‘Children aren’t Standardized, they are Unique’: Using Bourdieu to Expose the Complexity behind Educational Outcomes of Looked-After Children

Formal educational outcomes of looked-after children in England are lower compared to their peers not in care. The dominant research and policy discourse positions looked-after children as failing, and links this with the attitudes and behaviour of staff who support these children. Alternative approaches suggest the need to consider more complex factors such as the long-term impact of pre-care experiences and the inherent limitations of substitute care. The Bourdieusian concepts of capital, field and habitus, together with the neo-Bourdieusian notion of institutional habitus, provide a relevant theoretical framework for deepening understanding of mechanisms behind social reproduction. This paper therefore explores the extent to which the role of the care system might be better understood using these theoretical lenses, particularly that of institutional habitus. For the research reported on, twenty-eight education and social care professionals within two local authorities, and two care leavers, took part in individual and group interviews. The findings indicate that a complex set of factors help explain educational outcomes of looked-after children. Staff were keenly aware of the individual needs of the children with whom they worked, and made efforts to balance the socio-emotional needs of the children with their educational needs, within a context in which structural forces resulted in barriers and standardized expectations that impinged upon the work of the staff.

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