Family Dilemmas around Mix and Mixing in Socially Diverse Schools

Author(s):

Manuela Mendoza(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 12, Families and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-22

13:30-15:00

Room:

OB-H2.20

Chair:

Maria Pacheco Figueiredo

Contribution

The presentation will focus on the theoretical framework, methodology and expected outcomes of an ongoing research about friendship in socially diverse schools. The study considers the evidence that strongly suggests the possible academic and social benefits of social heterogeneity in education (e.g. Garcés & Jayakumar, 2014; Hurtado, 2005; Gurin et al., 2002; Duru Bellat & Van Zanten, 2002; Thrupp, 1995). The evidence, mainly from Europe and the United States, also maintains that the emergence of these benefits is not automatic and so depends on the way in which said heterogeneity is used by both the institution and the children that attend it and their parents (e.g. Wilson, 2011). This presentation explores family discourses about school mix as a means to understand the ways social diversity is faced, being the question: What do parents and pupils consider to be the social and academic benefits and challenges of being in a school with a socially diverse population? The main aim is to explore parents’ and students’ opinions, preferences and strategies related to social diversity in the school.

The importance that families give to peer group when choosing school has been documented by several studies (e.g. Gewirtz et al., 1995) with particular regard to middle-class school choice strategies (e.g. Ball, 2003). In general, these studies predominantly support the hypothesis of mixophobia (or homophilia) rather than mixophilia (Bauman, 2003), which means that parents tend to choose schools where their populations have similar background than theirs, for example in socioeconomic or ethnic terms (e.g. Flores & Carrasco, 2013; Van Zanten, 2003). There are several risks identified by the families as barriers to social mix such as the fear of losing manners and values, of being ‘derailed’ from the ‘good track’, of being physically and/or psychologically damaged by ‘dangerous others’, of being hinder by lower achievement students and of not fitting in (e.g. Carrasco et al., 2015; Boterman, 2013).

Notwithstanding, a series of publications reveals the role of mixophilia within the discourses of certain families (e.g. Vincent et al., 2015; Neal et al., 2013), showing that some families value school mix as a way to immerse their children in the experience of difference and promote the development of multicultural capital (Reay et al., 2011), which is the ability to engage with different people. In a dilemmatic and not exempt from tensions process, families choosing mixed schools adopt strategies to minimise the risks and guarantee the ‘right’ mix (Ball, 2003) regarding -for instance- the proportion and kinds of socioeconomic and ethnic groups (e.g. Vowden, 2012; Boterman, 2013). However, some studies have shown that in spite of being in a mixed school, mixing and friendship amongst parents and amongst students from different backgrounds are unusual in that they tend to define differential associations, ignoring each other (e.g. Hollingworth & Mansaray, 2012) or establishing antagonistic relationships (e.g. Butler & Robson, 2003). What seems to remain insufficiently analysed by the current research are the elements that are shaping those differential associations. My study seeks to understand which aspects of the schools and families practices are perceived as constraining -or fostering- interactions between students of different social classes and ethnic groups.

Method

An ethnographic case study will be carried out in Chile, in that it is a key country to observe not only an exceptional marketization but also one of the most socioeconomic segregated education system (OECD, 2011) and, consequently, homogeneous students schools populations. In addition, Chile is currently in the middle of an unusual process of educational reforms attempting to promote inclusion and diversity of school populations, which makes it a privileged lab scenario to explore potentialities and limitations to take advantage of such a diversity. The case study will be made by one school with high levels of socioeconomic diversity, which will be defined by analysing available databases, attempting to attain a school with a balance between different social classes (ideally, half of the students population from the working-class and the other half from middle or upper class). As the high level of segregation and subsequent internal homogeneity in the majority of Chilean schools may be a problem for this study, the selection process for the case must be exhaustive, in order to ensure this criterion. After satisfying this basic requirement, other criteria will be considered: a) Ideally, the school should have a similar number of pupils and teachers to the national average (around 300 pupils and 20 teachers per school). b) Irrespective of whether the school incorporates secondary education, the study will only focus on primary level education (from six to 13 years old). c) It would be interesting that the school has a special program oriented at promoting diversity. After the initial visits and having spoken to the key players, six families of the same grade (students aged 8-10) will be chosen, half from the upper or middle classes and the other half from the working class. Interviews and informal conversations will be conducted with students and their families, and friendship maps will be made with students.

Expected Outcomes

This research intends to provide empirical evidence and theoretical distinctions in order to expand the field of knowledge of educational markets and social class, especially around topics such as school mix, diversity and segregation. Specifically, it aims to add information about the micro processes and subjective mechanisms and rationalities explaining why some (unusual) families choose a socially diverse school and how they engage with different people in practice. Dialogue with European evidence is particularly important to shed light about the potentialities of schools as key institutions contributing to decreasing/increasing social segregation. In addition, the research expects to have an applied relevance, which is to analyze the possibilities of success of the current reforms that the Chilean government is promoting. Ultimately, this project intends to explore the possibilities for building more inclusive schools that contribute to social cohesion and social justice.

References

Ball, S. (2003) Class Strategies and the Education Market: The Middle Classes and Social Advantage. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Bauman, Z. (2003) Liquid Love. Cambridge Boterman, W. (2013) Dealing with Diversity: Middle-class family households and the issue of ‘Black’ and ‘White’ Schools in Amsterdam, Urban Studies, 50, 6: 1130-1147 Butler, T. and Robson, G. (2003) London Calling: The middle Classes and the Remaking of Inner London. Oxford: Berg. Carrasco, A., Falabella, A. and Mendoza, M. (2015) School choice in Chile as a sociocultural practice. An ethnographic inquiry. Sense Publishers: Rotterdam / Boston / Taipei. Duru-Bellat, M. and Van Zanten, A. (2002) Sociologié de l´école. Paris: Ed. ArmandColin. Flores, C. & Carrasco, A. (2013) (Des)igualdad de oportunidades para elegir escuela: Preferencias, libertad de elección y segregación escolar. Espacio Publico, Chile. Garcés, L. and Jayakumar, U. (2014) Dynamic Diversity: Toward a Contextual Understanding of Critical Mass. Educational Researcher, 43 (3), 115 –124. Gewirtz, S., Ball, S. and Bowe, R. (1995) Markets, Choice and Equity in Education. Buckingham: Open University Press. Gurin, P., Dey, E., Hurtado, S. and Gurin, G. (2002) Diversity and Higher Education: Theory and Impact on Educational Outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72 (3), 330-367. Hollingworth S. and Mansaray, A. (2012) Conviviality under the Cosmopolitan Canopy? Social mixing and friendships in an urban secondary school, Sociological Research Online, 17,3   Hurtado, S. (2005). The next generation of diversity and intergroup relations research. Journal of Social Issues, 61 (3), 595-610. Neal, S. and Vincent, C. (2013). Multiculture, middle class competencies and friendship practices in super-diverse geographies. Social & Cultural Geography, 14 (8), 909-929. Reay, D., Crozier, G. & James, D. (2011). White Middle-Class Identities and Urban Schooling. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Thrupp, M. (1995). The School Mix Effect: The History of an Enduring Problem in Educational Research. Policy and Practice. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 16 (2), 183-203. Van Zanten, A. (2003) Middle-Class Parents and Social Mix in French Urban Schools: Reproduction and Transformation of Class Relations in Education. International Studies in Sociology of Education 13, no. 2: 107-23. Vincent, C., Neal, S. Iqbal, H. (2015) Transitioning schools: school friendship, diversity and the middle classes. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Budapest. Vowden, K. (2012) Safety in numbers? Middle-class parents and social mix in London primary schools, Journal of Education Policy 27, 6:731-745 Wilson, H. (2012). Multi-ethnic schooling and the future of multiculturalism in the UK. Workshop proceedings: Debating Multiculturalism London: Dialogue Society

Author Information

Manuela Mendoza (presenting / submitting)

UCL - Institute of Education

London

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