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Society's readiness: How relational approaches to well‐being could support young children's educational achievement in high‐poverty contexts
Author(s) -
Street Martina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/chso.12445
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , poverty , interdependence , well being , psychology , developmental psychology , early childhood education , pedagogy , sociology , social psychology , economic growth , social science , economics , psychotherapist
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.