This book deals with one of the most urgent damaging and complex issues affecting young lives
and contemporary society in general - the escalating high school dropout rate. Though against
the wishes of teachers and school administrators young people's decision to leave school is
usually made under circumstances that provide little time or space for discussion. This book
provides a disturbing account of how students' voices are over-ridden - lost in the imposition
of curriculum and the rush to impose testing accountability and management regimes on
schools. 'Dropping Out' Drifting Off Being Excluded reveals the complex stories that surround
identity formation in young lives and the «interactive trouble» as young people struggle to be
heard within inhospitable schools and an equally unhelpful education system.
