Pockets of Poverty: The Effects of Geographical Marginalization Upon School Experience: What Can We Learn?

• In Event: Insights Into Educational Leadership: Perspectives From the United Kingdom

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate some of the initial findings from a case study that explored the experiences of a group of low socio-economic families living on the periphery of an affluent town in northwest England in relation to their children’s schooling at the local high school. Specifically the paper uses the data to illustrate the ways in which the children and their families are marginalised from the local community and the effect of this marginalisation upon the children’s experiences of schooling, in relation to teacher expectation. The paper will set out ways in which the research process that has highlighted these findings can be used further to address these issues through policy development at the school level.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

There are many studies that explore the complex connections between poverty, expectation and schooling and much of this work has taken place in schools and communities located within disadvantaged and challenging circumstance (for example see Smyth et al: 2006). However there is less research that has focussed upon the effect of these complex and relational factors within communities with high levels of socio economic status. Using Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus, field and capital (1973; 1977) the paper will conceptualise the experiences of these families and children and present understandings of poverty in an affluent community. I go onto address some of the challenges faced by both the community and the school in relation to current UK educational and social welfare policy in England.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

The data presented in the paper has been obtained using qualitative approaches to data collection, with the researcher having been ‘embedded’ in the school environment for the previous 6 months. Methods included family/ child/ teacher interviews, focus groups, lesson observations and review of school policy documentation.

Data sources and evidence.

Interview and focus group transcripts, field notes and entries from the research diary.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions

Preliminary findings suggest that there is a complex relationship between the geographical marginalisation of these families and feelings of marginalisation experienced by their children attending the local high school as perceived through teacher expectation. It is likely that some of these experiences are reflective of the powerful effect that class plays within the schooling of children from different socio economic backgrounds and highlights the important but challenging necessity of schools operating in middle class and affluent areas to develop strategies and policies which engage with all families they serve equally.

Author

• Ruth McGinity, The University of Manchester