Violations of the Educational Rights of Disadvantaged Youth in the Global Age
Keywords:
Contextual mitigating factors, educational rights, cultural capital, educational inequities.Abstract
In the postmodern age, the ubiquitous processes of globalization have exacerbated violations of the basic human right to an education among underprivileged youth around the world. Researchers and policymakers have not given serious consideration to the criticality of context when addressing wide differences in academic performance between mainstream and disenfranchised youth in the United States and other nations. Cultural capital, habitus (Bourdieu, 1977), and other contextual mitigating factors (CMFs) (Gallard M., et al., 2013) act as important mitigating cultural, economic, and political contextual factors affecting the learning of students, and leading to educational inequities. Yet, educational policymakers and stakeholders have failed to be explicit about the influence of such CMFs on global differences in educational delivery, as well as data on educational achievement and performance within and across countries. Further, such failures of recognition have led directly to violations of educational rights promulgated in the United Nations’ Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). Only by making CMFs explicit and understand their impact on all education reform efforts can decision-makers help disadvantaged youth to attain an equitable education and find their place in the global age.