The report makes a significant contribution to expanding the evidence base on the role that education/lifelong learning can play in overcoming disadvantage. It does so by addressing a number of other interrelated barriers to participation that can lock people into a cycle of disadvantage.
The paper examines the influences on, and consequences of, low achievement defined
as scores within the lowest achievement quartile. Low achievement is moderately
associated with socioeconomic background and Indigenous status and the
relationships with gender, ethnicity, region, family type, state and region differ for
reading and mathematics. Low achievement substantially reduces the chances of
school completion and university entrance. It has much less impact on other forms of
post-secondary education and training.
This paper draws on research on the influence of school culture on the higher education aspirations of secondary students in one of the most socioeconomically and educationally disadvantaged regions in Australia: the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide. Using a case study approach, the author investigates the attitudes towards higher education of students from three schools in this area, with a particular focus on how and why these students make personal decisions about higher education.
Engaging social and professional communities around students with high educational needs has come to be seen as an active protective process for these students. This paper examines the role of state and local agencies (education, health, families, communities, and criminal justice) in documenting but not altering student trajectories towards life failure.
The authors argue that education requires researchers’ renewed examination and explanation of its involvement in the construction of social and economic differences. Specifically, we make the case for researchers to consider the theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu, outlining what we understand by a Bourdieuian methodology, which is informed by socially critical and post--structural understandings of the world.
This paper explores the ways in which notions of educational disadvantage have been reshaped and redefined in policy discourses during the ascendancy of neo-liberal governance in Australia. Over the past decade there has been a pronounced shift away from social democratic traditions of social justice towards more market-individualistic approaches that have called into question the ethical responsibilities of governments when it comes to challenging inequitable educational policies and practices.
