Poverty and Learning

Abstract

Abstract This chapter critically examines the current understanding of the relationship between poverty and learning. It finds that most of the prior and current research on poverty and learning is informed by flawed measurement of poverty, is undercontextualized, and lacks specification in its theorization of how poverty can affect learning. The chapter shows how poverty can affect learning through three avenues: individual well-being and development, opportunity to learn, and institutional and interpersonal interactions that can impede learner agency. It concludes that a better understanding of poverty and learning needs to be built on better measures, greater emphasis on protective factors and individual agency and resiliency, and a more expansive view of what learning is and where it occurs.