Of individuals and systems: The impact of personal and impersonal factors on learning

Abstract

Research indicates that non-school factors play as great if not a greater role than teaching or curriculum in a child’s success at school, especially primary school (Berliner 2009). This means that home and family life very often outweighs what occurs in the classroom. Non-school factors include a family’s socioeconomic status, parents’ educational level, family integrity and immigrant status. This issue of the International Review of Education features two articles dealing with the influence of family factors on children’s experience and success in primary school. A further article examines how gender impacts on the learning experience of female secondary students in Tunisia. The fourth article switches from the personal to a broader societal perspective, considering how structural racial inequalities have been redressed by South Africa’s post-Apartheid adult education policies. The issue concludes with a more conceptual paper, an examination of how the theory and practice of systems thinking can help to make school leaders more effective. Our first article looks (in French) at the influence of family status on primary