The purpose of this poster is to report on two ethnographic studies carried out in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland) with the aim of proposing an innovative approach to the school-family relationship, based on an intercultural communication approach (Ogay, 2024). In particular, both studies examine the role of the ethnocentrism of the school institution in the difficulties encountered in establishing a collaborative relationship between schools and families.

The first study, COREL[1], took place in a school with a high proportion of pupils from migrant and socio-economically disadvantaged families. Our aim was to observe how the relationship between school and families is built up from the very beginning: when the oldest child in the family enters compulsory schooling (at the age of 4). Our findings align with other studies in many other contexts: despite calls for collaboration and good intentions from both teachers and parents, a real partnership could rarely be observed, and frustrations were present on both sides. In trying to understand the cause, we found that teachers mainly viewed collaboration as requiring an alignment of parental attitudes and practices with school standards, which were perceived as indisputable and self-evident (Conus, 2017). A paradox emerged: on the one hand, teachers had high expectations regarding the support that parents should provide to their children’s schooling, but on the other hand they were largely silent about what was going on in school (a “black box” according to one father) and, especially, about their own practices for supporting their pupils' learning. The teachers seemed to be trapped in an ethnocentric way of thinking, focused on the school alone, as when one considers one’s ethnic group as “the center of everything and as if everything revolves around that group” (Bizumic et al., 2021, p. 29). It is as if their perception, which they consider to be the only valid one, should be known and shared by all. Our observations of the difficulties encountered in the collaboration between teachers and parents thus led us to an interpretive hypothesis that sees ethnocentrism as a major obstacle to school-family collaboration. When they do not share the school’s perspective or do not fulfil the expectations, parents are seen as the only ones responsible for the difficulties encountered (deficit view of parents), as if school action could not make a difference. Beyond ethnocentrism as an individual attitude, we suggest that school-family collaboration encounters an ethnocentrism of the school institution itself, which is more or less endorsed by the school staff. In our view, institutional ethnocentrism permeates the whole school institution, from its prescriptive texts to the daily practices of its employees, and reinforces inequalities in access to collaboration depending on parents' familiarity with the school culture.

Our interpretive hypothesis of institutional ethnocentrism led to a second ethnographic research, DÉCOLLE[2]. In this project, we explore the heart of the school institution, which usually remains behind the scenes: the backoffice, the administration, where policies and prescriptions are drawn up, in this case the departments for compulsory education in the cantonal ministry of education of Fribourg. How is the school-family relationship perceived and considered by the professionals who are in the position of leading a public school system? To what extent does the school administration contribute to producing or maintaining institutional ethnocentrism?

[1] "Quand l'enfant devient élève, et les parents, parents d'élèves. Construction de la relation entre les familles et l'école lors de l'entrée à l'école", 2014-2016, https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/152695

[2] « "Décentrer l’institution scolaire pour construire les bases de la collaboration entre l’école et les familles ? Une recherche ethnographique au sein d’une administration scolaire cantonale", 2019-2024, https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/185465

Both the COREL and DÉCOLLE studies followed a similar methodology, inspired by the critical ethnography of education by Carspecken (1996). We conducted non-participant observations, individual and group interviews, and collected documents, either produced by the school or external (mainly newspaper articles). The data is managed and analysed using NVivo12 software, following a perspective of abductive content analysis (Hallée & Garneau, 2019). For the COREL study, 22 families whose eldest child was starting school took part (including the pilot study conducted from 2012 to 2014). Also participating were the 6 teachers in charge of the 4 classes of 1st and 2nd grade at the school. While most of the families had migrant backgrounds, the 6 teachers were Swiss nationals and had no experience of migration, they had been trained in Fribourg and had between 4 and 40 years of professional experience. Given this diversity gap between the families and the teachers (which has also been noted in other research, e.g. Stadler, 2001, for Switzerland), we conducted a questionnaire survey among the school leaders in Fribourg (N=152), both in the cantonal administration and in the schools (Conus et al., 2020). The results confirmed our hypothesis of a high degree of homogeneity among Fribourg’s school leaders: most had attended the school system as students, had taught there, and had many other teachers in their immediate circle. We hypothesise that this ‘endogamy’ of the school system contributes to its ethnocentrism. The DÉCOLLE ethnographic study was carried out in the school administration of Fribourg, in the 3 departments in charge of public compulsory schooling in the canton, which is officially bilingual: the department for the French-speaking school, its counterpart for the German-speaking part, and the bilingual department for special education.

While the first study, COREL, identified institutional ethnocentrism as a major obstacle to cooperation between schools and families, the second study, DÉCOLLE, enabled us to discover it in a different light from our initial understanding. We had imagined school administration leaders in a position of power, rather self-confident and self-satisfied, and not so much interested in the needs of parents. We found the school institution to be fragile and discovered that the school administration leaders are constantly trying to protect the cohesion of the institution, which is weakened both by internal dissensions and external pressures from parents, the media and politicians (Ogay & Conus, 2024). In particular, we observed the extent to which the actions of school administration leaders are constrained by the growing reluctance of professionals in the field to apply the changes they are being asked to make. To avoid conflict with their colleagues, school administration leaders scale back their ambitions in terms of the changes they wish to bring about, such as promoting a collaborative relationship between families and schools. Parents are kept at a distance and the school institution continues to operate in its self-centred way of thinking and acting, accessible only to parents who already share its codes and implicits. Thus, rather than being at the root of institutional ethnocentrism, school administration leaders appear to be limited in their action by the immobility of an inward-looking institution, reluctant to change.

Bizumic, B., Monaghan, C., & Priest, D. (2021). The Return of Ethnocentrism. Advances in Political Psychology, 42, 29‑73. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1111/pops.12710 Carspecken, P. F. (1996). Critical ethnography in educational research : A theoretical and practical guide. Routledge. Conus, X. (2017). Parents et enseignants en contexte de diversité culturelle : Quelle négociation des rôles ? Inégalités et tensions de rôles autour de la « normalisation » des pratiques parentales. [Thèse de doctorat en Sciences de l’éducation, Université de Fribourg]. http://doc.rero.ch/record/308815 Conus, X., Borruat, S., Ogay, T., & Ballif, L. (2020). Qui fait l’école ? L’ouverture de l’institution scolaire à la diversité à l’épreuve de l’homogénéité de ses cadres. Enquête dans une administration scolaire en Suisse. Alterstice - Revue Internationale de la Recherche Interculturelle, 9(2), Article 2. Hallée, Y., & Garneau, J. (2019). L’abduction comme mode d’inférence et méthode de recherche : De l’origine à aujourd’hui. Recherches qualitatives, 38(1), 124‑140. https://doi.org/10.7202/1059651ar Ogay, T. (2024). Pour que la relation école-familles soit véritablement pensée comme une relation : Une approche de communication interculturelle. In F. Gremion, L. Gremion, C. Monney, & M.-P. Matthey (Éds.), Inclusion scolaire et inégalités : Perspectives plurielles et bilan sur les défis (p. 187‑207). Éditions HEP-BEJUNE. 10.37027/HEPBEJUNE/NMDR6446 Ogay, T., & Conus, X. (2024). Développer la qualité de l’école, mais prudemment : Le difficile exercice d’équilibrisme des cadres d’une administration scolaire. L’éducation en débats : analyse comparée, 234‑252. https://doi.org/10.51186/journals/ed.2024.14-2.e1751 Stadler, P. (2001). Multicultural Schools and Monocultural Teaching Staff : Ethnocentric Selection as Opposed to Pluralistic Openness. European Education, 33(3), 40‑53. https://doi.org/10.2753/EUE1056-4934330340