Discussing The Role Of Education In Promoting Understanding Of The Concepts Of Equality, Social Justice, Culture And Citizenship
The aim of this essay is to explore the relationship between equality, social justice, culture and citizenship and how they are promoted within education. These categories arise with children from reception through to year six, the importance is children understanding no matter what category that may come under they will have the same rights to participation as everyone else. Furthermore, it is a teacher’s role to help encourage equality and social justice within the classroom. I will be discussing how these concepts work alongside education and can help the future generation.
Knowles & Lander (2011) use the term equality to refer to people having a fair access to opportunities this definition helps distinguish the importance of equality to teachers “equality of opportunity is not just about ensuring the opportunities are there for everyone, it is about ensuring everyone is able to access those opportunities”. This is not to be confused with equity which is described as the quality of being fair and unbiased. A classic example of equality and equity in education is having mixed ability groups within a classroom. This enables the children to learn from one another and develop their ideas no matter their learning ability, gender or race. Likewise Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky encouraged the more knowledgeable children to work with the less knowledgeable children (Bates, 2016, p. 47). On the other hand Bowles & Gintis (1976) disagreed with this saying “’ability groups’ perpetuate children finding their level, despite their initial starting point”, it could be argued that having mixed ability groups hinders the more knowledgeable learners and only favours the less knowledgeable as they will be the only students that are learning.
Student’s ability are categorised as; most able, least able or average (high ability, middle ability or low ability) as the education system sees ability as a fixed term, however if we assume ability is fixed then lower ability children will remain in that category. For example, if a child starts off in the lower category and leaves school in the same category the school has done a good job in keeping the attainment level parallel, however the issue with this is no progression with the student’s learning. A child being targeted as lower ability or higher ability is an example of labelling. Children can be labelled on their race and ethnicity, whether they have a disability or not, their social class or their gender. For example, children from an Asian background are stereotypically labelled to attain better results than their other minority and white counterparts (DfES, 2006). However, labels are reinforced by the school and teachers, Hargreaves (1967) includes that teachers define students as successful versus non-successful. Having such labels pinned on students can cause pressure amongst them as they strive to achieve results; furthermore, it can exclude students who are labelled as least successful as educators will mainly focus on the higher ability students.
Another key concept educators should be promoting in education is social justice. However, the term is not about everyone being treated the same it is generally understood to mean working towards rights and protecting those rights. Social justice is divided into two concepts: recognition and distribution. Recognition is about who counts whereas distribution is about the organisation or reorganisation of resources in society. The term intersectionality is used by Macionis & Gerber (2011) to describe “the interplay of race, class and gender, often resulting in multiple dimensions of disadvantage”. For example, boys and girls can experience racism differently inside and outside the classroom, and girls of different races can experience sexism differently. Michael Young – British sociologist – coined the phrase meritocracy. He described it as “a vision in which power and privilege would be allocated by individual merit, not by social origins” (Appiah, 2018). This means achievement rates should not be based upon a child’s social class but upon their work ethic. Reay (2006, p.289) argues in her article “government policy may not be helping those from working class backgrounds” furthermore she goes on to mention “until we address social class as a central issue within education then social class will remain the troublesome un-dead of the English education system” this means the attainment level gap between the rich and poor will increase further and further.
Turning now to consider how education can assist in children’s understanding of culture and also how it can impact their identity. Culture is not just defined as a child’s physical background culture; it also includes their community and religious influences, combined with influences from society. Educators need to demonstrate openness and inclusiveness for their students to learn from. Moyles & Robinson (2002) include what makes a good teacher from a professional and personal perspective. Professionally teachers should have; “good organisation, delegation – giving children responsibility, professional relationships with staff, parents and children” on the other hand personally, teachers must have “unlimited patience, positive outlook, empathy with children”. However professionally and personally, these concepts can overlap for teachers and they must demonstrate “consistency, honesty and be aware of own limits”. In addition to Moyles and Robinson (2002), Robson (1996) identifies a rationale for parental involvement, this includes “positive influence through attitudes and support, enhance parents’ knowledge, skill and confidence, generate support for the school”. Parents working alongside teachers can help assist children in learning about their culture and identity at home, this was supported by Taggart (2003) who points out in the EPPE Project; increased positive attitudes and behaviours, including better attendance equals to higher levels of achievement for the child.
Education provides a chance for children to develop an understanding of their own identity. Hinman (2003) observes that “race, ethnicity and culture are central to one’s identity”, in the same way Bartlett & Burton (2016) point out “’race’ is a form of classification whereby individuals are grouped according to certain genetically inherited physical characteristics” however they also mention that “ethnicity includes cultural and religious beliefs as well as physical similarities”. However, Hinman’s observation on what defines identity does not include gender or disability, it could be argued that a child’s identity includes whether they identify as male, female or other, as well as their disability.
In terms of children’s rights, educators need to be working hard to educate their students’ understanding of equality and social justice. With children being able to understand these concepts, they are able to learn what they are entitled to. In 1989 the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was created. Multiple countries signed the agreement, and in 1991 the UK was one of them. The UNCRC is about providing the basic needs, protecting children from harm whether that is physical or mental and allowing all children the right to be involved. The five key concepts of the agreement are; “the right to a childhood, the right to an education, the right to be healthy, the right to be treated fairly and the right to a voice” (UNCRC, 1989). Similarly, the 2003 New Labour government created the document Every Child Matters. The report was designed after the death of Victoria Climbie in 2000, likewise to the UNCRC; Every Child Matters includes five key principles; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing (DfES, 2003) . Both the UNCRC and ECM share a number of key features, both documents enable children to have access to these rights regardless of their race or the standards that they live in. In order to educate children on what their rights are, teachers must be educated themselves on the polices that protect children, such as ‘Keep children safe in education’ this report is compulsory for all teachers that are in direct and indirect contact with children under 18 years old (DfE, 2018).
James & James (2012) use the term citizenship to refer to “a status that is given to members of a community who share those rights, responsibilities, duties and adopt those social practices that are intrinsic to belonging”. However, Stalford (2008) notes that children have access to citizenship “by proxy, based on their relationship with their parents or families”. A child having the knowledge and access to these rights gives them the sense of belonging within the school community as well as at home. Within the educational setting, teachers can promote citizenship – even though it is non-statutory in the national curriculum DfE (2015) – within their classes with citizenship lessons or watching news clips during the morning as a class. It is vital that students learn from a young age about the controversial issues that are currently happening in the world, it can help improve critical thinking as well as social skills, and furthermore it will assist in them becoming active citizens in the future society and making wise choices. In addition, students learning about worldwide controversial will create global citizens. Characteristics of a global citizen are; ethos based, respects and values diversity, outraged by social injustice, takes responsibilities for their actions, and aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen (Oxfam, 2015).To conclude this section has identified children’s rights and why it is important for students to understand them, furthermore the importance of citizenship has been discussed alongside children’s rights.
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Having discussed the importance of equality, social justice, culture and citizenship, the final section of this paper addresses how it interrelates to the sociology of education. Williams (2011) defines the sociology of education as “how individuals’ experiences shape the way they interact with schooling”. In schools many students may encounter exclusion, Cabinet Office (2007) identify exclusion as “extreme consequence of what happens when people don’t get a fair deal throughout their lives, often because of disadvantage they face at birth, and this disadvantage can be transmitted from one generation to the next”. Examples of children who are often excluded in society are; those living in poverty, those with disabilities, those from oppressed minorities, those who first language is not English, children carers, and those who are at risk of family/social violence and abuse. Similarly, to this list Percy-Smith (2000) identifies seven factors of exclusion: “economics, social difficulties, politics, environment, individual aspects, spatial dimensions, group membership of one of the ‘at risk’ groups”. With children being excluded politically they cannot voice their opinion and contribute to society. Each child’s culture and identity is different from one another, this means all children should be equally treated amongst their peers and their rights should be protected and they should feel safe amongst the school setting.
To conclude in this essay, I have discussed the role of education in promoting understanding of the concepts of equality, social justice, culture and citizenship. I have defined each concept as well as discussed how they interrelate within education. Children roughly spend 30 hours a week in an educational setting, in those hours’ teachers should be encouraging inclusion within their classrooms and educating their students on what rights they are entitles to.
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