Poverty and education

ACTS 2012

Terry Wrigley

What do we mean by poverty?• Absolute or relative poverty (< 60% of avge income)

Since 1980s, increased differences of income / wealth(especially Britain and USA among developed countriesas a result of neoliberal policies)• insecurity• limited participation• shame• aimlessness, frustration• spatial concentration

Impact on children

Damp bedrooms

Inadequate clothes

BUT ALSO

Friendships

Self-esteem

Optimism

What do we mean by class?Class: a social division based on economic relations, which affects consciousness, culture etc

• Employers vs workers

(Marx: who controls production, history, struggle)

• “working class” / “middle class” (manual/white collar?)

(Educational sociology)

• I-V and variants (types of occupation: official, marketing)

What do we mean by class?Class: a social division based on economic relations, which affects consciousness, culture etc

• Employers vs workers (Marx: who controls production)

• “working class” / “middle class” (manual/white collar?)

• official and marketing definitions (occupational)

Not static - in formation (E.P.Thompson)

No automatic link between• class position• class awareness• class consciousness• class action

An ‘underclass’?

or just more vulnerable workers?

Charles MurrayOsborne’s “lifestyle choice”

Macdonald and Marsh : Disconnected Youth?

Owen Jones: Chavs

Impact of the discourse of derision on children…

Both have an impact on educationClass (Marxist division): increasing attempt by business leaders to determine the goals of education (e.g. S Ball; neoliberalism) – ‘human capital’, meritocracy.

Class (kinds of work): “working class” (= manual workers) gain (in general) lower qualifications, finish education earlier - supposedly less theoretical?

Laid onto this

the impact of (relative and absolute) poverty:

limited opportunities, family stress, low morale, low trust / antagonism, shame, defeatism, limited horizons, troubled neighbourhoods, etc.

School structure

“Schools serving poorer areas sometimes have to manage multiple kinds of disadvantage. A pupil’s relationship to school may be a fragile one... (OECD 2007:81)

Issues of school size and structure.

e.g. 15 different specialist teachers.

Setting, streaming, grading, subject choice

Minimizing the impact of poverty on school achievement

Finland• less poverty• free healthy meals• libraries • smaller schools • teachers focused on lifting up from bottom• no tests, league tables, inspectors, performance pay

• Elsewhere - different support for single mothers etc.

Combined action: can’t all be done in the classroom

A word of caution…

whilst recognizing this as a major problem

there is a danger if we allow it to lower our expectations !

Some problematic theories

• “Know your place” (19th C.)

• “Intelligence” (IQ. Burt. 1910-1960)

• “Language deficit” (Bernstein 1960s-80s)

• “Aspirations” (ongoing)

• “Ineffective” schools or teaching (now)

19th Century

“Know your place”

Don’t rise above your station in life!

Restrict to elementary education

3Rs + obedience + Empire

1910-1960

“Intelligence” (IQ, Burt)

Generic

Innate

Immutable

The identical twins fraud !

late 1960s-1980

“Language deficit” (Bernstein)

Restricted and elaborated code

Flawed experiment

Professional myths

Critique: Labov, Rosen

Critique: school pedagogies

Ongoing

“Low aspirations”

Aspirations are situated:

Impact of :

de-industrialisation

stigma

frustration (training schemes)

+

positioning in schools, school ethos

1990s-now

“Ineffective” schools and teachersComparing ‘similar’ schools

Characteristics (strong leadership, focus on T+L, pupil participation, assessment)

Linear, mechanistic causality

LEADING TO

strict accountability (government by numbers), test-driven, narrowing of curriculum, instrumental ... within a market system.

A search for better theory

• Cultural and social capital (Bourdieu)

• Curriculum reform

• More productive pedagogies

• Community schools

• Support

Theorising interfaceCharlesworth: A phenomenology of working class experience

shame (loss of face, identity, community, trust)

futility (unemployment, ‘poor work’, training schemes that lead nowhere)

the symbolic violence brought about by Thatcher’s deindustrialisation

Theorising interfaceRotherham’s like a gaol wiy’aht any walls. People can’t see wot it is that’s causin’ ahr thi feel. (p53)

Yer used to gu t’ w’k a’ yer could see who thi’ exploiter wo’ an’ ah much thi wo meckkin’ aht’a yer but nahr, well, Ah just sit ‘ere like a sack o’r spuds. Ah dun’t ‘ave owt to se’ cos all A’ve done is waste mi day away, same as yesterd’y! (p59)

College is shit. Ah’ve seen too many du it an’ get nowt…well yer know what jobs are like rahnd ‘ere, they’re slave labour. (p61)

People wi’ good grades end up du’in’ fuck all, what’s point?(p96)

M’ son thi’v med ‘im gu on these trainin’ schemes an’ its just cheap labour. Thi’ ‘ad ‘im train’t’ be a welder, an then hi wo back on dole; then thi’ ‘ad ‘im doin’ joinery on ET an’ then hi’ wo’ back on dole age’an; nah thi’ve got ‘im do’in’ fork-lift truck drivin’, so Ah guess next hi’ll be an unemployed fork-lift driver. (p96)

If yer could mek school better, ahr wouuld yer like it to be?Well, if thi’ treat us wi’ mo’ore respect. (p101)

Theorising interfaceCharlesworth: A phenomenology of working class experience

• shame (loss of face, identity, community, trust)

• futility (unemployment, ‘poor work’, training schemes that lead nowhere)

What if these are reinforced by traditional schooling?

• lack of respect, security, etc.

• learning as alienated labour, grading, selection

Curriculum and class

What would a working-class (urban, community) curriculum look like? Midwinter, Rosen, Searle, TLK, RFMackenzie…

Counter argument by Lawton: ‘ghettoization’

• a curriculum which is felt to be relevant (not onlyvocational)

• culturally responsive but gives access to dominant culture and qualification

Basic skills … but within challenging activities

… in a context where ‘working class’ is less obviously visible, culturally less coherent, and often demoralised?

Productive pedagogies

Social constructivism (socio-cultural)

Problem solving (not merely ‘thinking skills’)

Product and audience

cf. the alienated labour of task completion and exercises

Productive pedagogies

Overcoming the problem of abstraction

linking theory to practice,

symbolic representation to experience

(Bruner: narrative / academic)

The wider application of EAL pedagogies: Cummins’ quadrant

More productive pedagogies - language(from EAL theory. The “Cummins quadrant”

high cognitive

low cognitive

experiential abstract

Academic

Conversational Exercises

More productive pedagogies - language(from EAL theory. The “Cummins quadrant”

high cognitive

low cognitive

experiential abstract

Academic

Conversational

Challenging but grounded

Productive pedagogies

Open architectures:

Project method

Storyline

Simulations

Community Design and Technology

Media production

Citizen’s theatre (Boal) …

School and community

• Community schoolsvarious models - from adult ed. to pre-school, old people, leisure, social services, etc.

various impact on curriculum

involving parents in children’s education

drawing on community assets

building on community knowledge

School and community

building on community knowledge

‘Funds of Knowledge’ (Luis Moll)

‘Virtual Schoolbag ‘ (Pat Thomson)

+ Paulo Freire, Harold Rosen, and the rest of the band

NB Cummins on the starvation diet of phonics

Schools as communities

School size and structure(Scandinavia, USA)

The problem of too many teachers

parents who want to help but don’t know how

monitoring, encouraging, opening horizons

alternative experiences (e.g. work placement)

How to differentiate and support without labelling and segregating?

An empowerment culture

• Teachers who gain the courage and confidence to explore new ways of managing learning.

• Curricula which connect up with the real lives of the learner

• Relationships which enable the learners to find a voice

• A counter-culture to the despair of a community.