Childhood poverty and Adverse Childhood Experiences
Having recently read, ‘Poverty Safari’ and then going along to Darren
McGarvey’s Edinburgh Fringe show of the same name, where he related his
experiences to the film ‘Resilience – the biology of stress and the science of
hope’ which I saw earlier this year; this post offers some reflective questions
to help teachers to start thinking about and addressing the impact of childhood
poverty and adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in their own context.
Living in poverty is often not a choice but created and perpetuated by
a complex set of circumstances which leave some feeling bleached out of society
and done to, rather than done with. I really like this description of poverty
from McGarvey’s book, Poverty Safari;
“Poverty
is more like a gravitational field comprising social, economic, emotional,
physiological, political and cultural forces. Each person’s escape velocity is
different, relative to their specific circumstances.” (p139)
Children growing up in poverty often feel a deep sense of shame and
live in constant fear. This shame can manifest in any number of ways, some
children will become aggressive or confrontational, appear lazy, or appear to
not care about anything. The fear response often stems from feelings of
inadequacy or vulnerability, where their core belief is that ‘they aren’t smart
or good enough’.
Who in your class/context
displays these behaviour?
What support is being offered to
them, both in your class and beyond?
What can you do to ensure they
feel included?
Living with extreme stress, changes people in all aspects of their
lives; mentally, emotionally and physiologically, being hypervigilant changes
how you think, feel and behave. Research into Adverse Childhood Experiences
makes links between chronic stress and social issues such as chronic illness in
adults, addictive behaviours and violence. Chronic stress can result in
communications being expressed through negative behaviours, or as McGarvey puts
it “in the midst of so many potential threats, it’s no easy to express yourself
“(p34). McGarvey describes the chronic stress that people in disadvantaged
communities are living with day in, day out as “the soup everyone is swimming
in all the time.”(p80), an apt description of just keeping your head above the
water to survive.
Do you have enough information
about each child in your class to help you to be effective in supporting their
learning?
In what ways can you use the
resources you have in your context to support children who are conveying a
stress response?
In schools, the effect of poverty and ACE’s can be seen through the
lens of poor attendance, under-achievement and attainment, and challenging
behaviours. Schools and education systems must strive to counter balance the
effects of poverty by making the curriculum and learning experiences more relevant
to the lives of children in poverty. By taking
cognisance of where children are in their lives and how they are presenting,
and their readiness to learn would be the starting point for this. Some schools and learning communities are
excellent in this area and offer fabulous support for all learners.
In what ways is your
school/learning community addressing childhood poverty and the impact of ACE’s?
How are you addressing childhood
poverty and ACE’s in your classroom?
Curriculum content and learning experiences and opportunities also need
to be considered in light of children in poverty. Being presented with curricular
content that children cannot relate to can be challenging, as they have no
schema or reference point to build this onto and this can lead to feelings of
disenfranchisement. McGarvey talks about this disenfranchisement as “I couldn’t
read a book because the curriculum was full of pretentious, upper class
nonsense that said nothing about my community or experience.”(p17).
So how is the curriculum
structured to support all children to achieve and in your class how do you
ensure the learning experiences are relevant and support the building of
knowledge, skills and dispositions?
Building a relationship with each learner is crucial. Everyone is
looking for a human connection which nurtures and supports them. McGarvey talks
about people in his life that he felt he could trust, was energised by, felt
supported and heard by, and most importantly who understood him. They made him
feel valued and were a positive force.
Thinking about the children you
work with, who needs you to be that nurturing positive force?
How are you going to address this?
What support do you need to do
this?
The impact of childhood poverty and ACE’s is very complex which will
only be addressed through multi-agency working. Improving teachers
understanding of childhood poverty and ACE’s can be a step towards being part
of the multi-agency working that is needed to improve the life chances of the
young people of Scotland.
References
McGarvey, D (2017) Poverty safari. Luath press ltd. Edinburgh
