Creating a community of care in education : the work of a primary school to mitigate social and economic disadvantage in education in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
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Date
2016
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Massey University
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Abstract
The failure of education services to ensure equitable outcomes for all groups of
children has been an enduring problem for educators and policy makers in New
Zealand. More recently, primary schools have become the focus of policy to ensure
that children from low income, Maori and Pasifika homes achieve in formal
education at levels commensurate with their peers. This research explores the work
of a single low-decile primary school and its community in New Zealand as it
navigates the choppy waters of political ideology, education policy and the
educational needs of its students.
This research takes a critical realist perspective, which argues that real consequences
attend success or failure in formal schooling for individuals, and these can be
described in both qualitative and quantitative terms. However, a critical realist
approach is also substantively concerned with uncovering structural conditions that
lead to success or failure in education, insisting that this knowledge is vital in
achieving transformative change. The research therefore makes use of existing
quantitative data and employs a variety of qualitative research methods, to piece
together an account of the work of the school. This approach allows the school to be
placed within local contexts, which shape its responses to the needs of its school
community, while also supporting an examination of the effects of wider systems
and institutional practices that structure its operations.
Descriptions of the work of the school in this research reveal its intensely relational
nature conducted in nested communities of interaction: within the school; within
localised communities and neighbourhoods; and within national structures and
institutions. Concepts of ideology, social justice and an ethic of care are used as a
framework to evaluate the research findings, which in turn coalesce around three
issues: attendance; achievement; and behaviour. Crosshatching an issue-based
account of the work of one low-decile school with this conceptual framework allows
the complexity of the educational project to be revealed. These complexities
notwithstanding, the research also opens up possibilities and spaces for action at the
level of the school, the family, the community and the state to support the shared
goal of redressing educational inequalities.
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Keywords
Education, Elementary, Social aspects, Educational equalization, New Zealand, Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Education