In a constantly changing world, schools need to adapt. Difficulties, successes, and experienced challenges can be important driving forces for school improvement. This study aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the situation and decision-making processes related to school improvement strategies in socially disadvantaged areas, where…

The aim of this study was to determine the mediating role of relative deprivation in the relationship between social exclusion and depression in adolescents. A total of 437 (269 female, 168 male) adolescents (78 9th, 106 10th, 192 11th, and 61 12th-grade students) from four different high schools in Turkey participated in the study. Latent…

Preschool is a particularly opportune time to introduce measures that promote parental school-based involvement, as this is when the initial contact with the school is made. In Québec, a French-speaking province in Canada, voluntary school-based preschools for 4-year-olds have been offered to families in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. A component…

Poverty is a complex cultural phenomenon that is very much in existence in contemporary post-industrial Britain. A young person's poverty-striken situation, in addition to their marginalised hierarchal position, shapes their repetitive life cycle comprising different but interrelated forms of marginality. The young people in this ethnographic…

'Equity and Quality' is an emerging terminology that focuses on the quality of education rather than on 'excellence.' The global policy discourse is turning towards levelling up educational quality "for all." The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2012 report entitled "Equity and Quality in Education:…

On 6 February 2008, a deliberative theatre experiment was held at the "National Archives of Quebec". Inspired by the democratic virtues of public deliberation but preoccupied with its blind spots, Forum Theatre was used as a deliberative medium to initiate discussion about the social tensions between the homeless and other dwellers of…

This exploratory study investigates how a typically disadvantaged user group of older, female learners from rural, low-tech settings used and perceived a Facebook group as a research supervision and distance learning tool over time. The within-stage mixed-model research was carried out in a module of a part-time, advanced midwifery education…

Rural children belong to an educationally disadvantaged group whether they migrate or remain in their villages. Using a specially designed questionnaire, this paper surveyed more than 2,500 migrant and left-behind children in the Xixiangtang District of Nanning in Mainland China on issues relating to education and mental state. Through comparisons…

Introduction: Our paper describes three examples of how public libraries in at-risk-neighbourhoods have worked with social innovations in order to develop and strengthen their services for minority groups. The libraries were chosen because they are frontrunners in the field of cultural diversity and social inclusion in Denmark. Method: The…

Housing is an important aspect of living standards and quality of life for older persons, but the housing-related problems they may face encompass rather different circumstances, relating to the condition of the dwelling, how well equipped it is, whether housing costs represent a serious burden, and whether the neighbourhood environment is…

We explore associations among interpersonal (thick and thin) and institutional (legislative, executive, and judicial) trust and material hardship outcomes in Ghana. We use data from the 2008 Afrobarometer survey. Material hardship is conceptualized in terms of frequency of going without five basic necessities/consumptive deprivations, each of…

Highly trained teachers from across the world come to England expecting to practise their chosen profession. These expectations are dashed, however, if their foreign credentials and work experience are not recognised as legitimate by potential employers and accreditation bodies. This type of social situation is the focus of the relative…

The adoption into the UK of children who have been reared in severely deprived conditions provides an opportunity to study possible association between very early negative experiences and subsequent brain development. This cross-sectional study was a pilot for a planned larger study quantifying the effects of early deprivation on later brain…

Highly trained teachers from across the world come to England expecting to practice their profession. These expectations are dashed however, if their qualifications and work experience, gained in their home countries, are not recognised as legitimate by potential employers and accreditation bodies. This type of social situation is the focus of…

At a time when some 24% of the Brazilian population of 182 million are functionally illiterate, the author shows how illiteracy is concentrated in traditionally poor and disadvantaged social and ethnic groups as well as in certain regions of the country. He surveys the changes in legislation, policies and attitudes relating to literacy over the…