Educational opportunities in Australia
All children are entitled to equal educational opportunities in Australia, regardless of gender, sexuality, race,
ethnicity, socio-economic background, culture and language. However, many students continue to be
marginalized and face inequitable opportunities in schools resulting in disparate achievement
(1) Critically discuss the statement by focusing on the educational challenges experienced by any One of the
marginalised groups examined this semester. (The 3 challenges I want you to focus on are access to
technology, parents are unable to stay home due to their jobs to provide to their family, unable to support them
in literacy and numeracy.)
(2) Review relevant literature in terms of the potential reasons for students’ feelings of marginalisation and
discuss the theory (ies) that assists us to best understand marginalisation of your selected group
(3) Critically discuss what actions a teacher might take in the classroom to reduce student marginalisation.
(4) Show how power impacts feelings of marginalisation
(5) Explain how the dilemmas around student marginalisation in your selected group have been addressed at a
policy level and if they have not yet been addressed, propose ways in which school and education policy more
broadly could assist to address students’ feelings of marginalisation and narrow the achievement gap.
The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of equity and access in approaches to
education and the impact on student marginalisation. In order to complete this assignment you need to:
- Clearly identify the marginalised group;
- Define what you understand by student marginalisation
- Use one or two sociological theories to assist your understanding of this issue and support your
analysis/argument; - Discuss how forces of power impact student marginalisation in your selected group
- Reflect critically on how student marginalisation will impact your own and others’ teaching practices;
- Demonstrate your awareness of how schooling policies might impact the marginalised group by including
some discussion and reference to policy(ies). Please Note: This assessment requires a focus on research,
analysis and links to theory, rather than on description and unsubstantiated opinions. Your discussion of the
statement should demonstrate your understandings of the issues and research on the topic.
– A fully referenced essay of 2,000 words (+/- 10%) excluding the reference list with 2.0 spacing and
incorporating at least 6 references from the following sources: prescribed unit textbook, other academic book
chapters (rather than books in their entirety. APA REFENCERING
Structure of essay
All children are entitled to equal educational opportunities in Australia, regardless of gender, sexuality, race,
ethnicity, socio-economic background, culture and language. However, many students continue to be
marginalized and face inequitable opportunities in schools resulting in disparate achievement.
Introduction (250): What marginalised group (topic)? What do you understand student marginalisation to
mean? What’s the (brief) context? What educational challenges will you explore in the essay? What theory will
be applied?
Challenge 1, theory and impact on achievement (250-300 words) Access to technology
Challenge 2, theory and impact on achievement (250-300 words) parents are unable to stay home due to their
jobs to provide to their family
Challenge 3, theory and impact on achievement (250-300 words) unable to support them in literacy and
numeracy
Power (250): what forces of power do you identify? how does power impact students’ feelings of
marginalisation? (I provided reading for that Foucault Theory for this question)
Policy (250-300): how do educational policy/ies (school, state/territory, federal) impact this marginalised group
(including some discussion and reference to policy/ies). Could existing policy be improved or reconsidered?