The living death of educational disadvantage    075

Educationally disadvantaged children have little understanding of the full significance of their position (as also occurs with the educationally privileged, I note in passing). This is part of the reason why taking positive action is so difficult. In this blog entry I will work through a number of aspects of disadvantage—school and home factors—and show how they are connected, and what parents and children can do. Here I do not include school students who have some type of disability or specific learning disorder, perhaps even about 20 per cent of children in government schools (Natasha Bita, “One in five students has a disability”, Australian, 12 Mar 2016, pp. 1, 6). For these children the government has a duty to apply additional resources—a such as specialist teaching staff and child psychologists, and appropriate educational programs.

Instead I am referring to the group of children who are underperforming because of school and home factors which can be more successfully addressed—although not easily as very often they become entrenched. These children typically come from poorer and less educated families, and the children usually find themselves in schools and classes where teaching practices could be better, and where they become progressively more disengaged. It is in high school where the full effects of this gradual process become fully manifest, that is the gap between their performance and average levels becomes very significant. The result is that they more likely to have a future entry to adulthood based on a combination of mostly unskilled/semiskilled work, combined with some welfare dependency. This, in essence, is the educational disadvantage of which I write.

Very little learning occurs at school for these children. They arrive, perhaps hungry and tired through lack of sleep, to face class. Even before 9.00 am there may have been fights with other students and/or bullying, and probably there were fights at home as well. Once in class, learning is impeded by the presence of disruptive students and sometimes poor teaching practices. Some of disadvantaged children have special support provisions but usually the problem is that they are not learning in the classroom because their lack of basic skills means they cannot follow what the teacher is explaining. This is particularly the case where maths classes, for example, are ungraded, and where teachers are teaching to the top of the class.

Addressing educational deficits through withdrawal and supplementary resourcing and assistance can be advantageous.  But in the longer term such approaches are not sustainable and can be counter-productive. And even worse, they mask the reasons for the problem in the first place—ineffective learning within the classroom, as I mentioned above. Educational quality comes from the design of the system itself, not through inspection followed by the remediation of failures. What is needed for these children is a more measured approach within the normal stream, and indeed within the same classroom as their more advanced peers. There must be graded teaching and learning activities within lessons and across the weekly timetable.

Typically with disadvantaged children there are homework problems, especially with projects set over the longer term. The children are reluctant to access the school library for resources, and even learning support teachers seem to have little effect here. At home inadequate IT systems, especially printers, are a further disadvantage. Behind everything there is a reluctance for the children to engage with the task, underpinned by very poor reading and maths skills. Sometimes they just refuse to even try. In short, homework and similar issues are very deep set. What is needed is good and sustained teaching to build skills and positive attitudes to learning, and also government assistance with IT resourcing at home.

Indeed access to information continues to affect disadvantaged children even after they leave school. Research from Victoria found that disadvantaged students are less able to obtain information on changing university preferences because of an over-reliance on schools for information. This is associated with whether or not the parents have a degree or a higher qualification (reported by Andrew Trounson, “Flaws in entrance advice for students”, Australian, 4 Nov 2015, p. 31).

Much of the educational disadvantage does come from poor parenting skills, compounded by poverty. Sometimes there is inadequate housing where children lack privacy because of overcrowding. This affects sleep and can also affect standards of nutrition, which in turn leads to lack of concentration and the educational deficit which this brings. These children live in a jungle, at home and school, where they must fight to survive. Sometimes they can be hyper-vigilant, easily distracted. In the worse situations there is little or no support or encouragement given, and there seems to be no hope for these lost souls who are starved of affection.

So, where to start with these children?  The start must be made in their immediate environment, their home and family. Parents need support in improving their child rearing skills, and the children need encouragement. The program of hope and renewal can start with organising bedrooms—invariably these children have to share a room. Packing the school bag and organising for the day is important. Indeed these children often lack any awareness of the future. A project which is due in two weeks is in the never-never land. At school these children need regular assistance—and lessons properly organised and taught so that basic skills can be improved.  The start is reading, especially with appropriate books.

As you can see educational disadvantage is a complex topic. The key purpose of remediation is to build self-esteem to enable positive action. Even in seemingly successful homes there is always the risk of slowly drifting into educational disadvantage. It may start with the move from primary to high school where the student is no longer the star of a small world. Now they can’t compete with the best students; the parents lack the information and contact with teachers they once had; and the child begins to be average. And average then becomes good enough. The parents now say they just want their child to be happy but before this they were talking about high level achievement. And then may come marital problems and/or work pressures or changed financial circumstances. The slow slide begins and time, support, hope and encouragement are in short supply. The spiritual battery starts to drain.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services