Examining Inequalities in Disadvantaged Schools

Annotated bibliography
Thomson, P. (2003). Schooling the rustbelt kids. British Journal of Educational Studies.
This book aims at examining the secondary and primary schools situated in
disadvantaged areas in order to highlight the inequalities practiced in these schools. One
of the main reasons for writing this book is to establish the point that disadvantaged
schools do not show any effective results in giving a culturally appropriate environment
to its students.
The first chapter in this book starts with the realization that the only way to improve the
condition of a poor child is to hand over them to rich parents. This highlights the fact that
the existing educational policies have been proving to be ineffective to improve the
overall life standard and especially educational atmosphere for the poor students
belonging from disadvantaged schools in Rustbelt cities. The first chapter talks about two
imaginary students namely Vicky and Thanh who come from different cultural
backgrounds but are of same age. It has been said that both the child have different set of
knowledge, experiences and narratives when they step into their first day at school.
The author thinks that the schooling has a vital role to play in deciding what kind of
education these students are expected to experience from their schools. Actually, the
author criticizes the role of the schooling system that stereotypes the children based on
their socio economic and cultural backgrounds and think that students belonging from
working class cannot succeed as much as the children belonging from higher socio
economic backgrounds. Thus, no social policy can be helpful for improving the situation
of the poor children unless the mindset and the actions of the schooling system change its
typical assumptions. So, the author sides with the fact that policies need to focus on how
to train the teachers or others related to the schooling system so that they can equalize the
education of every student regardless of what cultural background they come from.
The chapter is highly relevant for understanding the topic of the study. This is so because
the chapter in the above mentioned book helps in giving an alternative approach to the
existing educational policies by giving more importance to policies that involve school
programs. Thus, the issue of inequality has been highlighted and has been supported by