit cultures take hold. In an uncanny paraphrasing of Zygmunt Bauman&s;s Wasted Lives, Grant suggested that many of his students were regarded as society&s;s &s;rubbish&s; and that the school was sometimes perceived as being like a &s;garbage dump&s; with &s;the rubbish collecting in the corner&s;.