Attitudes and Practices of Parents: Disadvantage and Access to Education

Abstract

This article focuses on different ways in which socially disadvantaged parents engage with their children's educational experiences, and provides evidence of the role they play in opening or narrowing their children's access to education. Disadvantaged parents are usually associated with weak or difficult educational trajectories for their children, because of their lower level of economic, cultural, and social capital. Nevertheless, this association does not operate as an automatic mechanism. Indeed, against a backdrop of persisting inequalities, research data show a plurality of intraclass and intragroup dynamics, with disadvantaged parents having diverse ways of avoiding blaming processes, saving dignity, and acting as proactive agents for their children's educational career.

Access to Higher Education at the End of Lower Secondary for “Disadvantaged” Students: The Interplay of Structural, Institutional Frameworks and Student Agency

“…A statistical minority of students struggle against "cooling out" professional discourses and keep an objective for a valued profession or educational level. For students from EUROPEAN EDUCATION working-class and/or migrant families, and for girls, maintaining a good self-concept in spite of inferiorizing discourses and practices in the school environment requires a counterdiscourse that may come from peers/friends, from parents, or from other social networks (see also de Luigi & Martelli, 2015).…”

“…However, a minority of them mobilize to ascend educational levels, like Derya, thanks to their parents (see de Luigi & Martelli, 2015), to professionals' discretion (see Barberis & Buchowicz, 2015), and/or their personal self-concept. This type of case is more likely to appear and to succeed in the comprehensive system, where students see mobility as possible (as shown in Aziz's case) and where educational levels are more permeable.…”

“…Aspirations of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds increase with the rate of middle-upper socioeconomic students in the school: they maintain higher aspirations when they attend middle school, and even more in affluent schools in the eight countries (taking into account the mother's status). Students build desirable school attainment in interactions with teachers, who have expectations and provide support depending on school contexts (see Barberis & Buchowicz, 2015), and in interactions with parents (see de Luigi & Martelli, 2015), and with peers. In comparing the three types of education systems, both quantitative and qualitative research reveals that in high-level comprehensive systems (Finland, Slovenia), the differentiation and the hierarchization is weaker than in low-level differentiated systems (UK, Italy, Poland), which in turn is weaker than in high-level differentiated systems (France, Germany, the Netherlands).…”

Accessibility of Education and Support for a Learner After Formal Education: A Case of Lithuania

“…It can be stated that scientific cognition of the phenomenon of accessibility of education is not a new object of research. Meta-analysis of the results of many surveys (Petronienė & Taljūnaitė, 2011;Martišauskienė & Trakšelys, 2013;De Luigi & Martelli, 2015;Garibay, Herrera, Johnston-Guerrero, Garcia, 2016 et al) shows that accessibility of education directly correlates with development of person's well-being. An important component in this interactive process is support for a learner.…”