Abstract
Alberta Education and Alberta Children Services have reported consistent low achievement in school by children and youth in care, especially those in residential group care. This article provides the current picture of research and practice (policy) regarding the learning experience of children and youth in care. Utilizing a scoping review of local and international research studies, the paper argues that the education of children in care in Alberta is not considered an important issue. The dominance of the social work paradigm in children and family services is exposed as inadequate, and hence the call for social pedagogy to be adopted. Determinants of educational achievement for children and youth in care are examined and using these attainment factors, the article identifies and recommends areas that Alberta Education and Alberta Children Services need to consider with urgency if children and youth in care are to benefit from schooling like all other children.
Highlights
Education is recognized as an investment in children’s futures
The term intervention children and youth is invariably referred in literature and here to mean the same as all the following: children and young people in care or foster children or foster care or looked after or looked-after or out of home care or out-of-home care or out of home placement or out-of-home placement or residential care or state care or public care or kinship care or in care
When one considers the importance of schooling in today’s competitive market societies, the low levels of education being attained by intervention children and youth brings with it the high risk of social exclusion
Summary
Education is recognized as an investment in children’s futures. Education is compulsory in Alberta, Canada, and parents and guardians have an obligation as outlined in the School Act (2000) to ensure that their children attend school. Statistics from Alberta Education, nationally and internationally show that children and youth in care are one of the most educationally vulnerable groups (Dill, Flynn, Hollingshead, & Fernandes, 2012). While many groups of students in Alberta, for example, by consideration of their gender, indigenous background, socioeconomic and regional concerns, student and school-based factors (Gunn, Chorney, & Poulson, 2008), have received attention and intervention policies to enhance their educational experiences, children and youth in care are still to get this deserved attention. Intervention children and youth, referred to as children and young people in care, residential children or looked after children and youth have the lowest attendance, achievement, and completion rates than their peers (Alberta Education, 2009). The term intervention children and youth is invariably referred in literature and here to mean the same as all the following: children and young people in care or foster children or foster care or looked after or looked-after or out of home care or out-of-home care or out of home placement or out-of-home placement or residential care or state care or public care or kinship care or in care
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