What prevents us from belonging to groups

List the various processes that prevent us from belonging to the different types of groups we discussed last week. What processes can prevent us from belonging to a family?

What processes can prevent us from belonging to other groups—1. Neighborhood groups?2. Ethnic Groups?3. Schools 4. Advanced classes in Schools.5. School Clubs6. Sports Teams7. Army Units8. Colleges9. Work

The process(es) that preventing someone to Belonging is known in sociological terms as

MARGINALIZATION

TOPICS OF LECTURE:

Defining and Understanding MarginalizationWhich groups are marginalized?Results of MarginalizationCauses of MarginalizationProcesses of Inclusion

European Commission:

Marginalization are those processes that create inequalities and the barriers to full participation in society,

Sociologists:

Define Marginalization as the processes in which individuals or entire groups are prevented from equal access to resources, opportunities and even their human rights.

How can a person or group be marginalized or excluded

Political Marginalization:Preventing individuals or groups from equal and fair participation in politics and government (not enabling full participatory citizenship).

Economic MarginalizationPreventing individuals or groups from equal and fair participation in the economy and equal and fair access to the society’s resources. (Poverty).

Social MarginalizationPreventing individuals or groups from equal and fair membership in social groups of the society. (social prejudices again groups leading to “outcasts”).

WHO ARE THE MOST DISADVANTAGED OR DISENFRANCHISED OF THE SOCIETY OR AT HIGH RISK TO BE MARGINALIZED?

• girls and women, elderly and people with disabilities.• indigenous people • ethnic minorities, • poor households, • people living in temporary-migrant “settlements”• rural populations, • Nomadic groups • populations those affected by armed conflict • Homeless and street people/children. Education for All Global Monitoring 2010

Marginalization and Social Exclusion

Burchardt et el (1999): “Individual is socially excluded if he or she is geographically resident in society but for reasons beyond his or her control cannot participate in the normal activities of citizens in that society and would like to participate.”

Axford 2008: 5 criteria must be met for an individual to be described as excluded:1. Must be a resident in that society (in order to be excluded from it).2. The individual’s participation in that society must be diminished.3. Relational factors: inadequate social participation, lack of integration and lack of

power.4. The individual who wishes to participate is prevented from participating.5. A state of ill-being and disablement.

Silver 2007: Consequence or Outcome of Social Marginalization1. Prevents people or groups from contributing their potential to their society 2. Prevents people or groups from participating fully in all aspects of society3. Contributes towards: social alienation and lack of identification with society4. Poverty5. Health6. Crime7. Lower level of education and upward mobility

Often those who are in POVERTY are largest marginalized group:

How to stop the cycle of poverty (Jensen 2000-Canadian Policy Research Network Inc.)

1. Create training programs to enable people to have skills that are relevant to the market.

2. Promoting Labor force participation---includes retraining, education and economic support while learning.

CAUSE OF MARGINALIZATION

Exclusion from the Mainstream: Need to promote full citizenship, redistribute power and resources among individuals groups and communities,

Creating real access to Labor force.

Promoting activities that promote social cohesion.

Jensen 2000

Can the cycle of Marginalization be Broken?

The Convention on the Rights of the Child calls on governments to provide an education that leads to the ‘development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential’ (United Nations, 1989, Article 29).

Education has the power to transform lives. • Widens opportunities and choices.• Provides skills to enter the work force and develop professions:

• Leads to economic, social and political empowerment• Route for social and economic mobility----out of poverty!EFA 2010

EDUCATION’S RESPONSIBILITY IN REACHING THE MARGINALIZED: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 (EFA2010)

Educational Marginalization of Children with Disabilities

Children with disabilities:Article 23: Right to special care and support---so that they can live a full and independent life.

Children living with disabilities suffer from social attitudes that stigmatize, restrict opportunity and lower self-esteem. These attitudes are frequently reinforced within the classroom, where teachers often lack the training and resources needed to deliver a decent education.

Mutually reinforcing interactions between poverty, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, disability, race, language and other factors that create cycles of disadvantage in education.

ACCORDING TO THE EDUCATION FOR ALL GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2010---Education should be a driver of equal opportunity and social mobility, not a transmission mechanism for social injustice.

Key Role of Schools in either changing or reinforcing the cycle of marginalization.

HOW AND WHY?• Teach children how to read---breaking the cycle of illiteracy.• Capacity Development for accessing resources and reaching one’s potential.• Education Increases Opportunities.• Affordability---enabling all children to learn by making education affordable.• Accessibility—enabling all children to attend a school that is easily accessible to their residence.

Restricted opportunity in education is one of the most powerful mechanism for transmitting poverty across generations.

POVERTY—Strongest factor leading to marginalization in education: WHY?1. Family’s need for child labor. (Research has proven the connection between child labor and poverty.) 2. Family cannot pay the costs (for attending school or for the “extras” relating to school).3. Families not living close to the school cannot afford the cost of transportation to school.4. Families not living close to school cannot afford the loss of “child labor time” in travel to and from school.5. Parents are involved in trying to earn money and do not have the time or opportunity to get involved in the schooling.6. Girls living in families of poverty are more affected than boys.

POVERTY IS CONNECTED WITH MALNUTRITION. How is this related to marginalization in Education?

The strength of the links between maternal health and education is shown in numerous studies. (Lawn 2009)

Hunger undermines cognitive development, causing irreversible losses in opportunities for learning. (Young 2009)

WHICH FACTORS LEAD TO MARGINALIZATION IN EDUCATION? (EFA 2010)

LANGUAGE and Ethnicity (EFA 2010)• 2007 OECD Report: having a home language that is different from the language used in school significantly

decreases achievement for immigrant children in both primary and secondary school. (Christensen and Stanat, 2007)

• Children from minorities are taught in a language that they may not feel competent in or understand completely.• Language is connected to identity---so there are tensions between self and group identity and access to societal resources

through dominant language.• Reforms in Bolivia have emphasized the important role of intercultural and bilingual education in providing ethnic and

linguistic minority children with good-quality schooling, and in overcoming social stigmatization (EFA 2010). • Parents who are not competent in the dominant language are alienated from involvement in the schools. Research has shown that Parental education, ethnicity and home language influence early childhood test scores andsubsequent educational achievement. (Brooks-Gunn and Markman, 2005; EACEA, 2009)

CAUSE OF MARGINALIZATION

LOCATION and NOMADIC lifestyles: Slums, ghettos, and immobile school infrastructures cannot meet the needs of populations that live in these places or have this kind of culture.

Children living in conflict areas (war zones) are marginalized from education.

SUMMARY OF FACTORS THAT MARGINALIZE CHILDREN FROM EDUCATION:Mutually reinforcing interactions between poverty, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, disability, race, language and other factors that create cycles of disadvantage in education (EFA 2010).

Early childhood care can help overcome language-based disadvantage and the problems faced by children of migrants (Cunha et al., 2005). Higher returns that later intervention (Heckman 2006).

In the Netherlands, children of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants who spent two years in kindergarten halved the average test score gap from the national average (Leseman, 2002).

Today: Society invests more in trying to close the educational gaps at a higher age than a lower age. Best to invest in early years---strongest results (Heckman, 2006, p.1902).

GOOD Early Pre-School Education: Closes gaps in language between dominant population and marginal groups (EFA 2010).

Make sure that high risk populations: children in poverty and marginalized minority-ethnic-religious groups, girls, disabled, have access to free, good quality primary (and secondary) education.

Denying children an opportunity to put even a first step on the education ladder sets them on a course for a lifetime of disadvantage. It violates their basic human right to an education. It also wastes a precious national resource and potential driver of economic growth and poverty reduction…. A country’s most important resource is not its raw materials or its geographical location but the skills of its people. EFA2010

OUR RESPONSIBILITY AS EDUCATORS

1. Give young people the training they need that provides them with broad skills, with an emphasis on problem solving and ‘learning to learn’, alongside more specialized abilities.

2. Equip children and youth with capabilities that can broaden their opportunities in life, and to prepare them for the transition from school to work.

3. Providing incentives for companies to offer apprenticeship and vocational programmes to unskilled young people.

What education should do to reach the marginalized to EFA 2010

EACH SOCIETY MUST:

1. Make Education Affordable ---Removing school fees and indirect costs (uniforms, learning materials and accessories, etc.).

2. Ensure that Schools are Accessible---(very important for lessening marginalization of girls living in poverty).

3. Develop an inclusive learning environment.

4. Train teachers to address marginalization---prevent dropout, teach effectively in diverse classrooms, prevent segregative learning, creating an appropriate environment and developing relevant curriculum (multicultural education). EFA 2010

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION REDUCES MARGINALIZATION

Axford 2008

Brooks-Gunn and Markman, 2005;

Burchardt et el (1999)

Christensen and Stanat, (2007)

Cunha et al., 2005

EACEA, 2009

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010: Reaching the marginalized

Heckman, 2006, p.1902

Jensen, J. (2000) Thinking about Marginalization:What, Who and Why. Canadian Policy Research Networks Inc. (CPRN)

Lawn et al., 2006

Leseman, 2002

Power and Wilson (2000 Power, A., Wilson, W.J., 2000, Social Exclusion and the Future of Cities, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics, London

Silver, H. 2007. Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth, Middle East Youth Initiative Working Paper (September).