Poverty and schooling: three cases from Australia, the United States, and Spain

ABSTRACT

This paper provides three case studies of initiatives developed to improve educational opportunities in vulnerable urban communities. The cities in the three countries involved, Australia, the United States, and Spain, are different in many ways; however, each has persistent and entrenched inequalities between the educational opportunities and outcomes of historically marginalised students and their mainstream counterparts. Here, we focus on conceptualising and describing urban examples of poverty from three different countries, and reporting on programs and strategies aimed at enhancing the quality of teaching in schools in high-poverty areas. By providing and comparing the three cases, we aim to contribute to broader understandings of poverty in three locations and how teachers and schools in high-poverty urban settings can re-think their practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty
• educational disadvantage
• poverty

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the support from EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skledowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), SALEACOM 2015–17.

Notes

1. EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skledowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), SALEACOM 2015–17.

2. The language of Closing the Gap of Indigenous disadvantage was first adopted in 2007, and initially referred to the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. However, it soon encompassed other gaps as well, including the gap in educational achievement.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Funding for research and innovation staff exchange (RISE): Grant Agreement 645668 - Overcoming Inequalities in Schools and Learning Communities: Innovative Education for a New Century.

Notes on contributors

Jo Lampert

Jo Lampert Jo Lampert is a Professor in the School of Education at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She currently directs the NEXUS program, a new community-engaged initial teacher education program in Victoria, Australia.

Arnetha Ball

Arnetha Ball Arnetha F. Ball is a Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University in the Curriculum Studies, Teacher Education, and the Race, Inequality and Language Programs.

Rocio Garcia-Carrion

Rocio Garcia Rocio Garcia-Carrion is a Ramon y Cajal Fellow at the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work at the University of Lleida (Spain).

Bruce Burnett

Bruce Burnett Bruce Burnett is a Professor in the School of Education at the Australian Catholic University. Bruce is current director of the National Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (NETDS) program.