http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/school-system-punishes-poor-says-report-20120209-1rxar.html
It is sad to say that having a low
socioeconomic status greatly affects a child’s education, how they are judged
in society and how the view their own identity. As much as we ourselves or the
government may try to deny it, and pass over the issue with schemes and ‘benefits’
that only apply to some children, it is inconceivable to think that being
socially and economically disadvantaged goes against systems of social justice
in education, and is a problem that still has not been fully addressed.
Paula Rothenburg (2007) argues that
people who are more privileged in the realms of wealth and socioeconomic status,
and so are middle to upper class citizens, strive to maintain this privilege
for their offspring. And so the dynamics of power and privilege shape the key experiences
in their lives and therefore, in some part, shape their identity. At the
opposite end of the spectrum, or those who are not middle to upper class white
citizens in the predominantly western culture of education in Australia, are
the possibilities of multicultural, working class migrants who face challenges
of identity in education due to these factors alone and therefore also
contribute to feelings of self-worth or lack there-of. Of course, this is a
generalization of society, but it is key to criticising the influence of perceived
difference on identity in education. By bringing this issue into a classroom
setting, we can also analyse the role of the teacher when regarding issues of
disadvantage, comparison and identity. As Henrikson (1971) states “The possibility that teacher attitude plays as
significant a role in the classroom as some of the studies have indicated is of
great importance to further planning in education for the disadvantaged child.
It challenges the belief that the child who is disadvantaged in both home and
school is so because one environment is working irrevocably against the other.
It asks whether it is not possible that the disadvantaged status of the child,
as viewed by the teacher, itself creates the disadvantage for the child within
the classroom.” (p.428). From this we can see that identities can be internally
and externally shaped and contribute to the learning experience of students,
with factors such as race, geographical location and family attributes playing
a significant role in the teaching and learning process.
This undermines the structures of
social justice systems, refusing to acknowledge that equality of resources or
terms of diversity do not account for individual difference in students and
their learning outcomes. As the article states, the Gonski review recommends ‘an overhaul of the funding regime with
particular focus on disadvantaged public schools. The report argues investing
in high quality schooling and equal opportunities from the early years to the
end of upper secondary is the most profitable policy.’ (Sydney Morning Herald,
2012). So this is a possible program that could potentially fix the underlying
issues of educating socioeconomically disadvantaged students and begin to close
the gap to achieve a higher standard of education across the board, rather than
just focussing on the easier to teach, richer children who have an easier means
to achieve than others.
References
- Henrikson, H. (1971). Role of Teacher Attitude in Educating the disadvantaged child, Illinios, Research in Review
- Rothenberg, P. S. (2007). Race, class, and gender in the United States (seventh edition). New York, Worth.
- Stevenson, A. (2012). School system punishes poor, says report. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/school-system-punishes-poor-says-report-20120209-1rxar.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment