Between 2016 and autumn 2023 more than 850 schoolchildren have been forcingly or “voluntarily” deported from Hamburg (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, Parlament of the City of Hamburg). The number of schoolchildren threatened by deportation is far above that figure. How do pedagogues handle the deportation (threat) of their students? To answer this question, in context of a PhD thesis, I research the actions pedagogues take in relation to the deportation and deportation threat of their students enrolled in five Hamburg schools.

Uncertainty about if, how, when and where a threatening deportation is going to take place influences every aspect of a schoolchild’s life, including his or her access to formal education. An example of how formal education is affected by the threat of deportation is the fact that Vocational Education and Training secures a specific kind of temporary suspension of deportation, in German called Ausbildungsduldung (§60 of the Aufenthaltsgesetz, Act on Residence), while the schooling path pursuing access to a university degree does not offer a formal protection per se (Weiser 2017).

The position of teachers in this situation can be regarded as a dilemma (Meyer, 2003). On the one hand, teachers are responsible for the inclusion, well-being and education of children and teenagers in schools, while on the other hand, being part of the public system that excludes these students by limiting their chances in formal education (Neumann et al., 2003, p. 23) and enforcing their deportations. Theory on the antinomies of pedagogical professionalism (Helsper 2021) serve as a frame to analyze the way teachers navigate the deportation (threat) of their students. From that frame, the borders between teacher’s interpretation of their role as a pedagogue, their own self-reflection as a person and possible arising antinomies are explored.

Research on how pedagogues react to deportation or deportation threat of students is scarce in the German speaking countries (Meyer, 2003; Stern, 2017). Some studies in the US show how school staff focus on the needs of the students and their families affected by migration policies: organizing professionalized psychological counselling (Gallo & Link, 2016; Macías & Collet, 2016, p. 180;), organizing social support through peer groups (Gallo & Link, 2016, p. 191), helping find legal counselling, looking for financial support, or helping in finding a safe place to stay when the family goes underground (Macías & Collet, 2016). A common ground with the German publications is the importance of building trusting student-teacher relationships (Crawford et al., 2019, p. 120; Gallo & Link, 2016; Meyer, 2003).

A few studies show how teachers act within the school level and allow their students to draw on their experiences “for academic purposes, such as personal narrative and descriptive writing” (Gallo & Link, 2016, p. 193). However, many teachers explicitly decide not to include topics on immigration in their classes (ibid.). When deportation is unavoidable, some authors recommend enabling a space to say goodbye. An example of this would be throwing a farewell party (Foitzik et al., 2019, p. 90).

Finally, some publications point to the pedagogues´ actions directed to the public opinion and political actors, mostly when supporting the initiatives of the classmates of the affected student (Stern, 2017). They take different forms, such as online petitions, applications to the commission for cases of hardship (Härtefallkommission) or press releases (Foitzik et al., 2019). At times, school projects have been involved, such as composing a song and sending it to a political song contest (Stern, 2017), or putting political knowledge into practice through legal, political, and civil disobedience measures(Stein, 2016).

How do pedagogues handle the deportation (threat) of their students? To answer this question a qualitative study based on interviews was designed. Qualitative research was chosen to explore the complexity of the problem and reconstruct the actions of the pedagogues and the meaning they give to them. The pedagogues were chosen by purposeful sampling: experience with the deportation or deportation threat of a student was the characteristic they had to fulfill for being interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were made with 10 pedagogues in Hamburg: nine teachers and one expert in intercultural education. At the time of the interviews (2020-2022) the pedagogues worked in 5 district schools ("Stadtteilschulen") and one institute for teacher further education. All of the teachers had experience with the so-called "Internationale Vorbereitungsklassen" (welcome classes for newly arrived students, normally parallel to regular classes and focused on German as a Second/Foreign language). Each teacher mentioned by name at least one and up to six students that had been deported or under threat of deportation. The interviews were transcribed with help of the software xf4 and anonymized. The method of analysis was based on the Reflective Grounded Theory (Breuer et al., 2019). The analysis of the data was structured through the iterative and inductive building of codes and categories with a theoretical sensibility. For building codes and categories I used the software MAXQDA and print copies of the interviews. The preliminary results show a model of actions based on relationships. The actions are classified by their recipients: the affected student and her or his family, the classmates and school community, and the public opinion and political actors. To which extent these actions are taken "because" of being a pedagogue or "despite" of being a pedagogue is a dimension that the poster will explore. Another preliminary result is common to the dealing with uncertainty in other dimensions: all the pedagogues underline there is no recipe for acting in these situations, actions have to be well-reflected and adapt to the needs of the affected persons. Finally, some results coincide with characteristics of pedagogical professionality in critical theories of intercultural education: awareness of the own positionality, use of own privileges to support minorities even assuming risks for themselves, non-paternalizing support, and justice, empathy and sympathy as open motives for action.

Uncertainty has been addressed in educational sciences as a challenge in teaching, school development and teacher education (Paseka et.al. 2018). In this study, uncertainty is understood as a component that diversity drags into the educational field through migration and migration policies. It is the lives of schoolchildren under deportation threat that bring this kind of uncertainty into school, a component which influences strongly their access to education and the actions of pedagogues working with them. In this poster I will present how pedagogues build and draw on professional, pedagogical and personal relationships to actively navigate this uncertain situation. Pedagogical professionalism, antinomies and critical theories on intercultural education will build the theoretical frame. Research on this problem will bring light to a complex, sensitive, and controversial topic (Foitzik et al., 2019). Investigating the position of active pedagogues is fundamental to understand how their role can be understood as a dilemma within the inclusive school and the exclusive Nation State. Shedding light into this dilemma will help understand constructive ways of dealing with uncertainty, identify possible gaps in the information and support structures for professionals of pedagogy and for the affected students (Gallo & Link, 2016). The results of this qualitative research invite to discuss the need of a safe residence status for all schoolchildren and their families.

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