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

Abstract

Although many Australian children change schools during the course of a school year, the children of itinerant seasonal farm workers can move residences as well as schools on a regular basis, often two or three times annually. Surprisingly, however, educational itinerancy has not been widely researched, particularly in Australian contexts. This paper uses a case study approach to discuss some of the issues that affect the literacy learning of the children from one family, who follow summer and winter harvesting seasons across state borders. Through this approach, the voices of the children and their families are heard alongside those of their teachers and other school personnel.

Agentive Motility Meets Structural Viscosity: Australian Families Relocating in Educational Markets

“…Social institutions will have practices and systems that manage and regulate the flow of people through their services according to the pace and mode they normalise or legitimate. According to research on schooling for mobile populations, schools are typically 'predicated on permanently resident children attending the same school' (Kenny and Danaher 2009, 1, see also Henderson 2001Henderson , 2004. This would suggest an institutional default of high viscosity, with institutionalised entry and exit points at either end and a lack of procedures to facilitate entry and exits elsewhere in their program, such that irregular comings and goings are considered institutionally bothersome or aberrant.…”

Building a sense of community belonging: Making mobile families welcome in a rural Australian school

“…In light of such "unresolved uncertainties" about mobility (Henderson & Danaher, 2012, p. 360) and evidence that many families with school-aged children move locations in many parts of the world-including England (e.g., Bhopal & Myers, 2009), Spain (e.g., Souto-Otero, 2009), Ireland (e.g., Kenny & Binchy, 2009), the US (e.g., Henderson & Gouwens, 2013) and Australia (e.g., Bampton, Daniel, Dempster, & Simons, 2008)-it seems timely to consider what happens with regards to schooling for children from mobile families. Over many years, my research has investigated the (English) literacy learning of mobile farm workers' children in Australia (Henderson, 2001(Henderson, , 2004(Henderson, , 2005(Henderson, , 2009Henderson & Woods, 2012), thus considering the nexus of school literacy education with student mobility in rural contexts. This research has indicated that deficit discourses about mobile farm workers and their families are often the dominant discourses that circulate in rural schools and communities.…”

Situated Ethics in Investigating Non-Government Organisations and Showgrounds: Issues in Researching Japanese Environmental Politics and Australian Traveller Education

“…The educational researchers probably regard themselves as less ambivalent and more supportive of what outsiders might see as 'one side of the argument'. Certainly their publications and presentations have continually drawn attention to contesting deficit understandings of occupational mobility (see also Henderson, 2001Henderson, , 2004Henderson, , 2005 in relation to equivalent understandings about Australian itinerant farm workers). By contrast, the environmental researcher has worked hard to present "[him]self as a balanced researcher" (Danaher, 2004, p. 122) and to refrain from aligning himself overtly with a particular viewpoint.…”