Race Ethnicity and Education Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2005, pp. 243–259 ISSN 1361-3324 (print)/ISSN 1470-109X (online)/05/030243–17 © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd DOI: 10.1080/13613320500174283 Resilience and refusal: African- Caribbean young men’s agency, school exclusions, and school-based mentoring programmes Simon Warren* University of Sheffield, UK Taylor and Francis Ltd CREE117411.sgm 10.1080/13613320500174283 Race, Ethnicity and Education 1361-3324 (print)/1470-109X (online) Original Article 2005 Taylor & Francis Ltd 8 3 000000September 2005 Dr SimonWarren Institute of Applied Social StudiesUniversity of Birminghams.a.warren@bham.co.uk In this paper I attempt to do three things. Firstly, I explore the concept of resistance in the sociology of youth and education. I raise questions about the power of this concept to provide a descriptive language for understanding the way young people generally, and in this paper, young African- Caribbean men in London schools, deal with the contexts of institutional racism. I then go on to suggest the concepts of ‘resilience’ and ‘refusal’ as providing a more appropriate descriptive language. Drawing on the narratives provided by 15 African-Caribbean young men in three London schools, I explore the power of this descriptive language to capture the sense of youthful agency, but also the ambiguity of that agency. Thirdly, in light of the concepts of ‘resilience’ and ‘refusal’, I ask the question as to whether the school-based mentoring programmes these young men participated in can be regarded as emergent counter-hegemonic projects. Introduction By almost any indicator young people of Caribbean or African heritage receive the least benefit from their participation in English schools, whether that be in terms of attainment, exclusions or entry into labour markets. Perhaps the most telling statistic is that on average Black youth enter the English school system performing as well as or above their peers, but that on leaving compulsory education they are 20 percentage points below their peers (Gillborn & Mirza, 2000). Another statistic, and the one most pertinent to this paper is that Black students in some Local Education Authority (LEAs) areas are 19 times more likely to be excluded 1 from school than their White peers (Commission for Racial Equality, 1997; Blair, 2001). An Audit Commission *Institute for Lifelong Learning, 196–198 West Street, Sheffield, S1 4ET, UK. Email: s.a.war- ren@shef.ac.uk