This collection of ground-breaking international essays address the educational, social, work and biographical experiences of young women who are routinely constructed as ‘at risk’ and on the margins. Drawing on research from an international range of scholars, this book brings together important new perspectives on the gendered dimensions of social exclusion and educational marginalisation. It offers practitioners as well as researchers insights into how to ‘research’ social marginalisation and reflections on projects and programmes that have attempted to do so. Chapters investigate key topics such as:

• early school leaving
• indigenous young women and schooling
• pregnant and parenting young women at school
• constructions of health, subjectivity and social class
• the politics of ethnicity.

Provocative and insightful, this book will make interesting reading to students and post-graduate students of education, youth studies, gender studies, sociology and social work.

Julie McLeod is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Deakin University, Australia

Andrea C. Allard is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Deakin University, Australia