Abstract:PurposeThis paper seeks to explore three key aspects of the education of children in care: the composition of that population of children and the extent to which they differ from the general population of children due to difficulties most of them have experienced prior to as well as after entering care; issues relating to the identification of causal relationships and the extent of “underachievement” by children in care; and any evidence that care may provide more positive opportunities than is often supposed.… Show more
“…Children in foster care generally show relatively stable levels of school engagement. It is known from previous studies that functioning of foster children is fairly stable over time, but that there is large heterogeneity indicating that developmental trajectories of foster children vary greatly Welbourne & Leeson, 2012). The current study also showed that foster children are a diverse group with respect to their school engagement, with some children showing relatively low, and some children showing relatively high levels of school engagement.…”
License: Article 25fa pilot End User Agreement This publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (Auteurswet) with explicit consent by the author. Dutch law entitles the maker of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work. This publication is distributed under The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) 'Article 25fa implementation' pilot project. In this pilot research outputs of researchers employed by Dutch Universities that comply with the legal requirements of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act are distributed online and free of cost or other barriers in institutional repositories. Research outputs are distributed six months after their first online publication in the original published version and with proper attribution to the source of the original publication. You are permitted to download and use the publication for personal purposes. All rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyrights owner(s) of this work. Any use of the publication other than authorised under this licence or copyright law is prohibited. If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons.
“…Children in foster care generally show relatively stable levels of school engagement. It is known from previous studies that functioning of foster children is fairly stable over time, but that there is large heterogeneity indicating that developmental trajectories of foster children vary greatly Welbourne & Leeson, 2012). The current study also showed that foster children are a diverse group with respect to their school engagement, with some children showing relatively low, and some children showing relatively high levels of school engagement.…”
License: Article 25fa pilot End User Agreement This publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (Auteurswet) with explicit consent by the author. Dutch law entitles the maker of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work. This publication is distributed under The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) 'Article 25fa implementation' pilot project. In this pilot research outputs of researchers employed by Dutch Universities that comply with the legal requirements of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act are distributed online and free of cost or other barriers in institutional repositories. Research outputs are distributed six months after their first online publication in the original published version and with proper attribution to the source of the original publication. You are permitted to download and use the publication for personal purposes. All rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyrights owner(s) of this work. Any use of the publication other than authorised under this licence or copyright law is prohibited. If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons.
“…Firstly, they critiqued the high visibility of review meetings within school, which risks alienating young people who feel resistant towards the label of ‘looked‐after’, whilst detrimentally impacting their attainment when they are taken out of lessons. This is particularly problematic for LACYP who have already experienced a disrupted education due to difficulties in their birth home and subsequent placement moves (Welbourne & Leeson, ; Sebba et al ., ). Participants maintained that meetings related to their ‘looked‐after’ status should be held outside school time, to both limit disruption to their education and minimise the potential of them being continually seen as ‘different’ (Mannay et al ., ).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…A range of non‐random factors, including deprivation, family breakdown, special educational need status and childhood trauma, which predict entry into care but which are extrinsic to the care experience, may also independently explain educational disadvantage (Berridge et al ., ; Welbourne & Leeson, ; Sebba et al ., ). Yet, regardless of advancement in the theorisation and empirical substantiation of the reasons for LACYP's poorer educational outcomes, it remains apparent that these explanations often omit the lived experiences of young people themselves.…”
The educational experiences and attainment of looked-after children and young people (LACYP) remains an issue of widespread international concern. Within the UK, children and young people in care achieve poorer educational outcomes compared to individuals not in care. Despite proliferation of research documenting the reasons for educational disadvantage amongst this population, there remains limited empirical consideration of the lived experiences of the educational system, as perceived by LACYP themselves. This paper draws upon qualitative research with 67 care-experienced children and young people in Wales. The sample was aged 6-27 years, and comprised 27 females and 40 males. Participants had experienced a range of care placements. Findings focus on how educational policies and practices alienate LACYP from dominant discourses of educational achievement through assignment of the 'supported' subject position, where children and young people are permitted and even encouraged not to succeed academically due to their complex and disrupted home circumstances. However, such diminished expectations are rejected by LACYP, who want to be pushed and challenged in the realisation of their potential. The paper argues that more differentiated understandings of LACYP's aspirations and capabilities need to be embedded into everyday practices, to ensure that effective educational support systems are developed.
“…These findings reflect earlier research by Heath and others (), which suggests that rather than failing to progress in their education, children in care have difficulty catching up with their peers because of initial academic disadvantage owing to pre‐care or early care experiences. The critical nature of ‘greater than average inputs’ (in the form of therapeutic or educational support for children in care) for ‘greater than average progress’ has also been highlighted by Welbourne and Leeson (, p. 138):opportunities to provide educational support created by recent policy changes will only offer substantial benefit to children if coupled with therapeutic support where needed, including specialist assessment of needs in relation to education.…”
“…By studying the experiences of a variety of individuals who achieve educational milestones despite delays and disruption, it is possible to interrogate factors that enable return to education — beyond appropriate and timely therapeutic support, and ‘specific educational inputs’ (Welbourne and Leeson, , p. 135). Within our sample, one factor which emerged with some frequency was chance: this was evident in cases where opportunities for educational progression, for young people whose education was disrupted and delayed, relied on factors outside of the opportunities or scaffolding built into care or education systems.…”
Internationally, research has highlighted disruption to the educational trajectories of young people in care, documenting concern about upheaval and poor educational outcomes. We present findings from English data arising from qualitative longitudinal research with care experienced people (16–32 years) who were also in education, employment or training. The analysis extends understanding of the experiences of those who achieve educational ‘success’, including those who followed non‐linear trajectories. The need for a flexible education system, and leaving care entitlements, which take into account the disruption experienced by young people in care and the consequent possibility of delayed educational pathways, is discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
