Expression and Invisibility of Poverty in School

DOI NDL Digital Collections Web Site Web Site 1 References Open Access

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 学校における貧困の表れとその不可視化
  • 学校における貧困の表れとその不可視化--生活保護世帯出身生徒の学校生活を事例に
  • ガッコウ ニ オケル ヒンコン ノ アラワレ ト ソノ フカシカ セイカツ ホゴ セタイ シュッシン セイト ノ ガッコウ セイカツ オ ジレイ ニ
  • A Case Study of the School Life of Students from “Seikatsu Hogo” Families
  • ──生活保護世帯出身生徒の学校生活を事例に──

Search this article

Description

The aim of this paper is to show problems which poor children have in school life and to show the relation between their problems and the school culture. The paper is based on observational data obtained at a particular junior high school and interview data from ten teachers in the same school. In this paper, the author focuses on eleven students from “seikatsu hogo” families (families receiving public assistance) as ʻofficiallyʼ recognized poor children.<BR><BR>The findings are as follows: (1) About half the objects experience futoko (school non-attendance). The cause of futoko is that their home has no stable footing for going to school every day. (2) Not only futoko students but also other students going to school every day have lower achievement. As a reason for this, the author showsthat they do not have basic stationery, and so on. (3) As for their dreams, there is “a sense of a ceiling” in their prospects for the future.<BR><BR>At this junior high school, like many schools, teachers take the position that they should give equal treatment for all students and they cannot and should not give special treatment for minority students. In fact, teachers do not give special treatment for poor students. The author represents this invisibility regarding the presence of poor students and their characteristic problems is affected by the following two contrastive factors. One is the school culture which does not give any students special treatment in consideration of their background. And the other is “making an exception” to diminish differences between poor students and others.<BR><BR>In the “not giving special treatment” school culture, teachers are not required to focus on child poverty and they cannot discover the disadvantages of poor students until the differences between them and the others emerge. Schools or teachers finding these differences tend to try to make them invisible to the other students.<BR><BR>In this school culture, todayʼs child poverty problem is difficult to grasp from the outset and is becoming harder and harder to notice. As a result, the problems that poor children have in school life result in individualization, and thus insufficient support is given to these children.

Journal

References(1)*help

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top