Philosophical Reflections on Child Poverty and Education

Abstract

The harmful effects of Covid 19 on children living in poverty have refocused attention on the complex nature of child poverty and the vexed question of its relationship to education. The paper examines a tension at the heart of much discussion of child poverty and education. On the one hand, education is often regarded as essential for children’s flourishing and a means by which children can “escape” poverty; yet on the other hand, education systems, institutions, and practices, often reflect and entrench the disadvantages associated with poverty. Narratives concerning education as an escape from poverty tend not to deal in any depth with the injustices associated with poverty, stressing instead the transformative potential of education. By contrast, largely sociological analyses of the ways in which schooling reproduces inequalities tend to stop short of developing a normative account of how education can contribute to transforming the structural injustices related to poverty and its effects on children’s lives. In working to move beyond this analytic impasse, the paper shows how the cluster of concepts, which Robeyns (2018) locates as central to the capability approach, give insights which help to address these two different lacunae. The notion of conversion factors highlights the significance of taking account of existing relationships in education, while the distinction between capabilities and functionings helps guide practices regarding the education of children living in poverty. Drawing on literature on the heightened inequalities associated with poor children’s experience of lack of schooling during the COVID pandemic, the paper sketches some of the ways in which sociological analysis and normative evaluation can be linked in taking forward an “ethically engaged political philosophy” (Wolff, 2018) to discuss child poverty and education in real schools.

Sustainable Solution to Finance Education in Developing World: Education Development Bank

“…Analyzing previous studies highlighted numerous challenges linked to the education sector's financial constraints in low-income and developing countries (Fomba et al, 2023;Terzi et al, 2023;Yaoqing, 2023;Yuan & Ding, 2023). Moreover, the education sector remained vulnerable as the global crisis emerged in 2020, whereas the consumer banking sector's revenues increased.…”

“…The education industry faces various challenges in low-income and developing countries, for instance, the absence of basic facilities such as electricity, sanitation (toilets), and drinking water. Other prominent issues include lack of proper infrastructure, inefficient transportation, poor teaching quality due to lack of training and development, and access to technology (Internet) (Brollo et al, 2021;Diemer & Khushik, 2020;Khan & Ali, 2019;Terzi et al, 2023). Children in India have become educationally vulnerable due to extreme poverty and financial crisis (Nambissan, 2010).…”

Finding consensus on well-being in education

“…Capabilities are conceptualized as substantive abilities to function in desirable ways in the prevailing physical, institutional, legal, economic, and social contexts of individuals' lives, and the CA is well attuned to the ways in which forms of difference (such as gender, poverty, and ability) interact with nuances of these contexts. The CA's focus on equality, context, and opportunities to develop capabilities to function in ways essential to living well have made it an important focus of liberal educational theory in recent years (Brando, 2023;Hart and Brando, 2018;Terzi, 2008;Terzi et al, 2023;Unterhalter, 2003Unterhalter, , 2016Unterhalter et al, 2022;Walker, 2020;Walker and Unterhalter, 2007).…”