Year: 2007
Type: editorial
Abstract: 1 Understandings of childhood and youth vary greatly across cultures and historical periods.Here I adopt the convention of the Millennium Development Goals and identifying children as those ages 0-14, and youth ages 15-24, recognizing the limitations of these somewhat arbitrary distinctions.2 Grateful appreciation to Nancy Campbell, George Washington University graduate assistant, for research assistance.Errors and inaccuracies are the responsibility of the guest editor. Vulnerable, Excluded, Invisible & Ignored: The Margins of Education for All EditorialOften vulnerable, frequently excluded, sometimes invisible or ignored, marginal children and youth 1 represent a unique challenge to the world's education systems.Often they are difficult if not impossible to "reach" through conventional means.The usual strategies of provision of more school places and improvements in quality are necessary but rarely sufficient to engage the most marginalized kids outside of school.Meanwhile, marginal children in school are often poorly served by conventional instructional strategies, which often further disadvantage them.In a metaphorical, and sometimes actual sense, educators interested in educating marginal children must "get out of the school" and go to the student ─ adapting delivery of educational programs to the constraints facing child laborers, for example; or providing supports not needed by mainstream children and not conventionally the responsibility of schools (see for example, DeStefano et al. n.d. and KAPE 2006).Reaching marginal kids may require education ministries to partner with other government sectors and institutions.At a basic conceptual level, educators need to recognize the importance of learning about the complex needs of marginal children and youth and how these needs can be appropriately met, knowledge that schools generally lack.To inform such discussions, this special issue 2 of the Journal of International Cooperation in Education explores issues and programs in the education of marginal children and youth with a special focus on developing countries.This introduction opens with a range of definitions, discussion of the nature of educational marginalization, and estimates of the numbers of children and youth affected.It continues with a brief introduction of the articles and themes in the special issue.The articles themselves follow, loosely organized as problems to solutions.The special issue concludes with an appendix of print and internet resources for policy makers and program planners interested in following up, to better understand the challenges and needs of particular marginal populations. Marginalized Children and YouthThe words "marginal" and "marginalization" are used to describe two groups, children and youth who are not receiving or have not received a basic education 3 and children and youth who, though enrolled in school, are/were treated peripherally there, their educational James H. Williams -2 - 3 We use the ISCED definition of basic education as primary education plus lower secondary, often corresponding to compulsory education.The Global Monitoring Report 2007 indicates a lower secondary gross enrollment ratio of 78 (see Table 8, UNESCO 2006, p.292).This suggests that a sizeable majority of the world's children are at least "surviving" to the lower secondary level.needs substantially unmet.The latter group might include, for example, children taught in a language in which they cannot learn, or students whose abilities are minimized and opportunities undermined on account of gender, ethnicity, disability, or other factor.Marginalized children are those who because of individual or group characteristics do not receive a basic education.Children are marginalized when the organization and delivery of education fail to meet the educational constraints facing children, or when the content does not meet their needs.Underachievement is an indicator of marginalization.It is possible for a numerical majority of children in a particular system or context to be marginal."Mainstream," in contrast, refers to those children according to whose needs, constraints, and supports schooling is conventionally organized and delivered in a particular time and place.Schools may reproduce, or reinforce, the inequalities of the larger society.Alternately, schools may compensate for external inequalities, even challenge them, to help overcome the marginalization of excluded, vulnerable and "invisible" children.The word "marginalized" is used preferentially to emphasize our stance that schools play a more or less active role in responding to the marginality of children; indeed, schools sometimes even create marginalization.The focus is on educational programs and issues for children and youth ages 5-25, so as to include the substantial number of youth who have missed out on opportunities for basic education but who might take advantage of second-chance programs while still in the preparatory phase of their lives.We do not discuss programs in early childhood care and education (ECCE), not because they are any less significant in the educational lifespan.Indeed, research is increasingly documenting the importance of early childhood care and education to subsequent human development.Rather the focus is basic education, recognizing that it is an initial, though insufficient, step in providing education for all.This understanding of marginal children and youth includes those who are:•
DOI: 10.15027/34254
Author: James H. Williams
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2600759000