'Disaffected' youth : intersections of class and ethnicity

Dominant ways of understanding disproportionately low academic outcomes for students from Indigenous and other minority groups fail to locate the debate about learner engagement and academic achievement in the wider context of social inequality, choosing instead to continue to attribute students' disconnection from schooling to their cognitive, emotional and behavioural deficits or in terms of a moral underclass culture in their communities. However, considerable international evidence suggests that socio-economic status (SES), or class, and ethnicity can have significant effects on social and educational outcomes (Blanden, Hanson & Machin, 2008; Ford, 2013; Mills & Keddie, 2012).