This article endeavours to inform early childhood education teachers about the issue of poverty. It draws on a body of literature to argue for the critical importance of teachers being reflective and reflexive in relation to children and families who face economic disadvantage. Furthermore, it contends that unless teachers are critically aware…

This article reframes the concept of comprehension as a social and intellectual practice. It reviews current approaches to reading instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse, indigenous and low socioeconomic students (SES), noting an emphasis on comprehension as autonomous skills. The four resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990) is…

This article deals with the current situation of the Australian education system--particularly the public schools in disadvantaged areas. Research undertaken in the last decade show that while Australia has developed intensively in economic terms in the last ten years, inequality has spread nonetheless. Furthermore, there are legal barriers for…

This paper describes an instance of a disadvantaged (urban) Australian government school that realized it had little alternative but to try new approaches; "old ways" were not working. The paper describes an ensemble of school reform practices, philosophies and strategies that give young adolescents genuine ownership of their learning.…

This document describes approaches in conducting naturalistic studies in two different countries with contrasting educational settings. Naturalistic research methodology is described by one of the writers as "an explicit undertaking to lay aside our ideas and concern ourselves with finding the subjects' perspectives in their non-theoretical…

Reports on an ethnographic project examining an Australian program designed to provide homeless adolescents with access to secondary education. Focuses on the relationships among groups of students within the program and explores the way that education can either reinforce disadvantage or offer access to opportunity. (MJP)

Indexes of socioeconomic status (SES) are widely used in school and higher education because of the known relationship of low educational participation and achievement by socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Because an index of SES can predict which areas and social groups need to be "targeted" to improve educational participation,…

A study examined the profiles of vocational education and training (VET) clients in disadvantaged areas of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, building on earlier analysis of VET participation in those cities. The study examined the characteristics of VET clients coming from postal codes identified as disadvantaged to determine, if possible, to what…