Abstract
Schools are dialectically connected to the local society, and school adversity and insecurity may be exasperated in circumstances of poverty, general societal violence, as well as in circumstances of substance abuse and/or high incidence of HIV/AIDS. Children may suffer from malnutrition and insufficient calorie intake, which compromise their learning abilities from the start. Physiological problems, coupled with lack of parental support for schooling in addition to the all-too frequent lack of teacher understanding and empathy, make children candidates for early dropout and contribute to low retention of skills learned during the time they attend school. After low-quality schooling, children may have few marketable skills, and will often be involved in poorly paid child labor in the informal economic sector. They are likely to socialize with other children and young people who are in the same situation, which, coupled with lack of knowledge of family planning, may results in early pregnancies without the means or parenting skills to provide for their children. A cycle of intergenerational transmission of poverty is thus completed. Context-dependent education, in most cases associated with some form of poverty-alleviation or income generating activity, is thus necessary to respond to environmental adversity. One recurrent problem with addressing the situation is that NGOs and other service providers often covers a relatively small number of communities for a short period of time; it would take larger government intervention to change educational policies and bring about real change. Policy work and dialogue with the government therefore seem crucial.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For example, Newtown, Connecticut does not represent a context of adversity for most of its residents. The December 14, 2012, massacre of 20 school children in the age of 5–10 years demonstrates that school safety, both at engineering and metaphysical levels are important in all schools, not merely those operating in adversity. Our chief focus, in this book, is circumstances of adversity.
- 2.
Obviously, there is a cost, for example to create safe school buildings. However it may be better not to go to school if the basic investment in security cannot be made, and it is less dangerous to stay home.
- 3.
Information and data for this chapter is partly derived from a study I made for USDOL on Child Labor and Vocational Training (Macro 2010).
- 4.
Many of these are subdivided into area-specific standards but I have used the five categories of “Foundation standards;” “Learning;” “Teaching;” “Teachers and personnel;” and “Policy.” For example, I have labeled the guidebook’s “Analysis Standard 4” as “Foundational Standard 7” for simplicity.
- 5.
References to all reports, including Cluster Reports, can be found in Annex 1.
- 6.
In reviewing project literature, I was often positively surprised by the high quality of such reports.
- 7.
The remaining INEE minimum standards are related to administrative issues, such as assessment, recruitment, and international standards, and are not directly connected to the focus of this chapter. For the interested reader, they include Teaching and Learning Standard 4: Assessment of Learning Outcomes (Appropriate methods are used to evaluate and validate learning outcomes; p. 89); Teachers and Other Education Personnel Standard 1: Recruitment and Selection (A sufficient number of appropriately qualified teachers and other education personnel are recruited through a participatory and transparent process, based on selection criteria reflecting diversity and equity; p. 95); Teachers and Other Education Personnel Standard 2: Conditions of Work (Teachers and other education personnel have clearly defined conditions of work and are appropriately compensated; p. 98). Teachers and Other Education Personnel Standard 3: Support and Supervision (Support and supervision mechanisms for teachers and other education personnel function effectively; p. 101); Education Policy Standard 1: Law and Policy Formulation (Education authorities prioritise continuity and recovery of quality education, including free and inclusive access to schooling; p. 107); and Education Policy Standard 2: Planning and Implementation (Education activities take into account international and national educational policies, laws, standards and plans and the learning needs of affected populations; p. 112).
References
Cooke, B., & Kothari, U. (2001). Participation: The new tyranny? New York: Zed Books.
GCPEA (Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. (2015). Lessons in war 2015 military use of schools and universities during armed conflict. New York: Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack.
INEE. (2010). Minimum standards handbook. Retrieved August 2015, from www.ineesite.org/en/minimum-standards/handbook
Kanarek, R. B., & Marks-Kaufman, R. (1991). Nutrition and behavior: New perspectives. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Keys, A. (1950). The biology of human starvation (p. 262). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Latham, M. C. (1993). The relationship of nutrition to productivity and well-being of workers. In S. Pistrup-Andersen (Ed.), The political economy of food and nutrition policies. Baltimore: International Food Policy Research Institute/John Hopkins University Press.
Moran, R. (Ed.). (2003). Escaping the poverty trap: Investing in children in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank/John Hopskins University.
Skovdal, M., & Campbell, C. (2015). Beyond education: What role can schools play in the support and protection of children in extreme settings? International Journal of Educational Development, 41(C), 175–183.
Wessel, & Hirtum. (2013). Schools as tactical targets in conflict: What the case of Nepal can teach us. Comparative Education Review, 57, 1.
World Food Programme. (2006). World hunger series 2006: Hunger and learning. Rome/Stanford: World Food Programme/Stanford University Press.
Young, L. (1997). World hunger. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nordtveit, B.H. (2016). Contexts of Adversity. In: Schools as Protection?. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25651-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25651-1_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25650-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25651-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)