Abstract
In this paper I argue that the health and well-being outcomes of people at different levels of a social hierarchy, as studied by epidemiologists and psychologists has relevance for educational research, especially in unequal societies. When addressing poverty-associated risk, the educational emphasis need not only be on attaining more individual wealth in society, but could rather be to improve the educational, psychological and social well-being. I draw on four ethnographic studies to construct a bricolage of narratives to show how resilience, health and well-being agendas may lead to positive education outcomes given inequality. Keywords : bricolage; epidemiology; ethnography; global south; health and well-being in education; inequality; positive education outcomes; positive psychology; poverty and education; resilience and education
Highlights
Picturing Poverty and Education Data from several ethnographic studies (De Gouveia, 2015; Ebersöhn, 2012b, 2014b, 2014c; Ebersöhn, Sefotho, Mampane, Loots, Omidire, Sherman & Nxumalo-Tsebe, 2014; Ferreira & Ebersöhn, 2012; Malan-Van Rooyen, 2015) portray what elders and youth in high poverty ecologies in South Africa most struggle with daily, how they go about adapting to adversity, and how they voice well-being
One young man’s memories of “I was happy when I go on a field trip with my school” illustrates how closely he linked his positive emotions were with educational experiences in a setting of poverty
Older and younger men and women ranked the presence of schools in their isolated community as the most significant protective resources in their resource constrained community – followed closely by access to and quality of services and infrastructure
Summary
Picturing Poverty and Education Data from several ethnographic studies (De Gouveia, 2015; Ebersöhn, 2012b, 2014b, 2014c; Ebersöhn, Sefotho, Mampane, Loots, Omidire, Sherman & Nxumalo-Tsebe, 2014; Ferreira & Ebersöhn, 2012; Malan-Van Rooyen, 2015) portray what elders and youth in high poverty ecologies in South Africa most struggle with daily (what they appraise as risk factors), how they go about adapting to adversity (adaptive coping processes by using available protective resources), and how they voice well-being (what happiness means for them). The data is nested in three Southern African studies: a study on care and support practices in seven Southern African communities with high need with dominant-indigenous populations (n = 430; elders = 240; youth = 190; men = 150 and women = 280) (Ebersöhn et al, 2014); a long-term study (2003–2016) with teachers in schools given high risk, high need and resource constraint (n = 20, primary = 16, high = 4; rural = 6, peri-urban = 14) in three South African provinces (Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, respectively) (De Gouveia, 2015; Ebersöhn, 2014c; Ferreira & Ebersöhn, 2012; Malan-Van Rooyen, 2015); as well as the Indigenous Pathways to Resilience study (Ebersöhn, 2014b) with participants (n = 225: youth = 132, elders = 93; women = 134, men = 91) in remote settings in two South African provinces (Mpumalanga and Limpopo).
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