Session Information
25 SES 10, Children's Rights: Refugee and Migrant Experiences
Paper Session
Contribution
Article 29 (1) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (1989) states that a child’s education must ensure “the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin”. However, findings from the OECD (2009) highlight the negative impact educational practices have upon child well-being, particularly among those who are most deprived and at risk. This paper presents findings from research which explored the implementation and use of ability grouping for the teaching of numeracy and literacy in Irish primary schools. At the core of the theoretical framework employed are the children and their voiced experience of both the academic and social world of school. Of particular focus is the way in which each child experienced school as this was influenced by the process, practice and perceptions associated with being assigned into ability group levels. Conceptually the analysis was frame d in terms of the affective dimension (the emotional response) involved in identity formation and how this impacts on how the children see themselves and others within their peer culture. While these concepts draw on the broader sociological theories of Bernstein (framing and classification) and Bourdieu (habitus, capital, field and dispositions), sociology of childhood provides a theoretical lens through which the nature of children’s peer cultures are also explored.
Childhood is a time structured and institutionalized construct, with schooling responsible for the “temporal corset” for how children live their lives (Zeiher et al., 2007). Schooling and child culture exist alongside one another, each with its hierarchy, rules and particular criteria of evaluation/judgement (Pollard, 1985). Children, as co-constructors of their social worlds, are engaged in the production of their peer cultures with other children, a process which is mediated through their interaction and negotiations with the adult world (Corsaro, 2005, Devine, 2003, Prout and James, 2005). Research has highlighted the importance of quality of friendships for children in school with high quality friendships contributing to better development of social skills, while having low quality friendships, or no friendships at all, could result in lower level of social adjustment among children (Engle, McElwain and Lasky, 2011). Teachers are charged with exercising an ‘invisible hand’ over the shaping of friendships in the classroom (Gest and Rodkin, 2011). It has been argued that practices which fail to ensure that all students are included and a vital part of the classroom jeopardises the opportunity for students to forge friendships (Fisher, Roach and Frey, 2002). Indeed, defining boundaries between students by assigning them into ability groups defines the boundaries of shared experiences and social interaction, thus it is more likely that children forge friendships within rather than across ability groups (Flashman, 2012, Hallinan and Tuma, 1978, Kubitschek and Hallinan, 1998). Furthermore, the practice of structured ability grouping produces a hierarchy of status, elevating some individuals above others through a process of status allocation (Gamoran, Nystrand, Berends & LePore, 1995, Hallam et al., 2004). This paper draws on findings from three case study schools in urban settings which explored the extent to which ability grouping impacts on the nature and form of social interaction patterns between the children, with particular focus on their experiences of being included/excluded from their peer group.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bourdieu, P. (1973) Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction in R. Brown (Ed) Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change, London:Tavistock Corsaro, W.A. (2005) The Sociology of Childhood, London:Sage Devine, D. (2003) Children, Power and Schooling: How Childhood is Structured in the Primary School, Staffordshire:Trentham Devine, D., Kenny, M. and Macneela, E. (2008) Naming the ‘other’: children’s construction and experience of racisms in Irish primary schools, Race, Ethnicity and Education, 11(4), 369-385 Devine, D., Fahie, D. and McGillicuddy, D. (2013) What is ‘good’ teaching? Teacher beliefs and practices about their teaching, Irish Educational Studies, 32(1) Engle, J., McElwain, N. and Lasky, N. (2011) Presence and quality of kindergarden children’s friendships: concurrent and longitudinal associations with child adjustment in the early school years, Infant & Child Development, 20(4), 365-386 Fisher, D., Roach, V. and Frey, N. (2002) Examining the general programmatic benefits of inclusive schools, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 6(1), 63-78 Flashman, J. (2012) Academic achievement and its impact on friend dynamics, Sociology of Education, 85(1), 61-80 Gamoran, A., Nystrand, M., Berends, M. & LePore, P. (1995) An Organisational Analysis of the Effects of Ability Grouping, American Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 687-715 Gest, S. and Rodkin, P. (2011) Teaching practices and elementary classroom peer ecologies, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 32(5), 288-296 Hallam, S., Ireson, J. and Davies, J. (2004) Primary pupils’ experiences of different types of grouping in school, British Educational Research Journal, 30(4), 515-533 Hallinan, M. and Tuma, N. (1978) Classroom effects on change in children’s friendships, Sociology of Education, 51(4), 270-282 Kofoed, J. (2008) Appropriate Pupilness, Childhood, 15(3), 415-430 Kubitschek, W. and Hallinan, M. (1998) Tracking and Students’ Friendships, Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(1), 1-15 Lundy, L. and McEvoy, L. (2012) Children’s rights and research processes: Assisting children to (in)formed views, Childhood-a Global Journal of Child Research, 19(1), 129-144 OECD (2009), Doing Better for Children, OECD:Paris. Pollard, A. (1985) Social World of the Primary School, London:Cassell Prout, A. and James, A. (2005) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, Oxon:RoutledgeFalmer Teddlie, C. and Tashakkori, A. (2009) Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in the Social and Behavioural Sciences, London:SAGE Zeiher, H., Devine, D., Kjorholt, A., & Strandel, H. (eds) (2007) Flexible Childhood? Exploring Children’s Welfare in Time and Space, Odense:University Press of Southern Denmark Zembylas, M. (2010) Children’s construction and experience of racism and nationalism in Greek-Cypriot primary schools, Childhood, 17(3), 312-328
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