Children on the move: The social and educational effects of family mobility

Abstract

Compared with other Western countries Australia stands out as having one of the most highly mobile populations. Despite this, there is very little recognition of this phenomenon and its social and educational effects. School personnel are particularly culpable in this regard, maintaining an image of schooling as a system focussed on relatively stable class groups. The available data, however, paint a very different picture, and one which compels the attention of not only educators but also a variety of individuals from the helping professions and welfare agencies. This article explores the nature of student mobility, its effects on children, and their adjustment to school.

Moving Schools: Antecedents, Impact on Students and Interventions

“…Australia has one of the most highly mobile populations in the western world (Settles, 1993, in Fields, 1997.The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001, in DEST & Def, 2002 estimated that, within the overall Australian population, thirty per cent of residents from households with children moved at least once over a three year period, with an increasing proportion of this relocation being movement between one state or territory and another. The average Australian moves more than eleven times during his or her lifetime (Bell, 1995, in Fields, 1997.…”

“…Australia has one of the most highly mobile populations in the western world (Settles, 1993, in Fields, 1997.The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001, in DEST & Def, 2002 estimated that, within the overall Australian population, thirty per cent of residents from households with children moved at least once over a three year period, with an increasing proportion of this relocation being movement between one state or territory and another. The average Australian moves more than eleven times during his or her lifetime (Bell, 1995, in Fields, 1997. Regional areas such as the one examined in this research record a slightly higher mobility M obility in education can be caused by families moving from city to city or state to state as employment and housing changes for them; however, it can also be the result of families moving their children from one school to another within the same area, for other, more personal reasons.…”

Do Absence and Mobility (Transience) Affect Reading Literacy Achievement?

“…From consultations with stakeholders across Australia, it was apparent that frequent relocation had the potential to compound the effects of other problems that impacted on learning outcomes and that, where high levels of mobility were apparent, the mobility itself had a negative impact on student learning (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002). The results of previous studies have found a negative association between high mobility and student learning (Fields, 1997;Henderson, 2002) because those students who moved schools on many occasions were more likely to experience greater difficulties in learning than students who had moved schools on fewer occasions (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002).…”

Educational issues for children of itinerant seasonal farm workers: a case study in an Australian context

“…Duffy 1987, Fields 1997, Mills 1986, Welch 1987. Other research has investigated the effects of itinerancy on identifiable groups, including defence force (e.g.…”

“…Although they usually rate a mention as another group whose parents are occupational travellers (e.g. see Department of Education, Training and Employment, South Australia 1998, Danaher 2000, Fields 1997, Welch 1987), they have not been the focus of specific educational considerations and little research has investigated whether there are specific educational issues surrounding their mobility (Henderson 2001). The program has current annual federal funding of over 395 million dollars and caters specifically for more than half a million children of migratory seasonal workers in fifty states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., having developed from its reasonably humble beginnings to a complex program that embraces electronic forms of communication:…”