A Solution?

Instead of negative conflict we should be working towards positive conflict and like Munns et al. have said, creating a “school is for me” environment.

This is how low SES schools operate, its a problem, and we should be aiming towards positive conflict.

Black Comedy on Education

Source: Google images;  http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/23890451.jpg

What makes this meme black comedy is that you soon realise that this is actually a sad truth.

Negative and Positive Conflict

Negative conflict is where ideas clash and seek to tear them apart.

Positive conflict is where ideas clash and seek to build each other up.

Some Points on Students

      -       Remember the students! They are our future!

      -       Aspirations dictate society.

-     Polidano, Hanel, Buddelmyer study

      -       THIS IS NOT GOOD!

      -       Poverty? Unlikely.

      -    Cycle of negative conflict.

      -       Low SES schools are operating in unhelpful environments

Students in Low SES Schools

In the middle of all the adults involved in education you’ve gotta remember the students! You can get sidetracked a bit sometimes and look at all these fancy theories about learning, but in the end you have to remember that students aren’t just statistics they are real people and they are the backbone and future of our society.

      What they aspire to is incredibly important. Their aspirations dictate how our society progresses. And an unfortunate truth is that students don’t feel that they can aspire in Low SES schools.

There was a study done by Polidano, Hanel & Buddelmeyer this year.  And what it indicated was that there were significant differences in aspirations of High SES school students and low SES school students. We’re talking 19%  in differences between how much a low SES student aspires to.

That’s not good.

     It could be argued that maybe they don’t aspire to much as they have less money and poverty is a cause of this. To some extent it may influence it but what Polidano et al. found was that this really wasn’t the case, the main difference between Low and High SES schools is the factor of aspirations.

     Students don’t think that they can achieve because they are told that they cannot achieve. There is this negative stigma around low SES schools that they are basically dropkicks. Everyone kind of thinks they just disrupt classes, pull out knives and show a disregard towards other students as well as teachers.

      Amongst a students aspirations for life they are constantly conflicted with negativity provided by the community, teachers, parents and even themselves. Kids take their problems from home to school and flood the school with knock on negativity. This can be through bullying or more generally a disinterest in school.

Knock-On Effect

I am told I cannot succeed ->

I cannot succeed ->

Others cannot succeed either ->

Telling others “do you actually believe you can succeed?”

Low SES schools are operating in unhelpful environments :(

Teachers as Heroes?

Source: Google Images; file://localhost/Users/Sam/Downloads/32064422.jpg

Teachers in Low SES Schools

- Usually from middle/working class backgrounds.

- Teachers in low SES schools often new and inexperienced (ACER).

- Perceive students as unmotivated, unwilling to learn and unteachable.

- Try and ‘fix’ the problem, rather than work in conjunction with the kids to work through the issue.

- Teacher is most often the cause of decrease in motivation.

- Some teachers willing to go the extra mile to assist children from these areas. (Munns et. al.).

- Difficult to find experienced/willing teachers. (ACER)

- If found, often not placed where they need to be. (ACER)

Acer Study and Teachers

We see in the ACER study conducted in 2010, in table 8.1, that schools in low SES areas have a high percentage of early career teachers. These teachers are generally only there because they have to be, in order to gain their ‘points’ so they can move to a ‘better’ school. These teachers often have the attitude that the children they teach from low SES areas will never amount to anything and see their situation as a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than an issue that needs to be resolved with cooperation from both sides, there is a distinct difference between the two. This results in an increase in resentment and therefore a decrease in motivation to learn. We must not forget however, that there are those teachers who genuinely care for and are willing to work with the students affected by low SES, as we see in the Munns et. al. article. The ACER study highlighted the difficulty of gaining experienced and more importantly, willing, teachers to work in low SES schools because of the stigma placed around them. That is, the school is filled with kids who do not care about their education and will not respect the teacher. Because of this stigma, the teachers with the skills required to effectively work with these kids are not being placed where they need to be, which only exacerbates the situation. Thus, whether positive or negative, low SES school communities operate though some form of conflict.

ROWAN-KENYON, BELL & PERNA (2008)

Teacher from a low SES school in Georgia:

“A lot of parents have a working schedule that interferes – we can’t get some parents here [for event]”

Parents from a low SES school in Maryland’s:

“The school needs to make a better effort at getting to those people who have that second job [to come to events] – to be a little bit flexible to the majority of parents out there because what it looks like is that we don’t care”

“There is so much going on, there’s so many choices, so many options – we’re not familiar about the in and out of the system”

Family and Parents

In low SES school communities, families have been seen to inflict negative perceptions of education onto their children, resulting in student’s disengagement from an early stage. This in conjunction with the average low SES parent being less educated than middle class parents has resulted in a negative outlook on parents and their role in the school community. These negative stereotypes have played a role in separating low SES school communities from middle and upper class schools; however it is the positive conflict that arises between parents and teachers, and parent and students, in low SES schools which results in them being a community.

Friedkin and Nocochea’s paper from 1999, reports that parents in low SES households tend to value their children’s school achievement more. This valuing and involvement in their children’s education may lack in school events such as P&C meetings, but tend to increase in the home environment. Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) further support this, stating that low SES families get more involved in the home learning environment through library visits and reading time, and reported that this inevitably increases confidence, conformity and educational achievement.

Rowan-Kenyon, Bell & Perna in 2008, notes the prevalent lack of low SES family participation in school. However, in order to fully understand the role parents play and why, they questioned both teachers and parents. A teacher in Georgia, from a low SES school reported that parents working schedules are what tends to interfere with their involvement.

However a low SES parent from Maryland reported that it is the school that needs to make more of the effort for involvement, and inevitably be more approachable. This conflicting notion is further supported by another Parent from Maryland in a low SES school who reports that it is their lack of knowledge in the language of learning that leads to their lack of involvement and thus their children’s true disadvanatgement.

In summary:

FAMILY

• They inflict negative perceptions of schooling (Jackson & Cartmel, 2010)
• Negative stereotypes are what separate them from other schools, but the positive conflict within low SES schools is what unites them.
• Parents in low SES are less educated (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2001)
• BUT they value educational attainment more (Friedkin & Necochea, 1988)
• The home learning environment thrives

Draw-Motion Overview