Research shows that pupils with a low socio-economic status and/or migration background are less likely to receive extra support in Flanders when confronted with learning difficulties (Bodvin, Verschueren & Struyf, 2018; Struyf, Bodvin, Jacobs, 2016). This inequality concerns both the use of the available support at school as well as the use of out-of-school help (Bodvin, Verschueren & Struyf, 2019). Parents in socially vulnerable situations less often initiate care trajectories when their children are confronted with difficulties (Struyf, Bodvin, Jacobs, 2016). This can for example be due to a lack of familiarity with certain labels but also to inadequate informal support networks. Parents living in socially vulnerable conditions are not always taken seriously enough by educational professionals, for example when deviant behavior is explained as a problem of language, upbringing or culture. This mainly concerns non-Western parents who speak no or insufficient Dutch (El Boujaddayni & Berdai Chaouni, 2022). Research into cooperation between parents with a migrant background who have a child with autism and social workers indicates the prevalence of racism and discrimination in conversations with social workers, a superior attitude of social workers towards parents and a 'coercive, non-negotiable attitude' that makes parents feel that they are being put 'with their backs against the wall' (El Boujaddayni & Berdai Chaouni, 2022).  

This research project aims to gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of three types of actors that are involved in the process of accessing care and support for children growing up in socially vulnerable situations: the parents, the educational professionals but also the formal key figures in social work as well as the informal key figures in communities and personal networks of the parents.   

The innovative character of our research project concerns firstly the confrontation of the perspectives of both parents and teachers and other educational professionals. Research shows that parental testimonies can be of great added value in training for professionals (El Boujaddayni & Berdai Chaouni, 2022). Secondly, the innovation concerns additionally the inclusion of the perspective of the formal and informal key figures, which is the focus of the presentation at EREC24. Although our research is located in Flanders, we hope to inspire other researchers in Europe regarding the importance of this third type of actor.  

In Flanders, professional social workers with an explicit assignment to strengthen the relationship between parents and the school, are increasingly present in school. These ‘bridging figures' can fulfill multiple roles, including being a confidential figure for parents, a hub in the guidance to well-being, a networker, a mediator or supporter (Seghers, Mertens, De Maegd, 2022). Research into ‘social care infrastructure in the shadow’ (Schrooten, Thys, Debruyne, 2019) shows that in addition to these official ‘bridging figures’, there are other more informal actors who take a similar role which are particularly important for groups that experience barriers to regular social work, such as ethnic minority populations. Migrant- or grass roots organizations are strongly concerned with the difficulties children and young people encounter in the educational system (Thys, 2017). The research by El Boujaddayne & Berdai Chanouni (2022) confirms the importance of support figures in the informal network of parents with a migration background. These play an important role to facilitate the contact with care providers.  

By discussing the perspective of  formal and informal key figures in social work, communities and family network, we aim at shedding light on resources that are often underexposed in the academic reflections on the inclusiveness of care and support for children growing up in socially vulnerable situations. 

Our research project is practice oriented. The ultimate goal is to develop tools to strengthen parents in the access to care pathways and to sensitize and strengthen educational professionals in supporting parents from disadvantaged groups in getting access to the adequate care and support for their children. A first step in the development of these tool concerns collecting testimonies of parents, educational professionals and of formal and informal key figures in social work, communities and informal networks of families. We collect these testimonies by doing semi-structured qualitative interviews with parents, educational professionals and key figures. We also organize focus group interviews, not so much with parents, but with educational professionals and key figures. For at least part of the research, the innovative methodology of community researchers will be used, in which people will be trained to collect data within their own community. In this way, important barriers to access to the target groups can be bridged, due to shared language and culture and pre-existing relationships of trust. This also makes it possible to collect more in-depth data. In addition, the community researchers can help strengthening partnerships with organizations that work with the target group and with the informal key figures in communities and informal networks of the families (CLES, 2016). In this presentation we will focus on the analysis of our qualitative data that inform us on the role of formal and informal key figures in strengthening the relationship between parents and schools and in facilitating the access for parents to adequate support and care for their children. We will present the insights regarding two of our main research questions and their according sub-questions. 1. How do formal and informal key figures experience the educational support pathways inside and outside the school for children growing up in socially vulnerable situations? What obstacles and barriers do they see with regard to educational support pathways? How do they offer support to parents? Where/how do these actors see opportunities and barriers to establish (better) cooperation between parents from disadvantaged groups and the school environment? 2. How do parents and educational professionals experience the role of the key figures? How can these experiences be taken into account to strengthen educational support in schools? To improve the collaboration between parents and professionals in the referral to care? And to improve the support for parents in the access to care pathways for their child(ren)?

We have conducted various semi-structured interviews with key figures, educational professionals and parents. We dit two focus group interviews: one with formal key figures; one with informal key figures. In this stage we can only point to some subjects that emerged from coding the first interviews. We selected three. Firstly, the support of formal ‘bridging’ figures is differently organized across schools in Kortrijk. In some schools, social workers once or twice a week take place at the entry of the schools. In other schools, they are only consulted when a problem arises. We will further explore the relationship between this differential organizing process and the role bridging figures play in facilitating access to educational support trajectories. Secondly, problems raised by the school are discussed with close family members - also transnationally. Family networks play an important role in how the parents perceive the problem. For example, a parent who is told after one year in Belgium that her child must follow a special programm because her child would have a language delay, discusses this with her sister-in-law in the home country. She tells her to just give it some time.The mother adopts this opinion. We will further explore the role of these (transnational) family networks. Thirdly, key figures in communities often function as important gate keepers as for information circulating in communities and personal networks. An informal key figure in the Somalian community in Kortrijk tells us that the information is circulating in the community that Somalian children that attend school in Kortrijk have more difficulties as compared to those that go to school in a nearby village. We will further explore the role of informal key figures as gate keepers of information that can strengthen or weaken access to support pathways.

-Bodvin, K., Verschueren, K., & Struyf, E. (2018). De rol van familiale achtergrond van leerlingen bij extra ondersteuning binnen en buiten de school, Welwijs, 29(4): 15-18. -Bodvin, K., Verschueren, K., & Struyf, E. (2019). Buitenschoolse hulp naargelang familiale achtergrond: toegang en ervaringen van ouders in achtergestelde gezinnen, Tijdschrift voor orthopedagogiek, kinderpsychiatrie en klinische kinderpsychologie, 14(2): 63-76. -Centre for Local Economic Strategies (2016). Working with community researchers. Geraadpleegd op 13 maart 2023 van CLES-Findings-5-Working-with-community-researchers.pdf -Commissie Struyf. (2019). September, 21. Evaluatie van het nieuw ondersteuningsmodel (Report) https://onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/nl/evaluatie-van-het-ondersteuningsmodel-specifieke-onderwijsbehoeften -El Boujaddayni, K., & Berdai Chaouni, S. (2022). Hulp aan kinderen met autisme: ‘Ouders met migratieroots moeten zich dubbel zo hard bewijzen’, Sociaal.net. Geraadpleegd op 10 maart 2023 van https://sociaal.net/achtergrond/kinderen-diverssensitieve-autismezorg/Communi-act-praten-over-ASS-in-een-superdiverse-hulpverleningscontext.pdf -Schrooten, M., Thys, R., Debruyne, P. (2019), Sociaal schaduwwerk, over informele spelers in het welzijnslandschap, Brussel: Politeia -Seghers, M., Mertens, C. & De Maegd, K. (2022). Welzijn zoekt onderwijs en vice versa. De brugfiguur als (hét) antwoord op de noden in en rond de scholen? Welwijs, 33(4), 4-7. -Struyf, E., Bogaert, L., & Verschueren, K. (2020). Ondersteuning aan leerlingen met specifieke onderwijsbehoeften in het gewoon onderwijs: de tevredenheid van leerlingen, ouders, leraren en ondersteuners in kaart gebracht. Welwijs: Wisselwerking Onderwijs en Welzijnswerk, 31(3), 25-28. -Struyf, E., Bodvin, K., & Jacobs, K. (2016). Toeleiding naar het zorgaanbod. Een onderzoek naar bestaande praktijken en verklarende factoren op kind-, gezins-en schoolniveau in het gewoon en buitengewoon onderwijs in Vlaanderen. Geraadpleegd op 4 maart 2020, van https://dataonderwijs.vlaanderen.be/onderwijsonderzoek/project/187. -Thys, R. (2017), Opportunities, obstacles and resistances. The political participation of Brussels based Belgian Moroccan, Belgian Turkish and Belgian Congolese organisations. Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles.