Reframing school refusal as school can't: Exploring the phenomenon through a trauma lens

Reframing school refusal as school can't: Exploring the phenomenon through a trauma lens

School-based emotional distress is an increasingly concerning issue faced by many children and young people across Australia. With much of the literature, and the recent Australian Senate enquiry framing the issue as 'school refusal', it is timely to reflect on the complex nature of the phenomenon and the language used to understand the experience. The term 'school refusal' carries with it an assumption that school attendance is a behavioural choice made by the child or young person. Affecting a diverse range of students with intersecting identities such as neurodivergence, disability, diverse sexuality and genders, including people with innate variations of sex characteristics, this assumption of choice and the focus on the child or young person’s behaviour are over-simplistic. In this paper presentation, we seek to conceptualise school refusal as a direct response to microtrauma experienced within the school environment. These micro-traumas can arise from a perceived lack of social, cognitive, emotional or sensory safety, such as social isolation, academic pressures, and emotional overwhelm. Over time, these repeated experiences can lead to a sense of vulnerability and an emotional and psychological response where school attendance not only feels undesirable, but untenable. School can’t, therefore, becomes a coping mechanism – a way for the child or young person to protect themselves from environments that are deemed unsafe. This conceptual paper is a collaboration between the School Can’t Australia advocate organisation and cross-disciplinary researchers. Five of the six authors are living with children or young people who experience school can’t, while all have had experience as educators, scholars or allied health professionals supporting children and young people experiencing school can’t. Drawing on academic literature, and informed by our collective lived experience, this paper develops a conceptual framework and suggests a research agenda for future exploration of school can’t, and education reform.

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