Diffracting educational policies through the lens of young people’s experiences

This chapter attempts to connect the processes of education, inequality and poverty with children and young people’s experiences of living in areas of economic disadvantage. It explores young people’s everyday lived experiences of poverty with a focus on education. Schools alone cannot ameliorate the effects of poverty. Yet, worryingly, numerous reports of young people’s experiences suggest that schools often amplify the effects of poverty. There is, therefore, an urgent need to understand the subjective experiences of young people to appreciate how the structures of educational institutions further marginalise the more vulnerable. A series of case illustrations describe the lived experiences of schooling for some young people. The final section looks at what needs to be done and highlights the damage of refusing to take more explicit action to prevent education systems making matters worse.