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Revista Românească pentru

Educaţie
Multidimensională
2017, Volume 9, Issue 2, September, pp. 93-
107

Family’s Role in Sustaining the

Educational Trajectory of Children
from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities
Otilia APOSTU

Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05

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How to cite: Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and
Economically Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05

Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational

Trajectory of Children from Socially and
Economically Disadvantaged Communities
Otilia APOSTU1

Abstract: Youth participation in education is, at the same time, a right and an
obligation. Regarding it from the standpoint of different actors involved in the
educational process reveals various perspectives of approaching and analyzing
school participation. The family is one of the key actors of school participation
with a significant input not only on the material and financial aspects of it, but
also at the level of attitudes and practices valued and developed in relation to
the child and his/her educational trajectory. Beyond all the determinants of a
child’s school participation, regarding, for instance, educational policies,
implemented strategies, or financial investments in education, the family has a
critical role in his/her educational trajectory and future social and professional
inclusion. The following aspects determine this essential role of the family:
family’s great influence on the child’s first years within the context of primary
socialization; family’s continuous action as a “model” for the child; the cultural
capital that the family promotes; the sound understanding that it has regarding
the child’s needs; and, finally, the amount of trust that the family invests in the
school. The family’s influence on school participation of children from socially
and economically underprivileged communities has, oftentimes, negative
connotations translated into risks of absenteeism and dropping out of school.
Starting from this general hypothesis, the present study aims at identifying and
analyzing the family related factors that influence the school trajectory of
children coming from socially and economically underprivileged
communities.The entire analysis is framed by collaborative approaches that
sustain a real and functional partnership between school and family.

Keywords: education, family, disadvantaged communities, school participation,

partnership school-family.

Introduction
Youth participation in education is equally a right and an obligation
for them. Depending on the different actors involved in the educational
process, young people’s participation in education reveals different approach
and analysis perspectives. The decision makers in the educational system,

1 Researcher III, Institute of Educational Sciences, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected].

93
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

members of school and local community, local community representatives,

students' families are all determinants for what has to be the schooling of the
young people in the education system, willing to be a complex system that
actively contributes to the active and effective integration of the young
people into the community (Apostu, 2012, p. 125). Each of these actors has
a specific influence, thus the children's educational path is nothing more
than a sum of the influence of all these factors. We will limit the analysis
below, to one of these actors – the family - thanks to its special status in the
context of this analysis: supplier and, at least theoretically, permanent
supporter of the school’s working material - the children. Hence, there are
multiple implications: family’s awareness of their duty of sending children to
school: "the responsibility of children’s education is no longer solely the
responsibility of teachers, but also of the parent or legal guardian who is
bound to take measures to ensure the student is attenting school "(Fartuşnic,
2012, p. 55); the support (financial, material, moral, psychological, etc.) that
the family must provide throughout their children’s schooling period; family
assumption of the role of real partner in education and training of children,
along with school. In this context, the family stands out as the main actor of
children’s school attendance, with a potential and desirable contribution not
only materially and financialy, but also attitudinal and cultural.
Beyond all other determinants of a child’s school attendance, from
individual (natural given, personality traits), to school related (class
organization, school contents, teacher training, etc.) and to systemic ones
(educational policies, implemented strategies or financial investments in
education), the family has a decisive role in the educational trajectory and in
the future social and professional inclusion of children. This determinant
role is attributed, on the one hand, to the attributes that the family naturally
has: the factor and context of the primary socialization of the child, co-
participant in the secondary socialization of the child, the permanent status
of role model for the child, the cultural capital the family inherits and
transmits to their children. On the other hand, this role is attributed due to
the rights and obligations the parents have towards their children, but can
not be exercised to true value but by understanding the real and concrete
needs of the children, as well the family investing the trust capital in the
actions of institutions and actors with an educational role.
The whole discussion acquires specificity, and sometimes negative
connotations, translated into absenteeism and school abandonment when it
is contextualized in the socially and economically disadvantaged

94
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from (…)
Otilia APOSTU

communities. Starting from this general hypothesis, the present study aims
to identify and analyze the family factors influencing the school trajectory of
children from socially and economically disadvantaged communities.
Using data gathered in various sociology surveys focused on children
at risk of drop-out and school absenteeism, the study aims to highlight the
family context elements that, at least in socio-economically disadvantaged
communities, determine the schooling of children at the appropriate age,
despite the action and inflection of other factors supporting school
participation. The fulfillment of the goal will be facilitated by the
establishment and realization of specific objectives with an emphasis on
inverse measures at the level of the targeted population, as well as by the
attempt to establish a series of support elements for supporting the school
participation of the children, despite the unfavorable family context. The
objectives of the study focus on:
Thus, the study proposes an analysis of the particularities of the
school trajectories of children from disadvantaged communities, the
identification of family factors with a significantly negative influence on the
school trajectory of children, identifying possible solutions that can
contribute to the development of a real school-family partnership that will
contribute to increasing school attendance.
At international level, the issue of school abandonment and the
determining factors continues to be analyzed, debated due to its current and
generalized nature. There are varied studies that offer statistical information
on school drop-out in direct connection with the role of the family during
the schooling of children and their school success, as well as qualitative
analyzes focused on the specifics of the family related to the school course
of the children. For example, international data suggest that "young people
from low-income families are likely to be in higher education compared to
the proportion of such families in the population." (OECD, 2012, p. 15).
In the scientific studies, two main approaches can be identified. On
the one hand, there are studies that analyze the issue of school drop-out
from the perspective of family risk factors, such as family structure and
organization, family climate, social and economic issues, lack of family
support for schooling either due to lack of interest or due to the low level of
parental education and, implicitly, the inability to help their children with
homework or other school-related requirements (Bernard, 2011). On the
other hand, there are studies addressing the problem of school drop-out
from the perspective of family factors as a support for school dropout

95
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

prevention. Here are aspects such as emotional support, child's relationship

with an adult that are significant for the child, positive family climate or
family style, school support (Born, Lafontaine, Bernard, Georges, 2008).
We are here, rather, in a positive approach that supports parental
engagement, a syntactic that is increasingly taking place in scientific studies
on the relationship between family and school drop-out, focusing on family
support for preventing abandonment. Three main elements are taken into
account: parents’ participation in school activities (participatory dimension),
supporting the child in carrying out the activities required by the school such
as homework, attending the library, etc. (cognitive dimension), school
aspirations of parents and interest in school (personal dimension) (Born,
Lafontaine, Bernard, Georges, 2008, p. 58).
Regardless of the perspective, we position ourselves in the more
general approach of Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) that support the
existence of a social reproduction based on family-built habitus as the basis
of habitus at school or other contexts of socialization, formation,
development (Bourdieu, Passeron, 1977, pp. 43-44). The habitus developed
in the family is the basis the family continues to build together with the
school and other education and training agents, but none of these agents
have an absolute role to play in the child's schooling and school drop-out.
We are therefore critical of the approaches to school drop-out that
have placed the whole responsibility on the inequality of opportunities to
participate in education and school drop-out at family and social level,
without taking into account the school’s influence on this phenomenon
(Jencks, et. al., 1972).
The analysis we propose in the following gives the family a major
role in participating in the education of children (or, conversely, a significant
contribution to school drop-out), but this role must be seen in the context
of the other determinants of school drop-out: personal, school-related or
social.
The analysis is among the topical issues of the education system in
Romania, given that "in recent years a large proportion of children do not
participate in education due to the family, economic and socially
disadvantaged conditions" (Horga, et. al., 2017, p. 87). In the communities
facing socio-economic disadvantage, the role of the family in relation to
school attendance is even more obvious. In these circumstances, the entire
analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data provided by the schools
included in the UNICEF campaign for school attendance "Come to

96
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from (…)
Otilia APOSTU

school!"2, as well as the families of children enrolled in these schools. The

data were collected through various monitoring tools developed within the
intervention, as well as through quantitative and qualitative surveys
conducted in the various thematic studies carried out in schools participating
in the campaign (quality assurance in school, continuation of secondary
school graduates, school resilience, violence in school).
The approach proposed in this study capitalizes on the results of
these research but, for the argumentation of the specific aspects of the
family’s role in supporting the participation of children from disadvantaged
communities in education, we appeal to the secondary analysis of the data
obtained in these communities. The data provided are synthetic information
obtained through quantitative and qualitative data obtained at the level of
schools and communities participating in the "Hai la şcoala!" Campaign, and
their in-depth and customized analysis at the level of the family segment is
proposed because, starting from the secondary analysis of empirical data, to
develop generational perspectives on the family's contribution to supporting
the participation of children in disadvantaged socio-economic communities
in education. The data obtained at the level of the schools / communities
included in the Campaign concerned various aspects but their synthetic
approach and analysis will focus on a few dimensions relevant to the
proposed analysis: the composition / specificity of the family in which the
child lives, the level of education of the parents, economic family, the
cultural specificity of the family.
The results of this study can help to better understand the family
contexts of children in disadvantaged communities, at risk of drop-out and
school absenteeism, and to develop strategies to encourage school
participation by supporting the family. The whole analysis is framed by
collaborative approaches that support a real and functional partnership
between school and family.

Characteristics of children from socially and economically

disadvantaged communities
Children in socially and economically disadvantaged communities
have, at the outset, the disadvantage of the general situation at the
community level, which, through the effects they generate on the local

2 UNICEF initiative of supporting school attendance by developing systems for intervention at school level,
adapted to the specific of disadvantaged communities. The UNICEF campaign was carried out between
2010 - 2015 at nationally and included 221 schools in 39 counties and Bucharest.

97
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

community, amplifies the social, economic and cultural inequalities between

its members, and those of communities that do not face the disadvantaged
situation. Children in such communities are "beneficiaries" of a dual
disfavor: on the one hand because of the context in which they were born,
which is deficient from a social, cultural and economic perspective and, on
the other hand, due to the deepening of these deficiencies produced at the
level of personal and professional development of children. For example, let
us consider the lack of material and financial resources of these children that
lack access to various means of information and documentation, the low
level of education of parents who cannot become real support during the
children’s schooling process, throughout which they need motivation for
learning, help solving homework, or orientation in choosing the future
course (school and professional); To perpetuating patterns of school failure
from parents to children or from older brothers to younger ones.
Considering these and knowing that the family is the first socialization
framework of the child, in which the basis of its subsequent development is
a basic factor of subsequent socialization, the issue of the family
environment is placed in a complex debate that confronts a state of fact
determined by the economic, social and cultural situation in which there are
also rights that they must provide to children, by their status of guardianship
institution.
The existence of children in a disadvantaged community implies
certain characteristics, among which the risk of abandonment and school
absenteeism. We do not generalize the statement, but we point out the
potential character of the disfavoring situation of the community in general
and the family in particular, the risk of absenteeism and school
abandonment. The monitored data from the schools involved in the
UNICEF campaign shows that of the total number of students enrolled in
schools in disadvantaged communities, about 15% are in high risk of school
drop3 in the absence of specific, targeted interventions. It should be noted
that the data refer to the primary and secondary school population, where
according to national data, school drop-out ranges from 1.4% to 1.8% over
the last 7 school years (Apostu et al, 2016). The risk of absenteeism and
school abandonment increases with the increase in the level of education,
with a slight downward trend towards the end of the education cycle. Thus,
if in the case of children at risk of dropping out of school, less than half are
3Determining the situation of risk of students has been set based on identification and
monitoring instruments, that sum up items reffering to individual, family and school factors.

98
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from (…)
Otilia APOSTU

in primary school (about 45%), while over 50% of children at risk of school
drop-out are in gymnasium (about 53%).
The urban and rural cleavage indicates another characteristic of
children at risk of school drop-out: children at risk of school drop out come
from rural rather than urban environment, with a ratio of 1 in 3 in favor of
urban. This can be explained by the socio-economic development of urban
areas in relation to the rural environment, as well as by the increased level of
education, training and information of a higher proportion of families in
urban areas than in rural areas. The data draw attention to the need to
support rural education through tailor-made strategies and policies so that
the residential environment no longer determines the risk of school dropout.
National data shows, however, that the rural environment is, at least in terms
of school abandonment, in a situation of disfavoring the urban environment,
with the difference being 0.5-0.7 percentage points over the city in the last
years (Apostu et al., 2016).
If the level of education and the environment of residence are
(re)confirmed by official statistical data at national level, as elements
associated with school dropout, lesser known aspects are students'
absenteeism. Thus, the monitoring of schools included in the UNICEF
Campaign for School Participation "Go to School!" shows that absenteeism
increases with the level of education that children are involved in, and that
unmotivated absenteeism is well represented, with higher values among
boys. This discussion could be elaborated, but we will confine ourselves to
highlighting the lack of involvement of parents in sending and motivating
children to go to school, as well as the lack of mechanisms for schools to
stimulate school attendance. The parents’ lack of involvement is evident
through multiple aspects: leaving children alone at home for varying periods
of time and not getting involved in school preparation for children; keeping
children at home to work in or out of the household, or caring for younger
siblings; taking children for a period of time from school, to accompany
their parents in seasonal activities away from their home town (for example,
selling products in markets, harvesting, etc.). One more aspect is noted in
the case of increased school absenteeism in disadvantaged communities: it is
more obvious among boys than girls, either as a result of early family
reliance (lack of understanding) and lack of control on the part of the
children, or as a result of the early involvement of boys in lucrative activities,
being attributed to their workforce status within the family.

99
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

In addition to all these specific features and sustained, in some cases,

by official national data, a feature of the communities of origin of children at
risk of school drop-out is overlapping. In most cases, they come from poor
communities, where the income of the population is at the minimum
subsistence level, or even below that threshold. To this it adds the "age" of
the community, the data clearly confirming that chances of school dropout
are much more prevalent in poor and elderly communities, than in the poor
and younger. Also, the increase in the risk of school drop-out is due to the
overall development of the community: children in a developed community
have a higher risk of dropping out of school compared to children in a
community with uneven development.

Family factors influencing the school participation of children from

disadvantaged communities
The residential environment and the overall economic situation of
the community are elements that can accentuate the negative influence on
the risk of school drop-out of individual, family or school factors. In view of
focusing the discussion on the role of the family in the schooling process of
children, with the above-mentioned arguments, we will deepen the analysis
of the children's schooling, and in particular of the risk of dropping out of
school, in relation to the family environment of belonging. The main
elements of family specificity to which we refer in the following, are: the
structure of the family, the level of parental education, the socio-economic
situation of the family.

The structure of the family of the child

At the level of common knowledge, socially and economically
disadvantaged communities are associated with marital instability,
monoparentality, divorce, family abandonment. There are situations where
data from schools participating in the UNICEF campaign highlighted them
punctually and contextualized. Moreover, there have been identified
communities with so-called dominant tendencies for a generalized family
pattern (many couples in a consensual union, many single-parent families,
many families with one parent or both parents working abroad, whose
children were left in the care of grandparents or other relatives). However, it
should be noted that it is not the family structure and type of organization
that are decisive for children's schooling and the risk of school dropout. Of
the schools participating in the campaign, about 70% of students at risk of

100
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from (…)
Otilia APOSTU

abandonment come from organized families and live with both parents.
Without claiming data from the national sample, we observe the general
trend in schools located in disadvantaged communities, where living with
both parents is not decisive for the sustained school attendance of children.
Instead, the same data show that the situation of the child in a single parent
family is strongly associated with good school attendance, and placing the
child in the care of other relatives or state institutions is generally associated
with satisfactory schooling. Hence, the idea that it is not a familiar model of
belonging which determines the schooling of children from disadvantaged
communities, but others are the elements that make a major contribution to
attending school and continuing the higher education path.

The level of parenting education

Parental education can be a determinant for children's schooling in
general, by providing models, but also by better understanding the valences
of education and its usefulness by those who have completed a higher level
of education. Generally, in schools in socially and economically
disadvantaged communities, the level of parental education is limited to the
level of compulsory education when they were included in the education
system, or is limited to the level of education provided by the school in the
community (usually, gymnasium or professional education). However, there
are also communities where the general level of education is lower, the
gymnasium graduates being poorly represented and recurring in the male
population. These are traditional Roma communities, where participation in
education is limited for the feminine population, according to the traditional
precepts of the local community, where the school did not find effective
mechanisms to support the participation of girls in education.
Whether it's about graduating middle school, professional school or
high school for parents, the principles that lead many of them to support
their children's education are related to a similar level of education with their
own, or even less, if the school in their community only provides a
maximum of middle school education ("he should attend eight classes and
that’s it", "he should finish at least eight classes", "he should attend school as
much as I did, and it is enough", are the parents' statements without
knowing about the level of compulsory education, or without taking into
account the children's interests, needs or developmental abilities - focus
group among Dâmboviţa parents, Buzău during the monitoring visits).

101
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

Parents with low levels of education generally tend to encourage a

reproductive behavior on their children, about participation in education,
either because they do not understand how education can contribute to
raising the quality of life (due to lack of information and especially lack of
experience), or because they take up models of people with low education
but "successful" in these parents’ opinion (examples given by these parents
being people from the community who have migrated managed to develop
different businesses, or examples of singers of manele). One thing which is
also confirmed by data from schools in disadvantaged communities: the
higher the level of parental education, the lower the chances of school
failure. In this context, the need to increase the level of parental education is
highlighted once again, the impact being discovered at different levels:
support for children's schooling, but also integration into the labor market
with implications for the family's economic standards, increased self-esteem,
overcoming the status of socially assisted for some of the parents, etc. A
possible solution for mitigating the effects of the low level of parental
education and its implications would be to organize, in disadvantaged
communities, "second chance" classes or professional training programs for
parents with a low level of education, impacting on their employability and
understanding the role of education and training for an increased quality of
life.

The socio-economic situation of the family

The economic situation of the family is a determinant of low
participation in education, many studies claiming that lack of resources and,
implicitly, investment in education increase the risk of sporadic attendance
of school, and the risk of school dropout: "children and young people in the
poorest families, members of the Roma communities, those living in rural
areas and children with special educational needs (CES), have the slightest
chances of attending education, staying in school, and continuing their
studies at a higher level" (Varly, et al., 2015; Fartuşnic, 2012).
Beyond this conditioning of school participation by the economic
situation, and the economic situation of the level of education, in the context
of disadvantaged schools, the discussion about the economic situation of the
families became a stereotypical topic, often being invoked by both parents
and the teachers in order to explain the low participation in education for
children from disadvantaged communities. In reality, the situation is
somewhat different, even if conditional participation in education is

102
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from (…)
Otilia APOSTU

maintained by the higher income level: families invoke the poor economic
situation for their children's low school frequency, while the arguments
attributed to them by other school actors are rather referring to disinterest
and lack of external constraints; school, through its teachers, invokes the
poor economic situation of their students to justify their low participation in
education or school abandonment, but without knowing any concrete data
on the economic situation (survey data in disadvantaged schools indicate a
significant share of the non-respondents among teachers, about the
economic situation of the children's families in the school). The precarious
economic situation remains, however, a reality, even if it is poorly known by
teachers, and the effects of the precarious economic situation on school
participation can be countered by introducing social policies and programs
to support school participation, for example through scholarships. Data
obtained from schools indicated that scholarships for children contribute
significantly to improving school attendance (students in risk of
abandonment, who benefit from a social scholarship, have a better schooling
attendance than those who do not benefit from it). Let us not forget,
however, that beyond the social / social assistance component that children
need in order to participate in education, and for which the school is often a
mediator, it (school) must assume and manifest the role of a court education
and training. Its main role is to develop children's competences so that by
empowering them, their professional insertion and, implicitly, the earning of
income are facilitated. Thus, the school can significantly contribute to raising
the quality of life of individuals, reducing the risk of dependence on social
assistance services, and „la réduction des coûts sociaux des conséquences du
décrochage scolaire” (Bernard & Michaut, 2012, p. 8).
The precarious economic situation of families has led to a
widespread practice in disadvantaged communities, such as the involvement
of children in work from younger ages. Seasonal work, care for younger
siblings, the pursuit of lucrative activities in or out of the household, are
situations that contribute to a low school frequency and increased risk of
abandonment. Not only the involvement of children in lucrative activities
during classes is the impediment to school attendance, but also the lack of
time for preparing homework (knowing that homework is a general
requirement within the Romanian education system), lack of time for
involvement in extracurricular activities, or lack of information that a
consistent participation in education brings.

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Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

The social context and family pattern are generally reproduced by

children from families living in deprived communities. There is a tendency in
the schools included in the UNICEF campaign to take the pattern of school
attendance from the family or older siblings. Thus, the abandonment of one
of the older brothers is an argument for not taking part in the education of
the other brothers, or for a sporadic frequency. More obvious is the example
of the retained students, also associated with a clear family pattern: similar
"antecedents" to older brothers or the lack of support for participation in
education by the family, materialized in a negative attitude towards the
school and the activities carried out within it.

Elements of culture
Mother language is a strong identity element and an emblem of the
communities with an ethnic minority population. Supporting the use and
promotion of the language of different communities with a minority
population is encouraged, and valuable in the context of promoting the
spirit, the local specificity. As the language spoken at the community level
differs from the teaching language, and the teaching language is not
promoted or used at community level, children encounter problems of
adaptation and school integration with the onset of schooling. In these
contexts, strategies for using the mother language in school and a
progressive, integrated language learning process are necessary in such a way
that language is not an impediment to schooling, and that the mother
language is a facilitator for further development.
Just as sensitive as the issue of mother tongue is the issue of keeping
the traditions of the communities. The issue is more evident in traditional
Roma communities, most often faced with an economic and social
disadvantage. In these communities, many times, the lack of participation of
girls in education invokes the Roma tradition of early marriages and the low
education of girls. However, without generalization, the idea of having
communities in which the invoked tradition is a cliché invoked by families,
to mask a lack of interest and valorisation of education and training, must be
advanced. However, the custom of girls’ low level of education remains,
transmitted and reproduced by the family, with significant effects on girls'
non-schooling rates. Intervention measures require adaptation to the local
specificity of each community, correlated with highlighting the long-term
benefits of participation in education and training.

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Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from (…)
Otilia APOSTU

Conclusions and recommendations

The family’s involvement in children's schooling is a necessity, but it
is not always a reality, and in disadvantaged communities, the issues
discussed are all the more obvious. To increase school attendance and
children's advancement, a large number of intervention programs are
necessary, from financial support programs, social assistance to socially and
economically disadvantaged families, to support measures aimed at
vocational training and reconversion of parents. All this needs to be
accompanied by parental awareness campaigns about the role and valence of
education, and implicitly about the motivation to send their children to
school and support them therein.
The involvement of parents in various activities organized in schools
included in the campaign, and conducting various surveys to identify the
needs and interests of parents reveals a number of possible contexts and
directions of action. These relate to changing the parents' attitudes towards
education and training, correlated with increasing confidence in the role and
the ability of the school to contribute actively to the education and training
of children, with effects on their social and professional insertion. For this,
the school must find the activities, the contexts in which parents become
active partners of the school, to succeed in stimulating them, attracting them
as real partners, this only being possible through information,
communication and initiative.
Parenting counseling activities and the development of additional
parenting skills would be a plus for the aforementioned families. From the
simple participation of parents in school activities, with propagation effects
at the level of more and more parents from the community (of peer-
mediation activities with other parents, or the development of skills among
students, etc.), there can be described a long series of actions that parents
could undertake to support the participation in education of children from
disadvantaged communities.
For all these approaches to be possible, a convergent action of all
community-based resource actors is required. The bottom-up experiences of
schools in disadvantaged communities that have succeeded in involving
parents in supporting their participation in education highlight three
categories of key actors: informal leaders, school mediators, support /
traveling teachers. Informal leaders, precisely through their status, managed by
collaborating with the school and through a good knowledge of the
community, but also by enabling personal relationships to involve parents in

105
Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05
 Revista Românească pentru Septembrie, 2017
Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 9, Issue 2

school life or for extracurricular activities, or for the rehabilitation of school

infrastructure. Mediators, by their status as representative of the community,
but also as members of the local community, were able to establish
cooperative relationships between school and the community, between
school and the local authorities, cooperation which in some cases, has
developed real community networks. Support / itinerant teachers have
represented in some disadvantaged communities, the only people who
listened and understood the difficulties the children and families in
disadvantaged communities are experiencing (Horga, et. al., 2016, p. 36).
Perhaps their specialization, or their ability to work with people that are
"different", or maybe their ability to address each case and work differently,
have transformed them, in some communities where these professionals
were the only competent counseling, into real resource persons within the
community, who attracted parents to school by discussing and addressing
the issue of participation in education from the household perspective, and
its ability to support the school participation of children.
The participation in education of children from disadvantaged
communities is still an issue on the agenda of policy makers, and parents'
involvement in this issue is a must, whose potential solution is an approach
individualized to each community, adapted to the local specific and their
needs and interests.

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Apostu, O. (2017). Family’s Role in Sustaining the Educational Trajectory of Children from Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Communities. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 9(2), 93-107. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/2017.0902.05