Introduction: the landscapes of poverty and education across the UK

Poverty blights the lives of children and young people. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils across the United Kingdom (UK) have the poorest educational outcomes and that poverty has a pernicious effect on children’s well-being. However, far less is known about the ways that poverty is differentially experienced for children and young people in schools within the four jurisdictions of the UK. Are there historical, social and cultural factors that make poverty a postcode lottery in terms of quality of schooling in the different parts of the UK? Are successful local interventions context specific as the research evidence seems to suggest or can we learn from particular regions or cities? This introduction points out that anxieties about growing educational inequality in the UK have to be contextualised historically, geographically and in terms of the distinct political and socio-economic landscapes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Poverty and education in Scotland: reality and response

The aim of this chapter is to critically examine child poverty and the impact of child poverty on school education in contemporary Scotland and the reactions and responses to this impact on school education by official bodies and groups. The chapter maps out the levels of poverty in Scotland, the different approaches to the measurement of poverty and the nature and extent of child poverty. There is a critical analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the current practice in the measurement of poverty and there is a discussion on the evidence focused on the impact of child poverty on school education. Finally, the chapter explores some of the responses and interventions that have been introduced and the ongoing debates about the effectiveness of these interventions.

Policy, education and poverty across the UK

This chapter reports on and draws lessons from the BERA Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy which set up five seminars and a community Forum across regions in each of the four jurisdictions of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The seminars highlighted differences between the differing political contexts of the four UK jurisdictions in terms of their conceptualisations and policy enactment around child poverty and the implications for teachers in each context. The BERA Commission found that the devolved contexts of the UK open up some limited but important spaces for difference and contestation. The chapter explores how attuning to the places where children and young people grow up provides an important lens on vulnerability, wellbeing and educational achievement.

Poverty and education in Northern Ireland: the legacy of division and conflict

This chapter examines the issue of poverty and education in Northern Ireland (NI) and how the particular economic, social, political, and educational challenges associated with NI following the Troubles (1968-1998) are viewed as inextricably entangled in this region of the United Kingdom. After briefly outlining the relatively recent and current political and policy landscapes, it goes on to consider patterns of demography, poverty and deprivation and educational achievement and how these link to segregation and issues of difference. The chapter then draws on a major, largely qualitative study that was undertaken in NI, Investigating Links in Achievement and Deprivation (ILiAD), in order to illustrate how any simple statistical correlation of deprivation and educational achievement plays out here in a much more complex nuanced manner.