Conference:
ECER 2006
Format:
Research Workshop
Session Information
Contribution
Description: The workshop will discuss the findings and implications of three linked research studies, which examined children's perspectives on inter-ethnic relations during and following the move from primary (elementary) school to secondary school. These studies addressed a range of connected issues:
· inter-ethnic relations among peers
· ethnic differences and similarities with respect to a range of social and educational indicators
· experiences of racism and discrimination
· responses to racism by children and teachers
· transition programmes
· adjustment to secondary school
The research was conducted within the social studies of childhood paradigm, which values the perspectives of children as actors in their everyday worlds. It has implications for the understanding of the role of ethnicity and academic achievements and disadvantage. The qualitative work also contributes to knowledge about ethnic identities and hybridity. All the work contributes to policy and practice debates about muti-culturalism and anti-racism, with consequences for teacher education and support and wider policies about inter-ethnic relations.
Methodology:
All the data was gathered in Scotland. The first study comprised two surveys of a sample of 343 secondary school children and 268 primary children (followed up later in secondary school). All these children completed questionnaires. Data was gathered from teachers and school reports about academic progress and behaviour. The two subsequent studies were qualitative, gathering data from 56 black & minority ethnic children and 91 white children through individual interviews and group discussions. Interviews were also held with a small number of teachers (10) and parents (9).
Conclusions: Most young people were anxious about moving to a new big school, but most found transition programmes helpful and settled in quickly. A significant number had no experience of a transition programme, however. The achievement profiles of the white and black & minority ethnic children samples were similar, while the behaviour of the latter was more often regarded as good by teachers. There was some evidence that black & minority ethnic children tended to keep their school and home lives more separate than white children typically did.
The great majority of students thought their religion and culture was respected at school. With few exceptions, young people interviewed were supportive of living in a multi-cultural society. Peer associations tended to cross ethnic boundaries, but some older children referred to racial segregation in friendship groupings.
Few had experienced racism by teachers, though some children - both white and black & minority ethnic children - believed that they were discriminated against on account of their ethnicity.
Peer racism was reported to be much common and, contrary to official figures, to increase as children progressed through primary and secondary school. Most frequent was verbal racism by individuals, which children said they seldom reported to teachers. The main responses to verbal racism were passive or conciliatory: ignoring, explaining, joking and confiding. A small minority of older children described inter-group aggression related to ethnicity. Many children thought that teachers were ineffective in dealing with peer racism. A number of constructive suggestions were made to improve the handling of racism, but a minority were pessimistic about the potential for positive change.
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