Poverty, deprivation and the politics of educational inclusion in Thanet and Lille

Abstract

The paper reports on one outcome of a European Union-funded research project into some transnational aspects of youth marginalization. It discusses different discourses of inclusion and notes that poverty, deprivation and other social factors increase barriers to inclusive practices. The structure, provision and functioning of the education systems in the city of Lille, France, and the District of Thanet, England, are then compared and contrasted, and some barriers that prevent a proportion of the pupil populations from fully accessing school provision are identified. Both countries espouse inclusion but provide very different cultural contexts for its enactment. In Thanet, the market context inhibits equity of access to education and deepens social and educational disadvantages, while in Lille, despite French egalitarian ideals, the benign market between the private, largely denominational, secondary school sector and the public state provision, together with the informal systems of entry into the more prestigious lycées, are biased against the disadvantaged. Poverty and deprivation in both areas add to the difficulties of educational access and contribute to the formation of a group of disaffected young people who are marginalized as a consequence of an inability to participate fully and effectively in the education services provided. Some structural solutions to these problems are suggested and the paper concludes by advocating transnational policy considerations that could help to mitigate these difficulties.