Across Europe many  education systems struggle with continuous and strong performance inequalities between students with and without a migration background (Hadjar and Gross, 2016). Despite many often well-meant (top-down) policy actions to tackle these inequalities the latter seem quite persistent. What remains particularly puzzling in this regard is that ethnic minority students are generally highly motivated to perform well in education, yet their educational outcomes remain, on average, low. This is also known as the achievement-motivation paradox (Hadjar & Scharf, 2019; Mickelson, 1990; Salikutluk, 2016). Much time and effort have been spent researching this paradox and the causes of these inequalities, focusing on theories around the reproduction of inequality, capital theory and deficit thinking theory (Agirdag, 2020; Dewitt & Van Petegem, 2001; Triventi et al., 2022). Yet, this research has mostly focused on mainstream education institutions, examining, among other things, the role of the curriculum (Civitillo et al., 2017; Clycq, 2017; Van Praag et al., 2016), teacher-student relations (Charki et al., 2022; Nouwen & Clycq, 2019) and teaching practices (Agirdag et al., 2014; Pulinx et al., 2017). The role and the agency of the ethnic-cultural minoritized communities to overcome themselves the inequalities they are most affected by has been mostly overlooked. In addition, research in education initiatives beyond the boundaries of the mainstream institutions which produce or reproduce these existing inequalities has been limited until now, and the resources present in these alternative forms of education which exist next to the mainstream schools are thus missed. My PhD project shifts this focus and aims to study in what ways bottom-up initiatives, taken by ethnic minority communities themselves, can reverse educational inequalities. These community based educational spaces (CBES) are educational initiatives set up by ethnic minorities, often to supplement mainstream education. It touches upon the idea that learning through public education is insufficient to ‘succeed’ and become adequately qualified in the knowledge society and that there are resources present in ethnic minority communities that mainstream education is not aware of or is unable to tap into. By establishing CBES these resources can become ‘unlocked’ and applicable to support the achievement of educational goals. However, even though CBES have been around for years the current state of the art does not reveal if these CBES indeed support minority youth in increasing their educational success in (mainstream) education.

This research aims to move beyond gaps in the current state of the art by linking theories on community-based educational spaces (CBES) with impact and evaluation research through the concepts of capital and resources. This will enrich and strengthen our understanding of the reasons why CBES are established, which types can be discerned and what their impact is on the performances, well-being and identity construction of youngsters. This leads to the following objective this project aims to examine: to understand the mechanisms underlying the impact of CBES by studying the ways resources become unlocked and applied by stakeholders in their interactions in CBES and mainstream public schools. Hence, the research question for this part of my doctoral thesis is: how do stakeholders experience their role in CBES, what interactions take place, and how do pupils use the resources made available in CBES? 

To formulate an answer to the research question we are making use of previously collected survey data from approximately 2500 pupils across 60 primary schools across the whole of Flanders (collected in 2021). In this survey pupils and teachers were asked about their experiences with CBES (including attendance and type of classes they followed/know) and in the survey of the pupils math achievement and school belonging were also measured. This allows me, in partnership with a postdoc researcher specialised in quantitative research, to analyse this data in depth to understand the impact of CBES attendance on educational outcomes. We are also currently use a further stakeholders’ evaluation of the impact of CBES: A theory driven stakeholder evaluation design is applied in this part of the research to execute a process evaluation of CBES and assess their impact on various educational outcomes. This methodology offers a deeper understanding of the mechanisms leading to the success or failure of CBES. The TDSE primarily aims to grasp why certain initiatives seem effective, by acknowledging the perspectives, experiences and behaviours of the stakeholders involved (Chen, 2015). The assumption is that when stakeholders’ experiences overlap, the effectiveness of the initiative is higher as they all work towards similar goals applying similar resources and strategies. Rather than a pre-post comparison of input and output measures, the processual nature of the initiative is the focal point. The stakeholders that will be interviewed/ will be part of focus groups are the organisers (e.g. community representatives and management of CBES), the implementers (e.g. teachers or tutors) and the target groups (pupils).

We already have preliminary results based on the first quantitative analysis: We now know that community-based education initiatives are widely attended by ethnic minority youth and that these pupils perceive CBES as helpful for their future in general. Pupils also indicated that they attend these community initiatives to learn about their culture, heritage language and religion. This result mirrors the literature and subscribes to the role CBEI play in enabling minoritized communities to explore and strengthen their knowledge and feelings of belonging to their ethnic-cultural heritage. However, the results of this first analysis also showcase that teachers within the mainstream schools are rarely informed or even aware of the existence of these initiatives or the important role these play in their pupils’ lives. Additionally, what teachers think CBES do or provide (such as practicing Dutch or socio-emotional learning) is very different than what students actually attending these CBEI indicate they do or learn within these education initiatives. These results already have several implications for social policy regarding tackling the ethnic achievement gap in education as they showcase that a first and important step to take towards creating an expanded educational space which includes CBEI, is to create greater awareness of the existence of these community initiatives. I am currently conducting the qualitative analysis with different CBES to create an understanding of the resources present in these spaces. Expected outcomes of this study are in line with what was found in the first quantitative study: That there are several streams of impactful resources present in community-based education initiatives which could be highly useful to influence the ethnic achievement gap in education. Yet, that more research and a greater cooperation between CBES and mainstream education institutions is imperative to reap the benefits of these resources and tackle the ethnic achievement gap.

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