an article by Donald Simpson (Teeside University, UK), Sandra Loughran (no affiliation given), Eunice Lumsden (University of Northampton, UK), Philip Mazzocco (The Ohio University at Mansfield, USA), Rory McDowall Clarke (University of Worcester, UK) and Christian Winterbottom (University of North Florida, USA) published in Journal of Poverty and Social Justice Volume 26 Number 1 (February 2018)
Abstract
This paper considers the socially progressive function of a model of ‘quality’ early childhood education and care widely prescribed to address child poverty across England and the USA.
Ubiquitous, it is imbued with a sense of objectivity, secureness and practicality.
We question these foundations.
Then using data from practitioners in both countries, we contrast expectations about this model of ECEC as an unmitigated good building resilience to ‘break cycles of disadvantage’, with the everyday experiences and frustrations of practitioners pursuing it.
Their data suggest this model of ‘quality’ has limitations and some heresy is required about this policy orthodoxy.
Showing posts with label disadvantage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disadvantage. Show all posts
Friday, 30 March 2018
Tuesday, 3 October 2017
Access to quality education for students with disabilities
an article by Luke Macaulay, Joanne Deppeler and Joseph Agbenyega (Monash University, Faculty of Education) published in Journal of Social Inclusion Volume 7 Issue 2 (2016)
Abstract
Conceptualising educational equity and academic achievement is a key task for inclusive education and the politics of inclusion. Recent Australian Government reports (2013-2016) on educational access and inclusion report low levels of educational access and attainment for students with disability.
This paper considers the place that Pierre Bourdieu’s critical social theory has in helping us to conceptualise access, equity, and inclusion, and argue that the concepts of habitus, capital, and field (Bourdieu, 1977) have a key role to play in this process. Utilising these concepts to draw closely on three recent Australian Government reports (2013-2016) on educational equity and inclusion, our analysis has identified three consistent themes across these reports which disadvantage students with disability.
These include cultural issues, economic capital, and the utility of education. These themes compound and culminate to highlight an issue of a lack of continuity across the field of education within Australia.
As a consequence, the value of capital and operation of habitus function inconsistently across the field, rendering the process of the acquisition of success as being inequitable. Consideration is given to the need for a careful rethinking of how the inclusive education concept, connected to politics, can be transformed to eradicate inequities and inconsistencies to the benefit of all.
Abstract
Conceptualising educational equity and academic achievement is a key task for inclusive education and the politics of inclusion. Recent Australian Government reports (2013-2016) on educational access and inclusion report low levels of educational access and attainment for students with disability.
This paper considers the place that Pierre Bourdieu’s critical social theory has in helping us to conceptualise access, equity, and inclusion, and argue that the concepts of habitus, capital, and field (Bourdieu, 1977) have a key role to play in this process. Utilising these concepts to draw closely on three recent Australian Government reports (2013-2016) on educational equity and inclusion, our analysis has identified three consistent themes across these reports which disadvantage students with disability.
These include cultural issues, economic capital, and the utility of education. These themes compound and culminate to highlight an issue of a lack of continuity across the field of education within Australia.
As a consequence, the value of capital and operation of habitus function inconsistently across the field, rendering the process of the acquisition of success as being inequitable. Consideration is given to the need for a careful rethinking of how the inclusive education concept, connected to politics, can be transformed to eradicate inequities and inconsistencies to the benefit of all.
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Destination dumping ground: The convergence of ‘unwanted’ populations in disadvantaged city areas
an article by Lynda Cheshire (The University of Queensland, Australia) and Gina Zappia (University of Tasmania, Australia) published in Urban Studies Volume 53 Number 10 (2016)
Abstract
Academic and lay discourses around disadvantaged urban areas often draw on the language of ‘dumping grounds’ to encapsulate the poverty, marginalisation and social problems often found there. Yet the concept of a dumping ground remains insufficiently theorised.
This paper addresses this issue by identifying five constituent features of the dumping ground:
Full text (PDF)
Abstract
Academic and lay discourses around disadvantaged urban areas often draw on the language of ‘dumping grounds’ to encapsulate the poverty, marginalisation and social problems often found there. Yet the concept of a dumping ground remains insufficiently theorised.
This paper addresses this issue by identifying five constituent features of the dumping ground:
- the perception of people as waste whose fate is to be discarded;
- the need to accommodate this human ‘waste’ and the logic by which places are selected for this purpose;
- the mechanisms through which this spatial sorting occurs as problem populations are moved to their ‘rightful’ place;
- the relations of power which enforce or encourage this mobility; and finally,
- the reactions of incumbent residents in neighbourhoods that are compelled to host unwanted social groups.
Full text (PDF)
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
Shaped by place? Young people’s aspirations in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
an article by Keith Kintrea (Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK), Ralf St Clair (Faculty of Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada) and Muir Houston (School of Education, University of Glasgow, UK) published in Journal of Youth Studies Volume 18 Issue 5 (2015)
Abstract
This paper aims to better understand the relationship between young people’s aspirations towards education and jobs, and the context in which they are formed, especially to understand better the role of disadvantaged places in shaping young people’s aspirations.
Policy makers maintain that disadvantaged areas are associated with low aspirations and there is support for this position from academic work on neighbourhood effects and local labour markets, but evidence is slim.
Using a two-stage survey of young people in disadvantaged settings in three British cities, the paper provides new data on the nature of young peoples’ aspirations, how they change during the teenage years, and how they relate to the places where they are growing up.
The findings are that aspirations are very high and, overall, they do not appear to be depressed in relation to the jobs available in the labour market either by the neighbourhood context or by young people’s perceptions of local labour markets. However, there are significant differences between the pattern of aspirations and how they change over time in the three locations.
The paper then challenges assumptions in policy and in the literature that disadvantaged places equal low aspirations and suggests that understanding how aspirations are formed requires a nuanced approach to the nexus of class, ethnicity and institutional influences within local areas.
Abstract
This paper aims to better understand the relationship between young people’s aspirations towards education and jobs, and the context in which they are formed, especially to understand better the role of disadvantaged places in shaping young people’s aspirations.
Policy makers maintain that disadvantaged areas are associated with low aspirations and there is support for this position from academic work on neighbourhood effects and local labour markets, but evidence is slim.
Using a two-stage survey of young people in disadvantaged settings in three British cities, the paper provides new data on the nature of young peoples’ aspirations, how they change during the teenage years, and how they relate to the places where they are growing up.
The findings are that aspirations are very high and, overall, they do not appear to be depressed in relation to the jobs available in the labour market either by the neighbourhood context or by young people’s perceptions of local labour markets. However, there are significant differences between the pattern of aspirations and how they change over time in the three locations.
The paper then challenges assumptions in policy and in the literature that disadvantaged places equal low aspirations and suggests that understanding how aspirations are formed requires a nuanced approach to the nexus of class, ethnicity and institutional influences within local areas.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Spatially Concentrated Deprivation in England: An Empirical Assessment
an article by Alasdair Rae (Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield, UK) published in Regional Studies
Volume 46 Issue 9 (2012)
Abstract
Spatially concentrated deprivation is a well-documented phenomenon and is of interest to a diverse constituency of academics and policy-makers.
Despite the accepted view of concentrated deprivation as a problem, however, the empirical basis for understanding it remains under-developed. Therefore, an attempt is made here to provide an empirical assessment of spatially concentrated deprivation in England using spatial statistics and a policy-relevant deprivation measure.
More localized analyses are also conducted for London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.
The results demonstrate that deprivation in England is highly concentrated, that it varies significantly over space and that spatial patterns persist through time.
JEL classifications: J, J0, J4, J6, J40, J60, J64
Abstract
Spatially concentrated deprivation is a well-documented phenomenon and is of interest to a diverse constituency of academics and policy-makers.
Despite the accepted view of concentrated deprivation as a problem, however, the empirical basis for understanding it remains under-developed. Therefore, an attempt is made here to provide an empirical assessment of spatially concentrated deprivation in England using spatial statistics and a policy-relevant deprivation measure.
More localized analyses are also conducted for London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.
The results demonstrate that deprivation in England is highly concentrated, that it varies significantly over space and that spatial patterns persist through time.
JEL classifications: J, J0, J4, J6, J40, J60, J64
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
A long division: closing the attainment gap in England's secondary schools
a research paper by Jonathan Clifton and Will Cook (IPPR) published by Institute for Public Policy Research (September 2012)
Introduction
This paper investigates the role schools can play in ensuring all children get a fair start in life. The issue of social mobility has risen up the political agenda in recent years, amid concerns that the opportunities provided by over a decade of economic growth have been too narrowly concentrated among a few groups in society. A series of reports has highlighted Britain’s low levels of social mobility, showing how children from poorer backgrounds struggle to gain access to university, enter professional jobs and earn decent wages (see Milburn 2012, Sutton Trust 2011, Blanden et al 2005). This in turn means disadvantage can become entrenched across the generations.
Low levels of social mobility are rooted in wider changes to the British economy since the 1970s, following the loss of decent jobs at the bottom of the labour market, the professionalisation of jobs at the top of the labour market, and an increase in income inequality, which have all combined to make it harder for people to climb the ladder of opportunity (Duncan and Murnane 2011). A concerted effort will be required in a number of policy areas to address this problem, but education can play a crucial role. A high level of education has become more important for getting a decent job over the past 30 years, meaning those families which are unable to invest in education are left further behind (Lindley and Machin 2012). Education can provide access to many opportunities later in life, and schools can help to create a level playing field for young people as they start out.
The government, in particular, has turned to schools to try and solve this problem, producing a social mobility strategy that focuses heavily on the academic performance of poorer pupils (Clegg 2012). It has introduced a number of policies designed to raise the achievement of pupils from deprived areas, including converting failing schools into academies, reforming the accountability system to put more pressure on weaker schools to improve, and allocating an additional sum of money, known as the ‘pupil premium’, to schools that teach children from poorer homes. Government ministers have expressed a desire to close the ‘stubborn’ gap in achievement at GCSE level that exists between children from deprived areas and their wealthier peers (Gove 2012).
This paper uses original analysis of the latest data available from the National Pupil Database to assess the challenge the government has set itself. It explores the role that schools can play in tackling the link between educational achievement and family income. The first half of the paper sets out the scale of the challenge, and puts the issue in context by comparing how the achievement gap – or, as it is often known, the attainment gap in England has changed over time and in relation to other countries. The second half of the paper examines the nature of the gap in achievement, and argues for the use of targeted interventions as well as wider ‘school improvement’ policies. The paper concludes by modelling the impact that the government’s flagship policy in this area, the pupil premium, might have on the achievement gap, and sets out what it would take to reach the government’s aim of closing it for good.
This paper is concerned with the specific question of what official data sources can reveal about the size and nature of the achievement gap, and how this can inform the design of current government policies. A more comprehensive book, in which leading academics will propose new policy ideas to break the link between poverty and educational achievement, will be published by IPPR later in the year.
Full text (PDF 50pp)
Introduction
This paper investigates the role schools can play in ensuring all children get a fair start in life. The issue of social mobility has risen up the political agenda in recent years, amid concerns that the opportunities provided by over a decade of economic growth have been too narrowly concentrated among a few groups in society. A series of reports has highlighted Britain’s low levels of social mobility, showing how children from poorer backgrounds struggle to gain access to university, enter professional jobs and earn decent wages (see Milburn 2012, Sutton Trust 2011, Blanden et al 2005). This in turn means disadvantage can become entrenched across the generations.
Low levels of social mobility are rooted in wider changes to the British economy since the 1970s, following the loss of decent jobs at the bottom of the labour market, the professionalisation of jobs at the top of the labour market, and an increase in income inequality, which have all combined to make it harder for people to climb the ladder of opportunity (Duncan and Murnane 2011). A concerted effort will be required in a number of policy areas to address this problem, but education can play a crucial role. A high level of education has become more important for getting a decent job over the past 30 years, meaning those families which are unable to invest in education are left further behind (Lindley and Machin 2012). Education can provide access to many opportunities later in life, and schools can help to create a level playing field for young people as they start out.
The government, in particular, has turned to schools to try and solve this problem, producing a social mobility strategy that focuses heavily on the academic performance of poorer pupils (Clegg 2012). It has introduced a number of policies designed to raise the achievement of pupils from deprived areas, including converting failing schools into academies, reforming the accountability system to put more pressure on weaker schools to improve, and allocating an additional sum of money, known as the ‘pupil premium’, to schools that teach children from poorer homes. Government ministers have expressed a desire to close the ‘stubborn’ gap in achievement at GCSE level that exists between children from deprived areas and their wealthier peers (Gove 2012).
This paper uses original analysis of the latest data available from the National Pupil Database to assess the challenge the government has set itself. It explores the role that schools can play in tackling the link between educational achievement and family income. The first half of the paper sets out the scale of the challenge, and puts the issue in context by comparing how the achievement gap – or, as it is often known, the attainment gap in England has changed over time and in relation to other countries. The second half of the paper examines the nature of the gap in achievement, and argues for the use of targeted interventions as well as wider ‘school improvement’ policies. The paper concludes by modelling the impact that the government’s flagship policy in this area, the pupil premium, might have on the achievement gap, and sets out what it would take to reach the government’s aim of closing it for good.
This paper is concerned with the specific question of what official data sources can reveal about the size and nature of the achievement gap, and how this can inform the design of current government policies. A more comprehensive book, in which leading academics will propose new policy ideas to break the link between poverty and educational achievement, will be published by IPPR later in the year.
Full text (PDF 50pp)
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Living on the Move: Mobility, Religion and Exclusion of Eastern European Migrants in Rural Scotland
an article by Sergei Shubin (Swansea University, Wales) published in Population, Space and Place Volume 18 Issue 5 (September/October 2012)
Abstract
The paper explores theoretical and practical issues related to spiritual mobility and engagement with Eastern European migrants in rural Scotland.
Emerging mobile lifestyles create different patterns of living ‘on the move’, but the church and other rural institutions in Scotland often fail to attend to migrants’ affective relationships with existing immigrant communities, unpredictable travelling behaviour, and cross-border spiritual links.
For this gap to be addressed, the paper develops a complex understanding of migrants living on the move. It suggests adding a spiritual element to the analysis of transnational mobilities and explores the ways in which constellations of mobility and religion generate more-than-corporeal dislocations (faith-based sensations), generate virtual movement (beyond rationality to the outside of knowing), and create new imaginations of the migrants’ place in the world.
It argues that the spiritual can be seen as an important factor in producing new social worlds and overcoming the separations and division created by migrations.
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Abstract
The paper explores theoretical and practical issues related to spiritual mobility and engagement with Eastern European migrants in rural Scotland.
Emerging mobile lifestyles create different patterns of living ‘on the move’, but the church and other rural institutions in Scotland often fail to attend to migrants’ affective relationships with existing immigrant communities, unpredictable travelling behaviour, and cross-border spiritual links.
For this gap to be addressed, the paper develops a complex understanding of migrants living on the move. It suggests adding a spiritual element to the analysis of transnational mobilities and explores the ways in which constellations of mobility and religion generate more-than-corporeal dislocations (faith-based sensations), generate virtual movement (beyond rationality to the outside of knowing), and create new imaginations of the migrants’ place in the world.
It argues that the spiritual can be seen as an important factor in producing new social worlds and overcoming the separations and division created by migrations.
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools
a report published by OECD in February 2012
Summary
Across OECD countries, almost one in every five students does not reach a basic minimum level of skills. In addition, students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to be low performers. Lack of fairness and inclusion can lead to school failure and this means that one in every five young adults on average drop out before completing upper secondary education.
Reducing school failure pays off for both society and individuals. The highest performing education systems across OECD countries combine quality with equity. This report presents policy recommendations for education systems to help all children succeed in their schooling.
Further details, and links to print and E-book formats, are here
Print: £36 ISBN: 9-789-26413-084-5
PDF: £25 ISBN: 9-789-26413-085-2
Summary
Across OECD countries, almost one in every five students does not reach a basic minimum level of skills. In addition, students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to be low performers. Lack of fairness and inclusion can lead to school failure and this means that one in every five young adults on average drop out before completing upper secondary education.
Reducing school failure pays off for both society and individuals. The highest performing education systems across OECD countries combine quality with equity. This report presents policy recommendations for education systems to help all children succeed in their schooling.
Further details, and links to print and E-book formats, are here
Print: £36 ISBN: 9-789-26413-084-5
PDF: £25 ISBN: 9-789-26413-085-2
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Workers from foreign backgrounds face disadvantage
Eurofound News September 2011
People from another country or from another ethnic group can face disadvantage in the labour market. In some countries, nationals who have a foreign background, or who are from another ethnic group, are more likely to work part time, or hold only temporary employment contracts. In addition, in some countries, such workers are more likely to work in the evening, at night or at weekends. A recently published report from Eurofound looks at the employment and working conditions of nationals with a foreign background and those with a different ethnic affiliation. It concludes that in many Member States, much remains to be learned about tackling work-related discrimination.
Read more in the report
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