Understanding and catering for student difference

Abstract

In this chapter my main goal is to expand our understanding of student differences, particularly with reference to differential educational achievement. In order to do this, I will first problematise common sense assumptions about the notion of ‘ability’, on which subsequent definitions of ‘achievement’ at school are based. I will argue that this kind of critical reflection on the submerged theories we operate with is crucial, for it is through a better understanding of what we are about in schools and classrooms that we can best serve the interests of those entrusted in our care. The categorisation of students as ‘high achievers’, ‘low achievers’, and ‘under achievers’ depends on particular views of intelligence and ability, which have developed over time and which conceal political and economic ideologies that are often not immediately available to us for critique. Nevertheless, these views of the world, of the place of the school within this world, and of the relative worth of different groups of children therein, have an extraordinarily powerful influence on the way we think and act, and therefore need to be unpacked. Otherwise, we risk perpetrating injustices on those we claim to represent (see Canaan, 2001). Having delved into the political etymology of the concept ‘ability’, we will then explore what it is that can be done to interact more effectively with those who do not fulfil their potential in the school context.