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Tackling Social Disadvantage through Teacher Education

Tackling Social Disadvantage through Teacher Education

Ian Thompson | Ian Menter

(2017)

Additional Information

Abstract

This book addresses key issues related to teaching pupils from disadvantaged and impoverished backgrounds and provides a valuable reference and pedagogical tool for teachers and teacher educators. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils have the poorest educational outcomes. Austerity government policies and pressures of performativity on schools may have exacerbated this inequality. Yet many teachers remain ill-informed about the effects of social disadvantage on students’ learning and consequently are ill-prepared in appropriate teaching methods. The text critically examines the lessons from previous policy and practice, discusses cognitive and affective aspects of school learning for disadvantaged children and explores the pedagogic implications of research evidence. Using insights from existing research, the book examines the reasons why some trainees and teachers lack a critical perspective on the contexts of poverty and may hold deficit views of students in poverty that suggests they are unable to learn and need to be controlled. It explains some of the links between poverty, special needs, literacy and educational achievement and focuses on strategies for improvement.


Ian Thompson is an Associate Professor of English Education at the University of Oxford where he teaches on the PGCE and Master’s in Learning and Teaching. He taught English for sixteen years in comprehensive secondary schools.  He researches in the areas of English and literacy teaching, teacher education, collaborative learning, and social exclusion. These projects are linked through a commitment to researching social justice in education and the learning of those who face disadvantage.

 


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover Cover 1
Half-title i
Series information ii
Title page iii
Copyright information iv
Table of Contents v
Foreword vi
About the series editor and author vii
Chapter 1 The policy and practice of disadvantage in education in the UK 1
Introduction 1
Defining disadvantage and social justice in education 2
Social inequality in education 3
Teacher quality and teachers’ standards 4
The qualified teacher shortage crisis 4
Child poverty and schooling 5
The policy history of disadvantage and schooling in the UK 7
Social justice, social mobility and social inclusion 9
Policy differences in the four jurisdictions of the UK 10
Policy in England 11
Policy in Northern Ireland 12
Policy in Scotland 12
Policy in Wales 13
Key challenges for both initial teacher education and continuous professional development in schools 13
Chapter 2 Tackling social disadvantage in the classroom 15
Introduction 15
The cognitive effects of social and economic disadvantage 16
Psychological effects of poverty 16
Environmental aspects of poverty 17
The sociology of poverty 18
Poverty and special educational needs and disability (SEND) 19
Social learning in the classroom 20
Designing the classroom environment 21
Pupil grouping and resourcing 23
Assessing pupils’ progress in the classroom 23
The role of emotion and imagination 24
Tackling social disadvantage through research 25
Teacher collaboration to support vulnerable learners 25
Chapter 3 Challenging misconceptions of disadvantage 28
The pedagogy of poverty 28
Teachers making a difference 28
The consequences of testing and performativity 29
Poverty, educational attainment and well-being 30
Some realities for children living in poverty 32
Poverty proofing the school day 33
Deficit views of poverty 33
Social justice and ITE 35
Challenging deficit views of poverty through research 35
Oxford case study 36
Strathclyde case study 37
Conclusions 38
Chapter 4 Language, literacy and disadvantage 40
Introduction 40
Social disadvantage and language and literacy difficulties 40
Literacy, SEN and school exclusions 41
Literacy and permanent and fixed-term school exclusions 41
Literacy, exclusion and youth offending 42
Reading, writing and language impairment 43
The costs of exclusion versus early prevention or literacy intervention 44
English as an additional language 46
Language and literacy across the curriculum 49
Teachers as writers 51
Chapter 5 Researching poverty and teacher education 53
Introduction 53
The relationship between educational research and educational policy 53
Closing the gap? 55
Teachers as researchers 56
Research partnerships 57
Practitioner and action research 58
Researching disadvantage in education 59
Researching the pupil premium grant 59
Intervening outside the classroom 61
References 64
Index 72