Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

20 minutes

Part B: Circumstances that contribute to poverty

15 minutes

Part C: Likelihood of experiencing poverty

5 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

Step 1.

Begin by defining what we mean by ‘poverty’.

Ask students:

How much money do you think you would need to live for a single year?

This is probably quite an abstract concept for students at this age, as they are not responsible for - and might be totally unaware of - the costs of housing (rent or mortgage payments, maintenance around the house), food, utility bills (such as electricity, gas, water, rates), and other expenses and expendable income (discuss what expenses these might be).

Nevertheless, this is an easy way to start approaching the concept of poverty and what expense items are generally necessary for a household.

Step 2.

Whatever monetary amount the students suggest, explain that $49,868 is the disposable median income in Australia based on the 2019-20 income data.

Part B: Circumstances that contribute to poverty

Step 1.

For this lesson, any adult who earns or receives an income below 50% of that (so, $25,000 a year) is considered to be living in or experiencing poverty. As Australia experiences a boom or recession, the poverty line will change depending on the growth or reduction of income across the population for that year.

Step 2.

Adjust the poverty line for household size.

Larger households need more resources to achieve the same living standard. Poverty researchers take account of this using an ‘equivalence scale’. For our purposes, we assume that:

A couple needs 1.5 times the income of a single adult
A single parent with two children needs 1.6 times the income of a single adult
A couple with two children needs 2.1 times the income of a single adult.

Step 3.

Adjust the poverty lines and the income of each household for housing costs.

Housing is the largest single cost facing Australian households, so whether they own their home outright, have high rents or make mortgage payments, makes a big difference to living standards.

Poverty researchers take this into account by reducing the national poverty line by median (middle) housing costs for all households and reducing the income of each household by its own housing costs.

Part C: Likelihood of experiencing poverty

Step 1.

Now let’s look at the probability of a person living below the poverty line based on specific individual circumstances.

Step 2.

Show students this image (these questions and images are also available in the PowerPoint presentation).

You may need to discuss what is meant by ‘main household earner’. If a person lives on their own, they are the main source of income for their household. If it is a family with two or more adults, only one parent may be considered the ‘main household earner’. That will be the person with the highest income in the household.

Step 3.

Ask students:

Which household is more likely to be living below the poverty line?

As a class, discuss students’ reasoning, then take a vote.

Step 4.

Now show students this image.

households living below the poverty line

Step 5.

Explain to students what this means:

If the main household earner in a household is unemployed, then that household has a 66% chance of living below the poverty line.

If the main household earner is employed, then that household still has a 9% chance of living below the poverty line.

Step 6.

As a class, discuss the reasons for these two facts.

Suggestions might include:

An unemployed household is likely to rely on JobSeeker Payment, which is less than half the minimum full-time wage
This means the household will have a lot less money for essential things they need, such as house payments, food, utility bills
An employed household, even working full time, may not be able to earn enough money to live above the poverty line, especially if only one member is employed and they work part-time
Having kids in a household means they will require more money for food, a more expensive house with more rooms and money for school supplies, amongst other things. This means that even if the main household earner is employed, they still might not be able to afford to live above the poverty line
The household might face very high housing costs (the poverty measure used here deducts housing costs from income).

Remind students of the median Australian income and that some people earn a lot more, and some people earn a lot less. Even when someone is employed, they may be employed only part-time or have a low earning job. They could also have higher expenses depending on their specific situation (housing costs and child costs, which are both taken into account in calculating poverty lines). Therefore, being employed does not necessarily mean you are automatically living comfortably above the poverty line. This is why we use the poverty line to get a measure of how comfortably people are living.

Step 7.

Run through the rest of the examples in the PowerPoint, allowing students to predict which household is more likely to live below the poverty line, and discuss their reasoning for this, before answering.

Reflection

Ask students to write a short response to the following prompts. These questions are also available on the Student Worksheet:

What does this mean for how we should respond to people living in poverty?
Does it change the way students think/feel about people in poverty?

Students should be able to see that there are a variety of factors that may contribute to a person experiencing poverty and that when these factors are present, the likelihood of falling below the poverty line is not insignificant.

Differentiated learning - extension

Step 1.

Independently, using the Student Worksheet, students will perform calculations to determine the probability of living below the poverty line.

Step 2.

As a class, discuss your results:

Out of 100 households, 32 will be renting their home, and 6 of these will be living below the poverty line...

Therefore, 1 in 17 households is renting their home and living in poverty.

Out of 100 families, 14 are single-parent families, and almost 5 of them will be living below the poverty line. Therefore, 1 in 20 families has a single parent and is living in poverty.

Out of 100 people, 5 are unemployed. But 3 of them will be living below the poverty line. Therefore, 1 in 33 people are unemployed and living below the poverty line.

Step 3.

Ask students:

What do the calculations tell students about the possibility of any one of us falling into poverty at some stage? Does it seem likely or unlikely? Reasonable or unreasonable?

Remind students that these are only isolated statistics: You could be a single parent renting a home who is unemployed, which will dramatically increase your chances of living below the poverty line.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

• What did you learn about your teaching practice?
• What worked well?
• What didn't work so well?
• What would you share?
• Where to next?
• How are you going to get there?

Poverty and Inequality in Australia - What Are the Chances?

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

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