How does cumulative disadvantage constitute itself in education? Discuss with particular reference to migrant students: PDF

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How does cumulative disadvantage constitute itself in education? Discuss with particular reference to migrant students. Essay for Danial Faas. ...

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How does cumulative disadvantage constitute itself in education? Discuss with particular reference to migrant students:

Cumulative disadvantage is defined as the means by which inequalities become worse over time through a series of additions, and influence the life of societies, cohorts and individuals. It is generally acknowledged that all individuals have a right to reach their potential, as we see from Article 29a of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989). However, the formal educational system perpetuates inequality between groups (Bernstein, 1971; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). As a result of the Celtic Tiger economy experienced by Ireland in recent years, there has been a surge of inward migration, which has redefined Ireland’s population profile. According to the 2006 Census approximately 10% of its population was of migrant origin (Darmody, 2011). Cumulative disadvantage constitutes itself in a variety of ways in education, for example, socioeconomic status, language barriers, school segregation, and power dynamics. Socioeconomic status is a major factor affecting children’s educational outcomes. Most immigrants leave their home countries in search of better economic prospects (Achiron, 2012), and once they arrive in the new country, they often settle in communities where there are other immigrants who share their culture. Their children attend school together, and these schools typically have a large share of immigrant students. Resulting from this, these schools usually tend to be more socioeconomically deprived than other schools (Achiron, 2012). This is something that the OECD warns people about, as they have learned that high concentrations of disadvantage in schools can have a strong influence on students’ outcomes in life. For example, it has been argued that these children are often guided toward less promising educational tracks because of their perceived deficiencies, particularly with regard to the proficiency in the language of instruction (Lyons 2010). Another socioeconomic aspect that can be a major disadvantage to students, especially migrant students, is the education level of their mothers. It has been found that students whose mothers had quite low levels of education preformed quite poorly, and that they face major impediments to success at school, especially when they are so closely tied with students that face a similar socioeconomic disadvantage (Achiron, 2012).

A socioeconomic disadvantage that seems quite basic, yet has a strong and direct effect on students, is the fact that parents who move to the new country often don’t know much about the workings of the school system, nor do they possess the in-depth knowledge of the country that indigenous parents hold. Stemming from this, migrant parents tend to be much less meticulous than native parents as they decide which schools their children should attend, as they lack the knowledge to appropriately evaluate their options (Keogh and Whyte 1!

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2003; Darmody and McCoy 2011). Over half of secondary school students do not attend their closest school, which suggests that a considerable degree of choice is exercised by Irish parents when it comes to picking out schools (Smyth, McCoy, and Darmody 2004; Byrne and Smyth 2010). Language skills are an important element prompting educational achievement, and can be seen as an instrument of power. However, over half of secondary school principals conveyed that “nearly all” or “more than half” of their migrant students had difficulties with the language, and that these difficulties have had negative consequences on the academic progress of these students. Furthermore, even if teachers try to combat these difficulties, different teachers adopt different strategies for working with the migrant students. These different strategies illustrate how turbulent the educational experience endured by migrant students can be (Darmody, 2011). Moreover, the amount of language support offered as a resource is limited, making their educational experience even more challenging for these young migrants. Considerable difficulties may be faced by migrant students and their parents while they negotiate their way through the education system and establish themselves as partners in the system (Darmody, 2011). What’s more, migrant students often find themselves in classes that are lower than the ageappropriate level for them, which is a result of teachers using the student’s command of English as an influencing factor, regardless of the student’s age and academic qualifications from their home country (Darmody, 2011). School segregation is another disadvantage that accumulates for migrant students. Students tend to be put in schools with other immigrants and disadvantaged students, which has vast consequences for students. There tends to be a positive influence on students’ achievements when their peers have a high performance level (Hanushek et al. 2003; Zimmer and Toma 2000). However, immigrants don’t get to take advantage of this effect if they attend the schools with lower pupil performance than found in the schools that natives go to. In relation to this, we learn from Borjas’ (1999) discussion that children’s socioeconomic development is also determined by their “ethnic capital”, a whole set of ethnic characteristics to which children in particular ethnic groups are exposed to, for example, in schools. Therefore, whether or not migrant students are evenly distributed in schools in their host country has a huge effect on the outcomes of the pupils, and gives an additional explanation to immigrants’ educational disadvantages (Schnepf, 2006). Power dynamics are a strong force in education, and usually work against migrant students, adding to the list of disadvantages they face. This force confronts migrant families as soon as they start trying to enroll in school in their host country. Often, they must contend with trying to get into schools that have a large number of people vying for a limited number of spaces. This means that they are subject to admission criteria that often stack the odds against the ! !

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migrant families (Heckmann, 2009). Even after securing access to a school, minority groups may encounter very different educational opportunities and experiences to their native-born classmates. Studies indicate that their background, and the social capital they possess influence their relationships with teachers and classmates. More often than their peers, migrant students are alleged to have discipline issues, are more often criticized, but praised less (Monroe, 2005). There are many layers to the power dynamics between adults and migrant children. The adults are very much in charge, with the relationship between the two being very much centered on those adults. Adults supposedly “know best” while children are not taken seriously – they are expected to conform to the rules and expectations of the adults (Darmody, 2011). This has a noticeable effect on the migrant children. They feel disrespected and inferior, thus lowering their own self-esteem and expectations of themselves. Of course this is an undesirable outcome because the child’s best interests should be kept to the forefront at all times, but also because of the proven fact that low self-esteem is related to aggression, antisocial behaviour, and delinquency (Donnellan et al., 2005). This power play that is put on by adults is further highlighted by the curriculum, which they devise. Often, the curriculum is more relevant for pupils from a dominant group than those from a minority such as migrants (Bryan, 2009b, Bryan & Bracken, 2011). Power dynamics are also evident in peer relations, and of course are on full display in the inclusion, exclusion and bullying of children (Darmody, 2011). During these instances, the values and views of the group that is seen as inferior – often migrant students – are suppressed, while those of the dominant group are legitimized (Smyth et al, 2009). However, not only must migrant children deal with the often unfair power dynamics between themselves and their teachers and peers, they might also face the challenge of the same unfair power dynamics between their parents and schools. There is little evidence of schools that have been able to provide equal partnerships with migrant parents (Darmody, 2011), which absolutely has a negative affect on the children. Oftentimes, parents have lost a significant amount of social capital and only have a basic fluency of the language (Darmody, 2011). Under these circumstances, the parents are often pushed to the outskirts in matters relating to their children’s education. This has an undesirable effect on the migrant students, as parental involvement is absolutely imperative in order for children to succeed (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). To conclude, it is evident that cumulative disadvantage constitutes itself in a number of ways in the education of migrant students. Their socioeconomic backgrounds, language barriers, school segregation and power dynamics are just a few examples of the disadvantages that build up over time for migrant students, and each of these has a negative and lasting effect on the students, by ! !

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not allowing them to reach their full potential or providing them with the resources they need to reach this potential.

References Achiron, M. (2012). Breaking down the barriers to immigrant students’ success at school. [Blog] OECD Education Today. Available at: http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.ie/2012/11/breaking-down-barriers-toimmigrant.html [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. Bryan, A. (2009b) Migration Nation: anti-racism and intercultural education as symbolic violence in Celtic Tiger Ireland, in F. Vavrus & L. Bartlett (Eds) Critical Approaches to Comparative Education: vertical case studies from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Bryan, A. & Bracken, M. (2011) ‘They Think the Book is Right and I am Wrong’: intercultural education and the positioning of ethnic minority students in the formal and informal curriculum, in M. Darmody, N. Tyrrell & S. Song (Eds) (2011) The Changing Faces of Ireland: exploring immigrant and ethnic minority children’s experiences. Rotterdam: Sense. Byrne, D., F. McGinnity, E. Smyth, and M. Darmody. 2010. Immigration and school composition in Ireland. Irish Educational Studies 29, no. 3: 271–88. Cooper, R. and Borjas, G. (1999). Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Foreign Affairs, 78(6), p.146. Darmody, M. (2011). Power, Education and Migration into Ireland. Power and Education, 3(3), p.224. Darmody, M., and S. McCoy. 2011. Barriers to school involvement: Immigrant parents in Ireland. In Changing faces of Ireland, exploring lives of immigrant and ethnic minority children, ed. M. Darmody, N. Tyrrell and S. Song, 145–167. Rotterdam: Sense. Darmody, M., Tyrrell, N. and Song, S. (2011). The changing faces of Ireland. Rotterdam: Sense. Donnellan, M., Trzesniewski, K., Robins, R., Moffitt, T. and Caspi, A. (2005). Low Self-Esteem Is Related to Aggression, Antisocial Behavior, and Delinquency. Psychological Science, 16(4), pp.328-335. Hanushek, E., Kain, J., Markman, J. and Rivkin, S. (2003). Does peer ability ! !

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affect student achievement?. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 18(5), pp.527-544. Heckmann, F. (2008). Education and Migration: strategies for integrating migrant children in European schools and societies.. [online] Brussels: European Commission. Available at: http://www.nesse.fr/nesse/activities/reports/activities/reports/educationand-migration-pdf [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. Hoover-Dempsey, K., Battiato, A., Walker, J., Reed, R., DeJong, J. and Jones, K. (2001). Parental Involvement in Homework. Educational Psychologist, 36(3), pp.195-209. Keogh, A. and Whyte, J. (2003). Getting on. Dublin: Children's Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin. Lyons, Z. 2010. Articulating a deficit perspective: A survey of the attitudes of post- primary English language support teachers and co-ordinators. Irish Educational Studies 29, no. 3: 289–304. Monroe, C. (2005). Understanding the discipline gap through a cultural lens: implications for the education of African American students. Intercultural Education, 16(4), pp.317-330. Schnepf, S. (2006). Immigrants’ educational disadvantage: an examination across ten countries and three surveys. J Popul Econ, 20(3), pp.527-545. Smyth, E., M. Darmody, F. McGinnity, and D. Byrne. 2009. Adapting to diversity, Irish schools and immigrant students. Dublin: ESRI. Smyth, E., Darmody, M., McGinnity, F. & Byrne, D. (2009) Adapting to Diversity. Dublin: ESRI. Smyth, E., S. McCoy, and M. Darmody. 2004. Moving up. Dublin: Liffey Press. Zimmer, R. and Toma, E. (2000). Peer effects in private and public schools across countries. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 19(1), pp.75-92.

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