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Social Exclusion and Education: An issue to be investigated by Health Education

Iliaki Chrysoula, Western Attica Health Education Head, ciliaki@hil.gr

Abstract The issue being examined by the present paper is social exclusion of particular individuals or groups of individuals and its consequences both to them and the broader society. Such groups are namely individuals that have experienced rejection throughout their course in life starting from family, the school system and ending up to adulthood. The economic and nationalistic status along with the lack of the educational asset, form the factors that are primarily conducive to individuals marginalization and their divergence from the so-called prevailing social culture and structure. The outcome from this overall social stance and state suppressive mechanisms towards marginalized individuals is the growing sentimental gap and distance among social subjects as well as the respective deregulation of society that stems from marginalized ones delinquent behavior. Correction interventions are suggested namely a communicative policy among family members to encourage self expression. Moreover, the role of school should be changed in terms of behavior modification and the creation of participatory models so that social integration of the excluded ones could be achievable and gradually realized. Key words: citizens society, correction interventions, delinquency, marginalization, social exclusion, state.

1. General theoretical references about social exclusion Social exclusion contains, verbally and notionally, a negative social definition as it is tied to the individuals marginalization. The excluded ones are expelled from society as inadequate and failures. If reference is made to students, it is about individuals sitting in the last rows of desks that usually remain alone and are prone to delinquency. If reference is made to working individuals, they are found isolated in their working positions being counter-productive and outside the working culture, with a feeling of being the strangers of the place while the concept of time has no meaning to their lives. Unemployed people experiencing the citizens society rejection as they are deemed spongers and remote from the system are also integrated in the social exclusion category. All categories refer to individuals experiencing a desocialization procedure that is they put themselves off society by developing individual choices usually characterized as anti-social or form groups of individuals under the common characteristic of the experienced exclusion by organizing actions which, for the most part, deregulate society. In liberal societies, social exclusion is reinforced as the welfare state is under continuous shrinking. The lower strata, therefore, cannot be reinforced through correction interventions on the various levels, namely economic, social and cultural. Thus, their integration into and satisfaction from personal pursuits becomes more Culture Journal | Social Exclusion and Education: An issue to be investigated 1 by Health Education

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difficult while the gap between the upper and lower strata and the distance between what is desired and what is achievable, under psychological terms, is broadened in terms of socio-political aspects. Within this framework, sorrow is experienced, a course towards zero. This same establishment of the social exclusion open form contains the concept of society and gives meaning to the individuals relationships with the society that is the negative framework within which there is an integration of individuals diverging from social behaviors and attitudes having been predefined as compatible with the existing social structures, the prevailing social culture and, in general, the social conventions deemed acceptable and acknowledgeable by the social whole (Bennet, 1998). In particular, what is of special interest is how the individual itself experiences exclusion, how it interprets social reality, how it feels and gives meaning to the situation. Therefore, the personal interpretation, importance and meaning by the subject itself are of major significance. Thus, exclusion acquires a psychological definition as what is reflected in the mirror is not society or the marginalized ones relationship with society but the marginalized person itself. Individuals experiencing exclusion gradually develop a rejection of their own self and form a paradigm of people without any sign of participation in the social, political and cultural present as well as in the dreams and plans about the future. When this phenomenon is regarded in terms of age, a structure of schematically three big categories is realized: a) excluded ones from the family, b) excluded ones from the educational system and c) excluded adults. In the first category, exclusions are generated by the family itself towards its own children by rejecting their personality. The family is either indifferent or evaluates in a negative way the childrens efforts and experimentations. Severity and violence create a negative atmosphere for children that gradually withdraw from the social forefront. Both the educational asset and economic status are determinant to such family choices. The lack of educational asset compatible with the prevailing educational asset impedes the family from perceiving their choice consequences as they cannot project to their childrens future. The bad economic situation of a family, even if the educational asset is present, seems to be conducive to choices potentially tending towards exclusion. Thus, working many hours or their experience of rejection is transferred either as limited time to get involved with children or an elaborated form of violence or lack of recognition of the childrens rights. Taking into consideration the fact that the educational system is based on knowledge provision and focuses more on the cognitive field it seems to pay no attention at all to the issue of humanism and social culture development. The educational policy is formulated on the basis of the middle urban class ideology and culture resulting in the exclusion of any aspect related to issues or situations projection that diverge from this model. Social exclusion issues are also integrated into this category. Therefore, individuals belonging to cultures different from the prevailing ones are rejected. Children of the aforementioned families are part of this category. Immigrant children are also part of this category as explicitly being in a more disadvantageous position and more divergent from the prevailing culture. These Culture Journal | Social Exclusion and Education: An issue to be investigated by Health Education 2

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students along with their peculiarities and their own profile are not contained in the educational procedure which is not constructed on the basis of their culture and language. Therefore, a large number of these children experience social exclusion both at school and in the social environment. They form the different, the other who is stigmatized on successive levels of social exclusion. The immigrant issue is tied to social exclusion as our country receives immigrants and if this issue is not to be investigated the number of socially excluded individuals will be continuously growing while, at the same time, any forms of divergent or delinquent behavior will be supported. The third stage is involved with socially excluded adults. This category contains the failures of the previous ones that is individuals having experienced exclusion both in family and at school and are now ready to definitely integrate themselves into socially excluded individuals and potentially dangerous ones. Even if they do not present themselves with an aggressive behavior or delinquent attitude towards society it still forms a serious issue because people that do not feel being citizens-members of the social system usually move within the edges of the social system. 2. The individual as socially marginalized It is observed that these individuals personally experience rejection, feel sorrow, melancholy and are mostly dissatisfied within the society without being deemed its members. A sentimental gap is therefore experienced as they are not able to develop positive feelings both for themselves and the people surrounding them. Being themselves the starting point, they are not able to love and protect themselves and touch the world with their soul. They do not see any colors, the beauty of nature, the peoples smiles. On the contrary, their world seems to be black while their emotions are confined surrounded by an expression of sadness, frustration, ambiguity and rejection. They gradually grow defendant against people whom they regard as enemies and dangerous entities. Thus, experiencing negative feelings is conducive to canceling any effort to contact other people while they are not able to experience strong feelings such as acceptance, recognition, love and situations such as friendly co-existence or desire for love all together presupposing acceptance of self and mutuality. Solitude is the only state in which they find themselves without being able to get away from it as the stage of establishing the self and promoting positive emotions and attitudes has been cancelled by the stance of the socializing carriers. In adulthood, mainly, the individual forms a system of attitudes having been formulated during childhood and adolescence by creating the stable environment of the marginalized individual (Kemmis, 2006). From the aspect of society, the marginalized individuals reactions and attitudes are passively encountered as the status quo is not offended. On the contrary, the intervention of society through its suppressive mechanisms is present when the individual displays an illegal behavior. In these cases, there are marginalized individuals who now as drug addicted people, rapists and criminals are sentenced by the law without their prior marginalization being taken into consideration. After receiving a sentence, they are marginalized even more and with a stigma and, thus, any effort to re-socialize them is cancelled. This situation is of special interest when there is an increase of the groups of socially excluded or marginalized people. From Culture Journal | Social Exclusion and Education: An issue to be investigated by Health Education 3

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their respect, there is a possibility of creating ghettos that co-exist under the incrimination of delinquent behavior or illegal act.

3. The social perspective regarding social exclusion Besides issues related to human psyche, the fact that society itself lacks those individuals who, in a democratic status, would be conducive to a reinforcement of democracy through their participatory action and their suggestions for the system reformation should be pin-pointed. For immigrants, in particular, marginalization acquires a negative function as rights vindication procedures that would potentially improve immigrants life and would create the prerequisites of limiting exclusion and delinquent behavior cannot be intensified. In their attempt to confine delinquency, states seem to ignore its cause, that is social exclusion, and no measures are taken to reinforce integration mechanisms and social incorporation. If the state, as an organized carrier, works for the organization of penal law in order to confront the socially excluded ones delinquent behavior, the citizens society seems to condemn through its own manner or to systematically reject individuals (Kemmis&McTaggart2001). While the citizens society could be expected to be more receptive and effective in developing supporting mechanisms for the marginalized individuals, it is observed that they are isolated by it through its activation of rejection mechanisms and their removal away from society. Additionally, the citizens society through its actions as well as the law and order intensify marginalization by-passing all probable moral barriers and values stemming from church and ideology. Therefore, the broader incorporations such as the organized state and citizens society that complete marginalization by making their presence intensely noticeable through the establishment of attitudes and mechanisms along with the severity of organized groups and the legalization offered by the carriers come to be added to the unfortunate family and school choices. As a result, the policy exercised by the supplementary centers of political and social authority focuses on an attempt to exercise social control, on the one hand, and to pose penalties legalized by the regulatory normative framework, on the other hand, which is acknowledged on the basis of the unwritten law, on the one hand, and the legal framework, on the other hand. If, therefore, behaviors can be imposed by the citizens society and the state through suppressing mechanisms then the marginalized and socially excluded one is the victim receiving the consequences of systems that systematically confine the citizens rights. Additional problems are generated by the individuals social exclusion as both the state and society lack those people able to create and offer due to the decreased human asset from which a society could derive to benefit by maximizing social benefit. 4. Action programs to confront racism Culture Journal | Social Exclusion and Education: An issue to be investigated by Health Education 4

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In order to confront the social exclusion issue additional fields should be activated to organize an action field within which they will be moving through the formation of supporting mechanisms. Thus, family, as the primary socialization cell, should be encouraged on the implementation of a communicative policy among its members. An appropriate education stemming from supporting groups and reinforcement programs could be conducive to the implementation of the communicative policy among its members. Special attention should be given to school organization. The school is invited to modify behaviors, to form actions able to reinforce participatory models. As a consequence, it should move on two levels. On the first one, it should get involved with students integrated into the marginalized categories and on the second one with students integrated into society. What should be foreseen for the first category students is a reinforcement system to enable their gradual integration into the school environment. Discussion, therefore, is about the efforts to organize a program able to respond to the pursued objective of social integration. The evaluation of student population and their needs in co-ordination to the program objectives is of special significance. On the basis of the aforementioned categorization for families in terms of economic status, educational asset and nationalistic status, additional integration programs should be organized. Since the economic status of a family can not be differentiated through school actions what could be done is correction interventions realized by the school conducive to the decrease of inequality by providing children relevant materials such as books, school materials etc. The lack of the family education asset can be replaced through two actions: a) towards the family and b) towards the children. In the first case, counseling programs for parents about their role in their childrens education are implemented. Their actions and choices are associated with the dynamic development of social bonds that reinforce collaborative acts and actions. A dialogue within the family is developed in order to psychologically strengthen and reinforce it along with their psychological status and social profile. The supplement of the work realized at school, its reinforcement and creation of those conditions to make children feel safe and confident is the ulterior objective. In the second case, the school takes into consideration the family educational lack and replaces it with supporting teaching, creative actions and educational programs. Thus, fields that are not able to be covered by the family are covered in this way so that the child feels comfortable, pleased with its participation, develops its social self and forms its profile based on the social integration and participation prerequisites. It is noteworthy that these choices are even more reinforced when speaking about immigrant families. The role of school in this case lays in the elimination of differences and, perhaps, xenophobic tensions that form preoccupations for immigrant children who under the concurrent deficient language use are weakened as social subjects. 5. Conclusions All in all, the need to co-ordinate the basic socializing carriers is underscored in order to achieve the best individuals integration into society to make them feel Culture Journal | Social Exclusion and Education: An issue to be investigated by Health Education 5

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companionship with other individuals, to feel free to express parts of their personality (Abers, 1998) within a society of mutual exchange in which everyone benefits from the spiritual and psychic fund of the other and together are able to create conditions of acceptance by participating, in a broader sense, in democratic procedures and formulating opinions about rights through participatory actions.

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