Abstract
Sonia Jackson and Claire Cameron (Eds),
Improving Access to Further and Higher Education for Young People in Public Care: European Policy and Practice
, Jessica Kingsley: London, UK, 2014; 288 pp.: 9781849053662, £60.00 (hbk)
Reviewed by: Dawn Mannay, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Although the focus of my own research has not been young people in public care, the lived experience of poverty and its impact on access to, and success in, higher education has been central (Mannay, 2013; Mannay and Morgan, 2013). Therefore, I was most interested to read Sonia Jackson and Claire Cameron’s edited collection and explore the continuities and differences between the educational journeys of these young people and other marginalized students.
Improving Access to Further and Higher Education for Young People in Public Care offers 10 thematic chapters, which present the context of and findings from the project “Young people in public care: Pathways to education in Europe” (YiPPE); the first cross-national study on the education of young people in care beyond the legal age of school attendance. The central objectives of the YiPPE project were to map the current knowledge around higher education participation rates, track the pathways of a sample of young people, identify systemic obstacles and facilitators, and explore young people’s constructions of educational identities.
Chapter one, “Education and social inclusion,” sets out the background for the study by exploring the ways in which social exclusion is not simply about lacking material resources but also about the whole process whereby some individuals and groups become marginalized and become excluded from everyday opportunities and future life chances. Jackson and Cameron conceptualize social exclusion as fluid and changeable, rather than fixed; but importantly, they recognize that for marginalized communities the risk of experiencing further episodes of exclusion has to be continually negotiated.
Education can be an agent of social mobility and perhaps it remains “the only valid passport from poverty” (Johnson, 1965, p. 412); however, Jackson and Cameron argue that children with multiple disadvantages are much less likely to attend out-of-home settings before school unless their parents are explicitly targeted by social workers or outreach services. When they join mainstream school they are often subject to processes of exclusion within schools and are at a 10 times higher risk of exclusion from school than other children whose behavior is seen as “challenging.” Furthermore, despite the shift in youth transitions from a linear pathway to a “yo-yo” uncertainty (Walther, 2006), care leavers’ transitions can be characterized as accelerated and compressed, with no opportunity to return “home.” These combined factors can translate into barriers for looked after children and close down educational opportunities for social mobility.
Chapter two begins to explore the role of welfare state regimes and the structuring of resources in relation to the educational fortunes of young people in public care. Drawing on the conceptualizations of conservatism, liberalism and social democratic systems, the chapter argues that social democratic countries best serve the educational needs of young people in marginalized groups. This can be achieved through education systems characterized by a high proportion of public expenditure, high enrolment rates, low tuition fees, generous grants and loans, and a low level of differentiation.
The design of the YiPPE study is set out in chapter three, which presents the three stage research process. Stage one consisted of a background mapping of existing academic literature and policy documents. The main empirical work took place in stage two, which adopted a case study approach and involved biographical interviews with young people. The final stage was premised around effective dissemination and cross-national collaboration. Importantly, the chapter not only sets out the design but actively problematizes the practicalities of comparative frameworks, allowing the reader an insight into the adjustments made throughout the project and its inherent limitations. The following chapters focus on the findings in each of the project nations: Denmark, England, Hungary, Spain and Sweden.
Each national case study provides an overview of the characteristics of young people in care, contemporary education policy and attainment gaps between looked after young people and comparative cohorts. A key strength of the chapters is the attention given to the voice of young people who have been through the care system in relation to their education and experiences in the labor market. Direct quotes from the interview data offer the reader an insight into the everyday negotiation of the barriers faced by young people and personalize the lived experience of disadvantage, which cannot be effectively communicated with quantitative data alone.
Overall, the book demonstrates the ways in which the trajectories of more privileged students, information rich with infinite horizons, contrast starkly to many marginalized young people who are placed at a significant disadvantage. There is a nuanced engagement with the intricacies of public policy and the opportunities and barriers that differential systems engender. I would highly recommend this book for researchers, practitioners, educators and students interested in the relationship between childhood adversity and educational success, both in relation to the lived experiences documented in the participants’ accounts and the suggestions made based on the findings to try and alleviate the existing barriers which act to obstruct young people’s access to, and success in, systems of higher education.