Session Information
05 SES 06 A, Paths, Participation and Social Mobility
Paper Session
Contribution
Recent research has shown that in 2020 almost a quarter (24.2%) of children aged below 18 in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which is more than both working-aged adults and older people (Eurostat, 2021). This should be a cause of concern for a number of reasons. Children and young people living in poverty are more likely to experience mental health issues and have behavioural problems (Knifton & Inglis, 2020; Kaiser et al 2017). They are also more likely to be excluded from school and as a result less likely to achieve school-leaving qualifications (Gazeley, 2010; Ashurst & Venn, 2014). Moreover, there is evidence that all of these issues, and social and education inequalities more generally, have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Alongside this, neoliberal policy and rhetoric continue to be reproduced with various degrees of fidelity across educational systems in Europe and beyond. Such policy is founded on notions of progress, meritocracy and social mobility (Littler, 2018; Exley, 2019), which rarely take the devastating social, psychological and educational effects of poverty into account.
This paper brings together data from two research projects which were designed to explore the experiences of young people and their families in two areas in England which contain high levels of poverty and deprivation. It views England as a singular (extreme) case in comparison with many other European countries, which makes it useful for examining the enduring effects of highly neoliberal educational and social policy on young people’s lives and the support on which they are able to draw to realise their hopes and aspirations. It also explores how schools, teachers and other professionals can best work with young people to help them overcome the disadvantages they face, and examines the methodological challenges of undertaking this kind of research. The theoretical framework for the research drew on strengths-based and co-constructed research approaches (Boyle et al, 2010; O’Neill, 2003) and critical examinations of the key concepts of social mobility (Becker & Hadjar, 2017; Machin, 2020; Todd, 2021), meritocracy (Sandel, 2021) and aspirations (Appadurai, 2004). Its guiding research questions are:
- What are the hopes and expectations of young people facing disadvantage?
- What support have they had both to achieve their hopes and overcome the barriers they face?
- What implications do their experiences have for education policy and practice (particularly following the pandemic)?
Method
The paper draws on the findings from two qualitative research projects, in which we as researchers worked closely with research participants. In the first project, group interviews were undertaken in March 2020 with 23 young people aged 13-16 in two secondary schools located in a town in Northern England characterised by high levels of deprivation. The interviews focused on their experiences of school and education, their hopes for the future and the extent to which they felt a sense of belonging to their school and town. The second project used a participatory approach conducted online in 2021 due to pandemic restrictions to work with eight young people and their families who had experienced the support of social services. The approach developed in-depth narratives of their experiences, drawing on interviews, photographs and retrospective reconstructions of key events in their lives, determined by the participants themselves and their families. Data were analysed using the theoretical framework already outlined. In the second project, the resultant narratives were written by researchers in partnership with the participants.
Expected Outcomes
The paper concludes that shifting the discourse away from aspirations and mobilities, which draw too readily on negative, deficit models, towards exploring young people’s capacities, capabilities and experiences will be beneficial in helping them realise their goals. This is likely to involve redefining, rather than discarding, notions of social mobility and meritocracy so that they function more inclusively. It also suggests that to do this, we should be prepared to listen to young people more and their views on how to improve their communities. This involves creating new and better mechanisms for them to influence policy and practice in health and social services, as well as in schools and other areas of education, including research. In turn, this requires researchers to find better ways to work with young people facing disadvantage in their communities and to create more opportunities for them to represent their experiences and share them across communities, contexts and systems in Europe and beyond.
References
Appadurai, A. (2004) The capacity to aspire: Culture and the terms of recognition, in Rao, V. and Walton, M. (eds.) Culture and Public Action. Stamford: Stamford University Press, 59-84. Ashurst, F. and Venn, C. (2014) Inequality, Poverty, Education: A Political Economy of School Exclusion. Wiesbaden: Springer. Becker, R. & Hadjar, A. (2017) Meritokratie – Zur gesellschaftlichen Legitimation ungleicher Bildungs-, Erwerbs- und Einkommenschancen in modernen Gesellschaften, in Becker R. (ed.) Lehrbuch der Soziologie. 3. Auflage. Wiesbaden: Springer, 33-62. Boyle, D., Slay, J., and Stephens, L. (2010) Public services inside out: Putting co-production into practice. London: NESTA. Eurostat (2021) Children at risk of poverty or social exclusion. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Children_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion Exley, D. (2019) The End of Aspirations? Social Mobility and Our Children’s Fading Prospects. Bristol: Policy Press. Gazeley, L. (2010) The role of school exclusion processes in the re-production of social and educational disadvantage, British Journal of Educational Studies, 58(3), 293-309. Kaiser, T., Li, J. Pollmann-Schult, M. and Song, A.Y. (2017) Poverty and Child Behavioral Problems: The Mediating Role of Parenting and Parental Well-Being, International Journal of Environmental. Research and Public Health, 14(9), 981. Knifton, L. and Inglis, G. (2020) Poverty and mental health: policy, practice and research implications, BJ Psych Bulletin, 44(5), 193-196. Littler, J. (2018) Against Meritocracy: Culture, power and the myths of mobility. London: Routledge. O'Neil, D. (2003) Clients as researchers: The benefits of strengths-based research, in Munford, R. and Sanders, J. (eds.) Making a Difference in Families: Research that Creates Change. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 113-129. Sandel, M. (2020) The Tyranny of Merit. London: Allen Lane. Todd, S. (2021) Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth. London: Vintage. UNICEF (2021) Impact of COVID-19 on poor mental health in children and young people ‘tip of the iceberg’ https://www.unicef.org/eca/press-releases/impact-covid-19-poor-mental-health-children-and-young-people-tip-iceberg-unicef.
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