CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES: INVESTIGATING PERSPECTIVES OF CHILDREN FROM LOW-INCOME FAMILIES WHO EXCEL ACADEMICALLY

Abstract

Many studies have explored the impacts of poverty on the educational outcomes of children and most point to the conception that children from low-income families are at risk of poor academic outcomes. Despite these prevailing views, there are some children from low-income families who defy the odds and excel academically. The present study was aimed at investigating this phenomena from the lens and perspective of children who exhibited Positive Deviance (PD). Guided by the Social Relational Theory (SRT), a bidirectional model that views children and parents as equal agents, 10 children from low-income families who excelled in their school performance were invited to participate in this study. Participants kept an audio diary for five days which allowed for a more accurate exploration and depiction of the details and nuances in their daily lives. The audio diary method was complemented by a semi-structured interview which enabled a more holistic understanding of the children's experiences in their day-to-day living. The study was useful in unpacking daily-thought processes of the children especially in the aspect of their relationship with their mothers, their experiences in school and the strategies that were useful for them to excel in school. Key findings in this study revealed that the mother-child relationship context facilitated the expression of children's agentic capabilities . It also highlighted that children were not merely passive victims to their circumstances but active agents in their own lives evidence from the strategies that were uncovered in this study. The findings of this research would be useful to inform interventions with other children from low-income families and proposed for the need to include children as partners and collaborators in matters affecting them.