Preferential Option for the Poor

In this series, MEduc4 students on the ‘Prophets of a Future not our Own: Catholic Schools and Contemporary Issues’ elective course reflect on how a Catholic educational perspective can enhance school’s’ approach to current challenges.

Aisling Gallagher, MEduc4

There is no simple definition of poverty nor a simple solution to tackle its effects. UNICEF defines poverty as ‘when a person’s needs are insufficiently met due to their lack of access to primary materials such as food, clothing and shelter’ (UNICEF, 2014). Poverty affects education, not least due to the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and the War in Ukraine. Catholic schools and teachers can help address this issue through effective pedagogical and professional practice.

Poverty and education

Child poverty is a significant indicator of poor academic performance (Hirsch,2007). In Scotland, children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds regularly achieve less academically than their wealthy peers (Naven et al ,2019). Children from lower-income families tend to underperform in school due to a lack of communication skills, limited vocabulary, and focus (Perkins et al., 2013). Where food insecurity is an issue, the performance and behaviours of children are negatively affected as breakfast is crucial to support cognitive development, academic performance, and behaviour (Gao et al, 2021). Therefore, as future teachers, the academic study of poverty is vital, as we can see its direct impact on education, allowing us to address the issue within our classroom.

Catholic Social Teaching

Pope Francis shares his concerns about poverty: “It is a cruel, unjust and paradoxical reality that, today, there is food for everyone and yet not everyone has access to it” (Pope Francis,2019). The intrinsic dignity of the human person, as created in ‘Imago Dei’, meaning ‘in the image and likeness of God’, is the cornerstone of all Catholic social teaching (Genesis 1:26-31). If we truly love God, we must love one another and to violate God’s children is to violate God Himself. Poverty is a direct violation of Human Dignity.

Jesus, Himself, was a product of poverty. In Matthew (25:34), Jesus states: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.” In this passage, Jesus connects serving others to serving himself. I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink: caring for the most vulnerable children in our classrooms is also taking care of Jesus. Jesus illustrates this as the night before his death, he washed the feet of his disciples (Jn 13:1–5). Such a task was the work of a servant, so Jesus does this to highlight the importance of serving others. We can learn a lot about how to treat people with Dignity through the work of Jesus. As Pope Francis reminds us: “if we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor” (Soehner, 2017).

The Scriptures demand that we “defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:9), and so the preferential option for the poor is a vital aspect to consider for our pedagogical and professional practice. Liberation Theologian Gutierrez claims that the preferential option for the poor symbolises Christian discipleship because of the influence of Jesus’ own poverty and love for the poor (Gutierrez, 2009). Christ founded the Kingdom of God, paving the way for a new system of justice for the disadvantaged, freedom for the oppressed, and comfort for the suffering (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 2005, section 325). The underpinning of educational and social responsibility is the Christian approach of the preferential option for the poor.

Young people as agents of change

A consequence is that young people need to be aware of social injustices and their causes. The social and economic factors that contribute to child poverty and the debilitating consequences of hunger can be studied by the students, who can also engage in theology and ethical reflection using current Catholic social teachings (Byron,2015). This participation aims to create a community of young people who are theologically literate and capable of articulating a modern Christian response to these current problems by actively looking for transformational responses. It is crucial as future practitioners to recognise that young people are leaders, initiators, and decision-makers and are not just a target group for developmental processes (United Nations, online). Therefore, through teaching them about poverty, pupils can follow in Jesus’ footsteps and fulfil the scriptures’ orders to honour the poor while giving them a voice.

Conclusion

Implementation of the preferential option for the poor must be adaptable, tailored to each school, supported by data, and directed by the experiences of young people and school personnel. So e.g. in the case of breakfast clubs mentioned above, evidence shows that while breakfast clubs can improved academic achievement and mental health nonetheless on their own will not combat hunger, given that various studies have concluded that impoverished children are more likely to arrive at school late (Children in Scotland,2021).

So there is still a need for a discernment as well as a greater comprehension of the concept of the preferential option for the poor as it is presented in the gospels, Catholic Social Teachings, and Vatican documents on education before it can be fully effective (McKinney,2018). Within an environment in which school resources are constrained, Catholic schools should collaborate with the government to access a more extensive financial base to support the underprivileged while retaining their own identity and priorities.

As future practitioners, we must commit to promoting the human dignity of each child in our class to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as he devoted much of his life to helping the poor. We can allow the preferential option for the poor to shape our professional practice, while promoting an ethos within our schools that ensures that the voices of the poor are truly heard.

Katie Duffin, MEduc4

The Catholic Social Teaching principle of ‘Preferential Option for the Poor’ reminds us of God’s distinct love for the poorest and most vulnerable people in our world (CAFOD, 2022). However, this concept within Catholic schools has perhaps surprisingly raised concerns and at times been problematic (McKinney, 2018), such as the definitions of ‘a preferential option’ alongside how to define the ‘poor’ (Kirylo, 2006), alongside contentious discourse surrounding how this actually looks in practice in a Catholic School (Connell, 2016). Not only that, but in a world where many Catholic schools charge fees and cater for those children and young people from more affluent backgrounds (Grace, 2002), the question has been raised – are Catholic schools truly a preferential option for the poor? And what might their call to social action through the preferential option for the poor look like?

Current challenges for Catholic Schools

In Scotland, approximately one in four children are living in poverty (Scottish Government, 2021), with this figure estimated to increase to 29 percent in 23/24, making it the highest figure in twenty years (Corlett, 2019).
Families and children living in relative poverty face many disadvantages such as lack of employment opportunities, low income, and barriers to lifelong learning, with a direct impact on their academic achievements and future prospects for life and work. Simply put, if a child or young person is born into a life of poverty, it can be almost impossible to escape the poverty cycle as they progress through life.
The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can also not be ignored. The enforced lockdowns only intensified the disadvantages of those children and young people living in poverty (McKinney, 2020). Issues of low income and food insecurity were compounded by a lack of educational resources during the various lockdowns, as children and young people missed out on the much relied-upon and welcomed spiritual and pastoral support that Catholic schools provide (McKinney, 2021).
History has shown that Catholic schools in Scotland – in stark contrast to other countries where Catholic schools are fee-paying private schools – have largely served communities of low socio-economic status, whose roots began primarily from Irish immigrants who moved to Scotland and undertook low-skilled employment in the second half of the nineteenth century (Paterson, 2020). Therefore, practitioners should be particularly sensitive to issues such as the cost of the school day. While schooling in Scotland may be free, the costs associated with the school day can put many children and young people at a disadvantage before the bell has even rung (Robertson & McHardy, 2021). Costs associated with extra-curricular activities puts those learners from low socio-economic backgrounds at a distinct disadvantage, as extra-curricular activities have been shown to provide positive educational outcomes, so by not being able to participate, they are unable to fully access the curriculum, with a potential knock-on to future life and work prospects (White, 2018).

Effective Pedagogies

Curriculum for Excellent (CfE) states that each and every learner should ‘have the best start in life’ and be ready to succeed (Scottish Government, 2010). Catholic practitioners must utilise pedagogical approaches in order to provide effective teaching and learning surrounding the complex issue of poverty, while providing pupils with the tools so they may become agents of change in their own circumstances. This is also in line with CfE Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work whereby we must educate learners and enable them to participate in 21st Century society, but we must also endeavour to provide effective support in order to reduce any barriers to learning (Scottish Government, 2009).

Inductive and deductive approaches to embedding the Preferential Option for the Poor

In order to provide effective teaching and learning whilst highlighting ‘the relevance of faith and learning in religious education to the lives of young people in modern society’ (Scottish Government, n.d.), we must as Catholic practitioners consider which pedagogical approaches are most suitable. With Religious Education, there are predominantly two main teaching approaches. The first is an inductive teaching approach which begins with the experiences of the learner and aims to help them discover how God is revealing himself through these experiences (Bishops Conference Scotland (BCS) 2010, This is Our Faith). As such, we must understand that many children and young people in our class will have a real-life experience of living in poverty, such as the challenge of food insecurity. This has led to schools attempting to tackle the issue though the introduction of free breakfast clubs, ensuring that no child is too hungry to learn. These breakfast clubs can go some way in reducing some of the barriers to learning, as by ensuring that all children are fed, we are enabling them to be ready to learn (Graham, 2014).
Another way in which Catholic teachers can empower learners to enact change in their own lives and to break the cycle of poverty is by utilising a ‘deductive’ approach, and teaching them through Scripture (BCS, 2010). The preferential option for the poor is integral to the teaching of Jesus, and is particularly prevalent in the Gospel of Luke, often referred to as the Gospel of the poor (McKinney, 2016). In the Sermon on the Plain Jesus proclaims ‘Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of god. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied’ (Luke 6:20-21), and so with Jesus as teacher, all in the school community are challenged to create a welcoming, inclusive environment for all, where the needs of the poor must take priority. Through the use of Scripture in this way, the beliefs, practices and values of the Catholic Church will also be exemplified, in line with the values of This is Our Faith (TIOF) (BCS, 2010).
Catholic schools in Scotland must continue to provide support to those most vulnerable, listen to them, and ‘arrange themselves to suit them’ (Congregation for Catholic Education, 2002) so they may truly live and be a preferential option for the poor.