Ευάλωτες ομάδες

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αναλύεται το φαινόμενο της φτώχειας στη σύγχρονη Ελλάδα, δίνοντας έμφαση στην περίοδο μετά το 2008, δηλαδή μετά την εκδήλωση της οικονομικής κρίσης. Η φτώχεια παρουσιάζεται ως ένα πολυδιάστατο φαινόμενο καθώς η έλλειψη χρημάτων αποτελεί μια μόνο πλευρά της. Η ανάλυση των στοιχείων αποδεικνύει ότι το διάστημα 1974-2010 ο αριθμός των φτωχών στις χώρες της Ε.Ε. όχι μόνο παρουσίασε στασιμότητα αλλά και σε ορισμένες μάλιστα χώρες τα ποσοστά των φτωχών αυξήθηκαν. Η Ελλάδα συγκαταλέγεται μεταξύ των χωρών οι οποίες, μετά την εκδήλωση της οικονομικής κρίσης (2008), εμφανίζουν άνοδο στα ποσοστά των φτωχών. Ειδικότερα, το βάρος της φτώχειας επηρεάζει περισσότερο ορισμένα τμήματα του πληθυσμού της Ελλάδας όπως γυναίκες, ανήλικα παιδιά και ηλικιωμένους. Η αύξηση του αριθμού των φτωχών στην Ελλάδα δημιουργεί προβλήματα σε ατομικό αλλά και σε κοινωνικό επίπεδο, αφού διαταράσσεται η κοινωνική συνοχή και δυσχεραίνεται η οικονομική μεγέθυνση και ανάπτυξη της χώρας.

In the first volume of the Oxford Review of Education Jerome Bruner (1975) showed how the upbringing of the very young is influenced by poverty, and how different kinds of upbringing shape human development. He called the paper ‘Poverty and childhood’ and baldly stated ‘With respect to virtually any criterion of equal opportunity and equal access to opportunity, the children of the poor ... are plainly not getting as much schooling, or getting as much from their schooling as their middle-class age mates’ (p. 43). Since Bruner’s seminal paper, the developmental sciences have exploded. New insights from neuroscience, genetics and cognitive psychology have provided accounts of the developing architecture of the brain, the course of linguistic and cognitive development, and more recently the development of resilience. Most of these insights focus on the development of the child, but usually from research in the laboratory or in the context of the family. However, there is also a new literature on ways that environments outside the home can support or hinder the child’s development. This paper will attempt to integrate findings from the developmental sciences with educational research on pre-school education. The first half of the paper extends Bruner’s arguments through a discussion of possible mechanisms that underlie the link between poverty and under-achievement, especially the capacity to plan ahead. The second half of the paper focuses on the role of the ‘enabling environment’ of the pre-school in supporting the kinds of early ‘executive functions’ that will later underpin educational achievement. The paper concludes with recent findings from the ‘Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education’ research (EPPSE; Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj, & Taggart, 2014) on the educational pathways of nearly 3000 English children. The findings show that high quality pre-school provided the foundation for academic learning, but the newest research shows that it also nurtured self-regulation and the executive skills needed in planning ahead.

This article first provides an economic framework for understanding how an economic crisis affects children’s educational outcomes; this framework shows that there are both negative (harmful) effects and positive (beneficial) effects on educational outcomes. A review of the empirical evidence suggests that the negative effects are typically stronger such that national educational outcomes deteriorate during a crisis. Finally, a review of the interventions indicates that fee reduction, conditional cash transfers, media campaigns, and block grants help moderate the effects of an economic crisis on children’s educational outcomes.