Society's readiness: How relational approaches to well-being could support young children's educational achievement in high-poverty contexts |
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Authors: | Martina Street |
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Institution: | Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK |
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Abstract: | This paper explores how relational approaches to well-being could support young children's educational achievement in high-poverty contexts. It draws on findings from a qualitative study involving mothers and early years educators living and/or working in a city characterised as one of the most disadvantaged in England. The findings suggest that children's well-being, rather than being merely an individual characteristic or aspiration, is interdependent with their social and material environments, as are the institutions that support them. The paper concludes by calling for a recalibration of early childhood policies away from assessing individual children's ‘school readiness’ to encouraging society's readiness to support everyone's well-being, and consequently that of young children too. |
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Keywords: | disadvantage early childhood education policy low-income areas school readiness well-being |
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